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Zachary “ckingusc” King outlasted a massive field of 2,185 players including some of the world’s biggest stars to take down the Main Event of the 2008 World Championship of Online Poker. The 2-day event had a record $10,925,000 prize pool, with $1,260,000 heading to the young pro from Columbia, SC. Oh, and for the record, the “usc” in his screen name does refer to the college, but the University of South Carolina, not the other USC that some folks might have heard of.

We caught up with King a little while after the Main Event, which he called “the most amazing moment of my life so far.” With his newly inflated bankroll, he plans to “definitely buy myself something nice, possibly a new car.” I think with $1.26 million in the bank, you can buy a really nice car, Zachary!

King, a 22-year-old pro, got inspired to play poker by watching Team PokerStars Pro Chris Moneymaker make his amazing run at the WSOP Main Event. Following in Moneymaker’s footsteps, King parlayed his $320 Mega-Satellite entry into a Main Event bracelet. King used poker as a way to get to know people in high school, as he moved around a lot early in life and enjoyed the social aspect of the game. That continued into his professional poker career, making friends with top online pros like Shaun Deeb, psyduck101, Thay3r, Intervntion and Cdbr3799, who he cites as some of the players who helped teach him the game.

As a professional tournament player, King knew many of his opponents throughout the event, especially Bertrand ‘ElkY” Grospellier from Team PokerStars Pro. Grospellier capped off a successful WCOOP with a 21st-place finish in the Main Event. When asked about the play he saw from the other pros in the event, King said “The obviously all played well and I pretty much avoided them except for a few well-timed 3-bet spots.”

With no legal live poker in South Carolina, King plays tournaments online “almost every day” and has spent the last two summers in Las Vegas at the World Series of Poker, racking up an impressive five cashes in his first two years of eligibility. He made his first final table this year in Event #3, Pot Limit Hold’em, and cashed in two other No Limit Hold’em events. He also has a runner-up finish in a WSOP Circuit event and dozens of online tournament victories on his resume, including one six-figure score earlier this year.

With his win in the WCOOP Main Event, King has joined a rare crowd of players that have claimed prizes of more than $1 million in one tournament. We expect this young man to ride the wave of his success to even greater heights in the future. Because when you're a 22-year-old millionaire and World Champion with one WSOP final table already to your credit, the future is bright enough to need two pairs of shades! Congratulations to Zachary "ckingusc" King, our 2008 World Championship of Online Poker Main Event Champion!

23-year-old Andrew “TheActionKid” Glogowski is an online poker old-timer, despite his youth. Glogowski got his start in online poker almost five years ago, making six figures the first year and never looking back. Despite tournament scores in the $20-30K range, his victory in Event #27 of the World Championship of Online Poker was his biggest win to date. He plans to take the $76,545 he nabbed for taking down the No Limit Hold’em Triple Shootout and invest in more tournament buy-ins, working his was to a WSOP bracelet to match his WCOOP gold!

Glogowski got into online poker at 18, and joined PokerStars almost three years ago. One thing he enjoys about the poker lifestyle is the flexibility of travel, “you also get to see a lot of new places and meet a lot of people on trips which is awesome. I have gone to the WSOP in Vegas every year for the entire 6-7 weeks for the past two years, and went for about three weeks the year before when I was 21. I also try to play smaller tournament series at places like Canterbury Park in Minnesota and local casinos around Chicago.”

Poker isn’t Glogowski’s only source of income, although some would say he’s been a professional gambler no matter what the title. “Up until recently I was a securities and options trader at a firm near my house. I still dabble in the stock market with my own personal portfolio but nothing too major anymore.” Now that’s the type of gamble we expect from someone nicknamed The Action Kid! Recently he’s become part owner of Elite Chicago Rentals, “a company here in Chicago that deals with short term corporate and vacation rentals for people traveling to the Chicagoland area.”

Glogowski’s poker education has taken a familiar route – after a childhood playing 5-card Draw around the kitchen table, he picked up Hold’em after seeing the WSOP on television. “I tried to surround myself with winning players and read as much as I could about poker to improve my game. To this day I am still constantly talking to other good players and discussing strategies and reviewing our hand histories together, etc... because you are a student your entire life when it comes to poker, always learning new things as the game is constantly changing.”

With a good head on his shoulders and a new gold bracelet on his wrist, we expect more good things out of Andrew “TheActionKid” Glogowski in the future. Congrats, Andrew!

About a year and a half ago, Ruben “rubenrtv” Visser made his first deposit on PokerStars. Since then, the 19-year-old Dutch Business Administration student has been on quite a tear, with final tables in the Sunday Million, Sunday Warm-Up and other tournaments to his credit, but nothing to date can top his victory in Event #26 of the 2008 World Championship of Online Poker.

Visser steamrolled the final table of the event, 6-Max No Limit Hold’em, on his way to the bracelet and $135,687,64 in prize money! Along the way, he took out Scott “dorinvandy” Dorin, a WCOOP champion this year in Event #5. By the time the tournament ended, it was a sleepy Ruben who grabbed the gold, as the event started at 10:30 PM his time, and took nearly 16 hours to complete!

Visser got his start playing 5 Card Draw, Pot Limit Omaha and No Limit Hold’em in the school cafeteria with friends, but says “I was terrible and just loved to bluff way too much.” He read a few books, made his first deposit on PokerStars, and his poker career took off!

Like so many young players, Visser has focused on the online game even with a casino close by. The convenience of playing from home and the ability to multi-table make online poker his preferred method of playing. He considers No Limit Hold’em his best game, and after watching the replay of Event #26, we tend to agree!

At 19, many of us were just learning the ways of the world. This young champion not only is pursuing a degree in Business and has claimed a WCOOP title, but also runs an instructional poker website! When not stacking opponents, Visser enjoys lots of sports, including field hockey, snowboarding and tennis.

Visser has yet to find the same level of success live as online, so he plans to use some of his winnings to buy in to upcoming EPT events, as well as the Master Classics of Poker in Amsterdam. We’re sure that it won’t be long before this WCOOP champion has many more titles to his name. Congratualations to Ruben “rubenrtv” Visser on taking down Event #26!

Some professional internet players have become famous enough that their screen names are widely known without introduction, like ElkY. If you sit down across the table from ElkY, you know you’re facing Team PokerStars Pro Bertran Grospellier. Some players have achieved such heights of live success that their online anonymity is shot, like Greg “Fossilman” Raymer. And some online players have never bothered with hiding their identity at all, like World Championship of Online Poker Event #25 Champion Shaun Deeb, who plays on PokerStars under, of all things, “shaundeeb.”

Deeb is certainly one of the most well-known online tournament pros, with multiple six-figure cashes to his credit this year. In the past two years, Deeb has added live tournaments to his game, cashing multiple times at the WSOP and actually missing his flight to the WSOP-Europe to finish WCOOP Event #25. “The $144K helps to offset the costs,” he joked. Deeb claimed his Pot Limit Omaha WCOOP bracelet in a stacked field that included another deep run by Team PokerStars Pros ElkY and Dario Minieri as well as fellow internet legend Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy.

Deeb has been playing on PokerStars for about three years, around the time he turned pro. He picked up the game from friends and used internet forums to hone his game as he’s become one of the most respected young players in the world. Even with a casino close to his upstate New York home, Deeb prefers online play because “I could play games at my house at any stakes any time of the day.” He admits that playing only online can be a bit of a grind “but a fun one. I just need my right supplies and I can play for a long time.”

Deeb sees the transition to live success as his next challenge, and admits that “a lot of live pros scare me because they’ve far more in their 20 years as a pro at the tables than I have when it comes to reading people and the psychology of live poker.” Even though he considers himself to have had less success in live tournaments than online (where his success is indisputable), Deeb did guarantee a final table at either the WSOP-Europe or the EPT London! We have no doubts in his ability to make good on his guarantee, as Deeb’s live resume is fast catching up to his internet success! Congratulations to Shaun Deeb, WCOOP Event #25 Champion!

Event #24, No-limit 2-7 Single Draw (or Kansas City Lowball) is one of those games that not a lot of people play, and not a lot is written about. That’s a bonus to this year’s No Limit 2-7 Single Draw champion, Tom “luvgamble” Schneider. Schneider, who has had tremendous success in live tournaments with 2 World Series of Poker bracelets in 2007 and the WSOP Player of the Year title for that year, says “I like games that don’t have any educational material available. I believe that my advantage is that I’m able to figure out games without having to rely on written material.” And he’s obviously figured out lowball games, with both of his WSOP bracelets having a hi/lo component and now his WCOOP bracelet in No Limit 2-7.

The field was stacked for the first ever No Limit 2-7 Single Draw event at the World Championship of Online Poker, with Daniel Negreanu, Lee Nelson and Gavin Griffin all cashing, and Team PokerStars Pro Bill Chen barely missing the final table. The final table players were no slouches either, with Schneider, newhizzle and Mills23, who made the final table of Event #4 – 2-7 Triple Draw at this year’s WCOOP all among the competitors. Finally, after a tough final table, Schneider took down the title and his first WCOOP bracelet.

Schneider started playing poker professionally when the company he was working for began struggling. “I decided to try poker and then go back to business if it didn’t work out. My wife told me that I could always find a job with a struggling company.” With over $1.5 million in lifetime winnings, it looks like Schneider will be able to avoid picking up a day job anytime soon!

Schneider’s success on the live tournament circuit is well-documented, but the 2007 WSOP Player of the Year and author of Oops! I won too much Money: Winning Wisdom from the Boardroom to the Poker Table logged his largest online cash with his $42,000 win in Event #24. Although he admits to not playing too many online tournaments prior to the 2008 WCOOP, he did cash for $14,000 in last year’s WCOOP HORSE event, and plans to play the WCOOP Main Event this year as well.

Predominantly a live tournament player, Schneider characterizes the online players as “pretty tough. Playing online points out your weakness very quickly. It is a great learning tool. No limit online players are fearless.” Like many players, Schneider enjoys the convenience of online play, having been on PokerStars for about 3 years now. “Playing online is so convenient. I like to be able to multi-task, which may not always be good for my bankroll.” With his success in the WCOOP this year, we don’t have too much fear for Schneider’s bankroll! Joining Brent Carter, Mark Gregorich and Shaun Deeb, Schneider adds his name to the growing list of top pros that have claimed WCOOP gold this summer!

With a successful poker career that spans more than a decade of live play and includes multiple WSOP final tables, it’s no surprise that Mark “weaktight” Gregorich mirrors his live success on the virtual felt. Our World Championship of Online Poker Event #21 champion spared some time to chat with the PokerStars blog shortly after winning his bracelet in Stud Hi/Lo. The $42,745.78 top prize marked the biggest online cash for the successful player, teacher and author.

A former high school teacher who moved to Las Vegas to “give it a shot,” Gregorich has been playing on PokerStars for about six years now, and names the Sunday tournament lineup on PokerStars as his favorite series of online tournaments, including the HORSE and Omaha Hi/Lo events.

Gregorich is renowned for his knowledge on Omaha Hi/Lo, having co-authored the Omaha Hi/Lo section in Super System 2 with Bobby Baldwin. He feels that his experience in Omaha Hi/Lo gives him an edge in the split pot games, a fact proven out by his performance in Event #21.

Patience was a key factor in his victory, as the structure of the tournament allowed him to sit back and wait for good hands. “I was pretty comfortable all the way to the final table; won a couple big pots in which I was rolled up or had a well-disguised hand and got a lot of action.” At the final table he just picked his spots to play back at the aggressive chip leader and took over the table.

A popular poker writer, Gregorich attributes part of his success, and the success of the top online players to hard work and the wealth of knowledge that is available to players today. “The younger players definitely have one advantage in that they have spent a greater portion of their lives with newer technology, and I would speculate that that makes them better at multi-tasking online (effectively being able to play multiple games at once for example). However, players who have primarily just played live should be able to make the necessary adjustments too, so I don't think that tournament success should be dominated by the younger crowd. However, most of the younger players are the ones who are really taking advantage of all the available opportunities to learn and study the game, so if the results are skewed towards them, that is the main reason IMO - hard work gets rewarded.”

Mark Gregorich has put in the years of hard work on his game, and his victory in one of the toughest poker games popularly spread – Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo – certainly proves his point that hard work will pay off in the long run. Congratulations to Mark “weaktight” Gregorich, Champion of Event #21!

Event #12 came down to a clash of the titans, as Randy “Randers” Haddox squared off heads-up against Aaron “011180” Kanter for the bracelet and the top cash prize of $66,000 in the Mixed Hold’em Event. It took well past sunrise ET for the final table to finish, but finally Haddox put away Kanter after nearly thirty minutes of heads-up battle. We caught up with Haddox a few days after his victory.

Like many players, Haddox played poker as a child but got interested in online poker when Chris Moneymaker won the Main Event at the 2003 World Series of Poker. He began playing seriously about four years ago, and switched to mostly tournament poker in 2005. His victory in Event #12 was the latest in a long string of deep finishes and tournament success on PokerStars, where he has logged several wins and final tables in $109 rebuy tournaments.

A successful tournament pro for several years, Haddox admitted to relief at winning the WCOOP title. “Relief in a lot of ways. The relief that I didn’t have to go to sleep thinking ‘what if?’” Well Haddox certainly didn’t have a lot of what-ifs in his head after the marathon Event #12, especially after taking down a field that contained many of the top players in the world.

While the cash in Event #12 isn’t his biggest cash, Haddox names the WCOOP title as his highest-profile victory. He posted a blog early this year that he wanted to make $1 million profit from July 2008 to July 2009, and the $66,000 from Event #12 is certainly a step in the right direction.

Haddox, whose screen name of Randers came from a familiarization of his first name Randy, gives credit to the internet forums and players for a lot of his success. “I don’t think I was very good until I started using the internet resources (i.e. forums, other players). There are a lot of great players that I have mimicked to get better.” And no doubt a number of players that have mimicked him to improve their game. Haddox has thousands of posts of his own on internet strategy forums where he shares his strategies and is a highly ranked player. Congratulations to Randy “Randers” Haddox for his win in Event #12!

Just a few days after Mary 717’s boyfriend staked her $1,000 on PokerStars to take a shot at some bigger buy-in tournaments, she’s logged three WCOOP cashes, two final tables and a World Championship of Online Poker Bracelet for Event #7. Not a bad couple of weeks’ work!

The relative newcomer to tournament poker plans on entering more large-field tournament entries with her newfound bankroll, and likely some travel as well. A sales rep for a fashion company, the Washington native who now lives in Copenhagen plays “poker for fun,” but admits that she is likely to play more now. Her boyfriend’s initial $1,000 investment has performed well, logging a return of more than 350% in just two weeks; so playing more would certainly seem like a wise choice!

After cashing in WCOOP Event #6 (her first major tournament), Mary outlasted a field of 2,457 players in Event #7 - Pot-Limit Omaha to take down first place and $71,730 in prize money. Just ten days later, Mary took a big stack into the final of Event #20, eventually finishing in 5th place for $288,155.

Mary has only been playing for a couple of years, getting started on PokerStars because her boyfriend played there. “I knew how to play Hold’em but my boyfriend has taught me to play PLO and to be a much better poker player. He plays a lot of PLO so I have watched him A LOT and learned from him. I thought the game was very interesting and so I started playing PLO cash games.” Obviously she developed quite an aptitude for Omaha and Hold’em tournaments as well, logging big finishes in three WCOOP events.

Mary certainly proved the old poker adage of a chip and a chair, going from last in chips at one point to the chip leader as the final table kicked off. “So I started the final table with a good feeling, but also knowing anything can happen.” Anything could and did happen at the final table, but it always seemed to happen to Mary’s opponents as she took out four of her five opponents on the way to first place and the bracelet!

Brent “92848” Carter is no stranger to tournament poker success. While his victory in Event #11 of the 2008 World Championship of Online Poker is his first WCOOP bracelet, he’s got two WSOP bracelets to go with it, along with an eye-popping 48 career cashes at the World Series of Poker!

Carter recorded his first cash in the WSOP in 1990, and picked up bracelets in 1991 and 1994. He has continued to experience success at the World Series every year since, adding three cashes in 2008 to his already impressive resume. In addition to his two bracelets, Carter finished 3rd in the WSOP Main Event in 1995, behind Howard Goldfarb and champion “Action” Dan Harrington.

A Las Vegas resident after moving from Oak Park, Illinois, Carter has shared the table with many of the toughest players in the world, so making a final table is nothing new to him. He felt good about the tournament in Event #11 right from the start, “I stayed kinda right in the middle in chips, benefitted from other people’s mistakes, just felt good about it.”

Carter currently sits 7th on the list of most WSOP cashes lifetime, with 48. He sits close behind Humberto Brenes and Chris Ferguson, and joked, “I’d probably be first, but I don’t play hold’em.” An Omaha specialist, Carter holds more Omaha final tables than any other player, and won a bracelet in Omaha in 1994. Interestingly enough, his friend weaktight won a WCOOP Omaha bracelet in Event #21 the same week that Carter won his in Event #11!

Even living in Las Vegas, Carter prefers the online game nowadays to going to a casino to play. With the ease of firing up a game on PokerStars, the convenience of the online game, coupled with no errors in splitting pots and lower rake makes it much more likely to find Carter on PokerStars than at the Bellagio these days!

Carter has been on PokerStars since a friend turned him onto the site 4-5 years ago, using his birth date at his screen name. With his 60th birthday coming up in a couple of weeks, a victory in WCOOP Event #11 is a pretty good birthday present!

It took two days for Mike “NYC P.I.M.P” Shklover to navigate the massive 3,467-player field in Event #20 of the 2008 World Championship of Online Poker, but when the dust settled, the 28-year-old New Yorker took down the bracelet and $257,953 for first place. We caught up with the young pro after he had a little time to process his victory.

Shklover entered Event #20 ($1,050 No Limit Hold'em) on a whim after his good friend, who plays on PokerStars under the screen name Harrington10 alerted him to the good structure, and transferred him a little cash for the entry fee. “I really like the bigger tournaments better on [PokerStars] especially when the blind structure is set up for allowing more play in the later rounds.”

The former Wall Street broker has played on PokerStars seriously for about 3 ½ years, focusing on tournament play in the beginning of his career and moving towards cash games as he gained experience. “I am mostly a cash player, and I like heads up NL the most but I do like to play Omaha as well, I am learning from in my opinion the best online short handed Omaha player - Harrington10. I play a lot of live poker as well, and was out at the World Series for the month this year, I did not have any cashes this year, but I only played 5 events, I bubbled a few of them and decided to stick to playing cash. I would say the WSOP is my favorite events just because of the atmosphere and all the players across the world come to prove their skills.”

The field in Event #20 was stacked, especially on Day 2 with Team PokerStars Pro players Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier and Humberto Brenes still in the 43-person field. Shklover recalled one particular hand against Grospellier that propelled him to the final table. “[W]hen I won the hand with AJ against ElkY, I knew I was going to the final table. ElkY raised from the button he had been very aggressive the whole time at the table, raising probably 60% of hands, the orbit before he raised on the button, and I re-raised him with 2-6, and he folded. And next orbit he raised on the button again, and I had A-J suited. I re-raised again and this time he went all in. I did not have a lot of time left in my bank but I knew his range of shoving hands is pretty big here against the small blind re-raise so I decided to gamble. I knew I would have about [1 million chips] left if I lost, so I would not be out. I was in bad shape when I saw his hand A-Q, but I got lucky and hit a Jack, that’s when I knew I could win this tournament.”

Shklover credits his experience playing Heads-Up No Limit cash games with his eventual victory, even though he was a chip underdog going into heads-up play. “I knew I had a good chance to actually win the bracelet when it got HU, I play a lot of heads up cash, and even though Quasi had 2-1 in chips I felt very confident that I could win the tourney. Winning the whole tournament was very gratifying, everyone close to me like my girlfriend Olya and my parents Gene and Alla and my Uncle Max who is my biggest supporter were happier to see me win than I was.”

Not coming from a card-playing family, Shklover cites his Uncle Max as a big influence in his success, discussing strategy with him and supporting him. Living in New York City, Shklover gets plenty of opportunity to play, joining in some of the private games around the city. His next goal is to win a major live tournament, improving on his biggest win prior to the WCOOP, a final table at the Borgata in 2006. We have no doubt that great things are in store for Mike “NYC P.I.M.P.” Shklover as he continues on his career!