This year, we're looking for a word bigger than "wow."

Since WCOOP started in 2002, PokerStars has awarded more than $156 million in WCOOP prize money. This year made up nearly 1/3 of that purse. The 2009 WCOOP guaranteed $40 million in cash. That number is now academic.

In all 44,000 players from 140 countries played in this year's 45 events and built an overall prize pool of more than $51 million. We'll leave it to you now to come up with that bigger-than-wow word.

It was a series in which we saw Team PokerStars Pro Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier win two WCOOP bracelets in the same year. That was a feat matched and, to a degree, outdone by Daniel "djk123" Kelly who not only won two bracelets but made it the final table of the main event. There he finished in fourth place, one of eleven cashes he picked up during the series. That performance earned him the Player of the Series honor.

Finally, it ended when up and coming poker superstar Yevginiy "Jovial Gent" Timoshenko won the 2009 WCOOP Main Event for more than $1.7 million, an accomplishment that led him to say "It's a dream come true to win the largest and toughest online poker tournament ever assembled."

Now, as we sit back and think on the wows of the year, we have a chance to hear from the three people we mentioned above.

PokerStars.tv has put together a great look at the 2009 WCOOP. In the round-up show below you will find interviews with ElkY, Kelly, and Timoshenko.

Now, as we put WCOOP behind us, we can look forward to the 2010 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure where all of the bracelet winners have been invited for a ceremony in their honor.

We look forward to meeting them all there, where collectively we can certainly come up with a word bigger than "wow."

That is a long way of saying, we're not sure if Yevgeniy "Jovial Gent" Timoshenko has his $1.7 million WCOOP winnings yet, but he will soon. And then he will have enough money to buy billboards all over the world defending himself against claims that he is a "sicko" or, in one case, "not human."

It's hard to fault the people who think Timoshenko might be an alien. He now has a WPT win, an APPT title, and a WCOOP main event victory.

If you were sleeping while Timoshenko was winning, you might have missed the clinic he put on at the final table.

Fortunately, our friends at PokerStars.tv pressed the record button when the final table started.

Now you can look below to see how the man from outer space won WCOOP's big event.

Enjoy.

The $5,000 + $200 NLHE Main Event began on Sunday, September 20 with a $10 million guarantee, and when registration closed with 2,144 entrants, the prize pool soared even higher and landed at $10,720,000. Payment would be issued to the top 306 players in the tournament, but the top two finishers were set to become millionaires with first place awarding an astounding $1,715,200. Incredible figures for what would turn into an incredibly exciting tournament.

Play on Day 1 was chronicled in the live blog and the end-of-day recap.

Team PokerStars Pro was out in full force for the Main Event, even bringing players like tennis legend Boris Becker and television actor Jason Alexander to the felt. Though the vast majority of them were eliminated before the money bubble hit, Katja Thater eked her way through and finished in 305th place. Baseball star Orel Hershiser ran deep in the tournament and finished in a respectable 217th place, and the last team member standing - Jan Heitmann of Germany - sat at or near the top of the leaderboard for the better part of Day 1. Some hits near the end of the day, however, relegated him to 47th place when play ended for the night.

Day 1 did end with 178 players remaining and Jason "TheMasterJ33" Dewitt in the lead. Those players returned on Day 2 to start play at the beginning of Level 23 with blinds at 2,500/5,000 and a 625 ante.

The aforementioned Jan Heitmann left the field not long after play resumed on Day 2, after having lost some significant pots and finally getting involved with [8s] [3s] against the [Ad] [Td] of troyones, and the board was clear in its decision - [Tc] [As] [2h] [Qh] [2d]. Heitmann was eliminated in 141st place with $13,936 for the effort.

The story at the beginning of the day was the Day 1 chipleader. Dewitt was also competing in the World Poker Tour Borgata Open Main Event in Atlantic City, and after working with the tournament staff there to allow him a computer area next to the tournament room, he played both tournaments. But TheMasterJ33 was hurt by an early double-up by philivey2694, and Dewitt finally got all of his chips in with [Qs] [Js] on a [Jh] [2h] [2c] board. But philivey was there with pocket kings and the call. The board didn't help Dewitt, and he was gone in 87th place with $17,152.

As play progressed throughout Day 2, a number of well-known online players departed the field, including Scott "dorinvandy" Dorin in 61st place, Layne "reloadthis" Flack in 55th, Derek "derek8" Lerner in 35th, Isaac "philivey2694" Haxton in 31st, and Hunter "HEMIpowerSWT" Frey in 21st.

When the field reached only ten players, there were several double-ups that delayed the discovery of the nine finalists, but eventually, one of those attempts failed. It happened when slammedfire, the shortest stack at Table 4, moved all-in preflop with [Ad] [Ts]. But Jovial Gent happened to wake up with pocket aces in the big blind, made the call, and stood up to the [5h] [Qh] [Jh] [7s] [Ah] board. That eliminated slammedfire in tenth place, which was worth $75,040.

The final table of the Main Event was then established as follows:

Seat 1: reddeevil (4,222,220 in chips)
Seat 2: Mudvaynes (700,486 in chips)
Seat 3: Jovial Gent (10,616,564 in chips)
Seat 4: djk123 (12,160,610 in chips)
Seat 5: Udon Wannit (4,549,346 in chips)
Seat 6: Chong94 (3,857,482 in chips)
Seat 7: Xaston (2,150,576 in chips)
Seat 8: PeachyMer (3,617,956 in chips)
Seat 9: Supa4real (1,004,760 in chips)

In the midst of Level 38, with blinds at 40,000/80,000 and a 10,000 ante, the final nine moved right into action. Daniel "djk123" Kelly held on to the lead, though Yevgeniy "Jovial Gent" Timoshenko was not far behind. The rest of the players had some catch-up work to do to stay in contention.

The extreme short-stack was blinded down even further in the first round of play, but Mudvaynes finally doubled up courtesy of Jovial Gent.

After some cautious play over the next few rounds, it was PeachyMer who was severely hurt by the following double-up of Udon Wannit:

PeachyMer chipped up a bit but finally put the final 501,988 chips into play with [Ad] [7s]. It was djk123 who called with the dominant [As] [Kd], and the board came [Kh] [6h] [7c] [3h] [9d] to eliminate PeachyMer in ninth place with $96,480.

Only a few hands later, short-stacked Supa4real made the all-in move with pocket tens, but Chong94 came along with pocket jacks. The flop of [7d] [8c] [9s] brought outs for Supa4real, but the [3h] turn and [7s] river didn't cooperate. Supa4real was eliminated in eighth place with $182,240.

The players took a scheduled five-minute break, and upon their return, the action was non-stop. The very first hand found Mudvaynes pushing all-in with [Td] [9d] and djk123 calling with [Qs] [Th]. The board came [2h] [Kd] [3s] [7s] [Ac], and djk123's better starting hand held up to eliminate Mudvaynes in seventh place with $268,000.

The very next hand found djk123 and Chong94 in a preflop raising war that ended with Chong94 all-in holding [Ah] [Jc]. djk123 showed [7c] [6c], and the board amazingly came [5c] [3s] [4d] [6d] [Th] to give djk123 the flopped flush. Chong94 received $375,200 for sixth place.

Only four hands later, Xaston tangled with Jovial Gent and UdonWannit preflop. When the [9c] [Th] [3c] appeared, Jovial Gent led out with a 357,000 bet, and Xaston raised all-in for his last 3,266,430. Jovial Gent called with [Kc] [Tc], and Xaston showed [Ad] [9d] for middle pair. But the flush came for Jovial Gent when the [8c] hit on the turn, and the [4c] on the river changed nothing. Xaston was eliminated in fifth place with $482,400.

Four-handed play began with djk123 maintaining the chip lead but Jovial Gent in a close second.

Seat 1: reddeevil (2,929,720 in chips)
Seat 3: Jovial Gent (15,693,264 in chips)
Seat 4: djk123 (17,498,822 in chips)
Seat 5: Udon Wannit (6,758,194 in chips)

After the flurry of eliminations, small ball poker went into effect, and small pots that rarely saw flops were common. Eventually, reddeevil was able to double through djk123 with A-J against pocket fours when a jack hit on the flop, though reddeevil remained the short stack of the tournament. But not for long, as reddeevil proceeded to double again on the following hand:

Two hands later, djk123 and Jovial Gent got into a raising war that led to djk123 pushing all-in for 10,276,231 with pocket tens. Jovial Gent called with pocket kings, and the flop was on his side with [Jh] [Kh] [4s] for the set. The [3d] turn and [Qc] river ended the tournament for Daniel "djk123" Kelly, who took away $643,200 for his performance.

Moreover, the tournament administrator informed Kelly that he solidified his place in the 2009 WCOOP by winning the Player of the Series award. For that, he will be flown to the Bahamas for the 2010 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, where he will receive his two 2009 WCOOP bracelets, Player of the Series trophy, and entry to the PCA Main Event. Congratulations to Mr. Kelly for his phenomenal 2009 WCOOP accomplishments!

In the hands that followed, Udon Wannit took a 6 million-chip pot from reddeevil, relegating the latter to the short stack once again. Then reddeevil tangled with Jovial Gent on a board that started with a [2s] [5h] [Kh] flop. A reddeevil bet and Jovial Gent call led to the [8d] turn, at which point, Jovial Gent initiated the betting. reddeevil check-raised all-in with [9h] [6h] and the flush and straight draws, but Jovial Gent called with [Kd] [8c] and the top two pair. The river card was dramatic, as the [8h] gave reddeevil the flush but gave Jovial Gent the full house. That sent reddeevil out in third place with $933,712.

Heads-up action then began with the following counts:

Seat 3: Jovial Gent (33,194,866 in chips)
Seat 5: Udon Wannit (9,685,134 in chips)

It didn't take long. Udon Wannit only lost ground as the hands were played out. Finally, the two got involved in one final hand. Udon Wannit made the initial raise, and Jovial Gent called to see the [6s] [Kc] [8h] flop. The cards prompted Udon Wannit to bet, Jovial Gent to check-raise, and Udon Wannit to reraise all-in for 5,828,466. Jovial Gent called with [Kd] [6d] and the flopped two pair, while Udon Wannit showed only [6c] [5c] for middle pair. The [3s] came on the turn and the [4c] river card finished it. Udon Wannit ended the tournament in second place with an outstanding $1,286,400 reward.

Yevgeniy "Jovial Gent" Timoshenko became the 2009 WCOOP Main Event champion, with $1,715,200 in prize money, a WCOOP gold bracelet, and a trip to the Bahamas to revel in the phenomenal accomplishment.

Congratulations to all of the 2009 WCOOP champions, including Daniel "djk123" Kelly for winning the Player of the Series award and Yevgeniy "Jovial Gent" Timoshenko for claiming the Main Event championship title!

2009 WCOOP $5,200 NLHE Main Event Results:

1st place: Jovial Gent ($1,715,200.00)
2nd place: Udon Wannit ($1,286,400.00)
3rd place: reddeevil ($933,712.00)
4th place: djk123 ($643,200.00)
5th place: Xaston ($482,400.00)
6th place: Chong94 ($375,200.00)
7th place: Mudvaynes ($268,000.00)
8th place: Supa4real ($182,240.00)
9th place: PeachyMer ($96,480.00)

All of the 2009 WCOOP information can be found on its special website, and replays of the events can be found at PokerStars.TV.

Click REFRESH to see the latest updates.

2:46am-- Yevgeniy "Jovial Gent" Timoshenko wins the 2009 WCOOP Main Event ($1,715,200), Udon Wannit eliminated in second place ($1,286,400)

After pausing the tournament to take a short break right after heads-up play began, it didn't take long for Udon Wannit to get his stack in the middle against Jovial Gent. Unfortunately, Jovial Gent had flopped top two pair leaving Udon Wannit drawing extremely thin. Check out how the hand unfolded right here.

With that river card, Timoshenko had every last chip in front of him, 42.88 million in all, and earned the title of WCOOP Main Event Champion, along with $1,715,200 in cash. For his runner-up finish, Udon Wannit earned a (still mind-blowing )$1,286,400.

As Timoshenko clinched his victory, he was met with congratulations all around from a very active rail, as well as several members of Team PokerStars Pro

barryg1 said "nice work Yevgeny"
stevejpa said "great game Yevgeny"
Grant Levy said "sicko obv"

A WPT title, an APT title, and now a WCOOP Main Event bracelet. Our heartiest congratulations to Yevgeniy "Jovial Gent" Timoshenko on a masterful performance!

2:33am--Chip counts at start of heads-up play

Jovial Gent -- 33,194,866
Udon Wannit -- 9,685,134

2:32am--reddeevil knocked out in third($933,712)

After Udon Wannit folded from the button, reddeevil raised to 360,000 from the small blind, and Yevgeniy "Jovial Gent" Timoshenko called from the big blind. The flop came [2s][5h][Kh]. reddeevil bet 360,000, and Timoshenko called.

The turn brought the [8d]. reddeevil checked, Timoshenko bet 840,000, then reddeevil check-raised all in for 8,359,291. Timoshenko paused for about 15 seconds, then made the call, turning over [Kd][8c] for two pair. reddeevil showed [9h][6h] for a flush draw.

The river would bring the flush -- but also a full house to Timoshenko, as it came the [8h]. reddeevil is out in third place, earning $933,712. We're down to two!

2:28am-- Daniel "djk123" Kelly eliminated in fourth place ($643,200), wins WCOOP 2009 Player of the Series

After a stunning run that saw him win two bracelets, cash ten times and make three final tables, Daniel "djk123" Kelly's magnificent run in the 2009 WCOOP is at an end.

Yevgeniy "Jovial Gent" Timoshenko opened for 281,010 and Kelly three-bet to 844,444. Timoshenko came back over the top , four-betting the 1.8 million, only to have Kelly move all in for 10,276,231. Timoshenko quickly called, turning over [Kd][Ks]. Kelly was in dire shape with [Th][Td] and couldn't improve on the [Kh][Jh][4s][3d][Qc] board.

For his fourth place finish, Kelly earned $643,200, bringing his total WCOOP haul to a staggering $956,956.69!

2:24am--Decision time

With just four players left, there is still a whopping $4,578,312 left in the prize pool yet to be awarded. Big decisions await all four of these players.

Yevgeniy "Jovial Gent" Timoshenko just noticed that over the course of what has now become 33-plus hours of playing, he no longer has any timebank left.

Jovial Gent said, "does anyone have any timebank left?"
Udon Wannit said, "ya"
djk123 said, "no :9"
djk123 said, " :( "
Jovial Gent said, "mbn"
Jovial Gent said, "nows when you really need it"
Udon Wannit said, "ill give u my minute and a half for 3m chips"
Jovial Gent said, "make it 1.2 and you got a deal"

Too bad for both no such deal can be made. The four aren't discussing other deals, either, incidentally, and so play continues.

2:05am-- Xaston zapped in fifth place ($482,400)

After opening for 222,222 from UTG, Xaston got two callers in Jovial Gent and Udon Wannit. The flop came down [Th][9c][3c] and the action was checked to Jovial Gent, who bet 357,000. Udon Wannit folded, but Xaston came over the top, moving all in for 3,266,430. Jovial Gent called, turning over [Kc][Tc] for top pair and a flush draw while Xaston showed [Ad][9d] for second pair. Jovial Gent hit his flush on the turn when the [8c] fell leaving Xaston drawing dead. The river was the meaningless [4c] and Xaston hit the rail in fifth place, collecting nearly half a million dollars for his finish.

2:02am--Chong94 chopped down in sixth ($375,200)

In the second hand back from the break, Daniel "djk123" Kelly opened with a raise to 200,000 from the cutoff, and Chong94 reraised to 650,000 from the big blind. Kelly reshoved all in, and Chong94 called with his remaining 3,362,246.

Chong94 [Ah][Jc]
djk123 [7c][6c]

The flop came [5c][3s][4d], giving Kelly a straight and nearly sealing the hand right there. The [6d] on the turn gave Chong94 a shot at a chop, but the [Th] on the river sent Chong94 out in sixth place, for which he earns $375,200.

Kelly is now back in front with over 17.8 million chips.

2:00am--Mudvaynes run aground in seventh ($268,000)

In the first hand back from the break, the table's short stack Mudvaynes open-pushed all in for 518,472 from late position, and djk123 called from the small blind.

Mudvaynes showed [Td][9d] and djk123 [Th][Qs]. Neither would pair either hole card, as the community cards came [2h][Kd][3s][7s][Ac], and Mudvaynes is out in seventh place, earning $268,000.

1:58am--Chip counts, ninth break, Day 2

Level 39
Blinds 50,000/100,000, antes 12,500
Players remaining: 7 (of 2,144 entered)
Average chip count: 6,125,714
First prize: $1,715,200

1. djk123 -- 13,080,604
2. Jovial Gent -- 12,094,890
3. Udon Wannit -- 6,992,916
4. Chong94 -- 4,037,246
5. Xaston -- 3,201,152
6. reddeevil -- 2,942,220
7. Mudvaynes -- 530,972

1:55am-- Supa4real eliminated in eighth place ($182,240)

After Chong94 opened for 220,000, Supa4real moved all in for 344,760 and Chong94 made the call. It was a bit of a cooler, Supa4real's [Td][Tc] up against Chong94's [Jh][Jd]. Though he hit an open-ended straight draw on the [9s][8c][7d] flop, Supa4real couldn't find a jack or a six on the turn or river and exited the final table in eighth place, just as our seven remaining players went to break.

1:52am--PeachyMer crippled, then eliminated in ninth place ($96,480)

djk123 opened with a minimum-raise to 160,000 from early position and got three callers -- Udon Wannit (middle position), PeachyMer (button), and reddeevil (big blind).

The flop came [As][3h][7c]. reddeevil checked, djk123 bet 366,000, Udon Wannit called, PeachyMer also called, and reddeevil folded.

The turn was the [5h]. This time djk123 checked, and Udon Wannit checked as well. PeachyMer then bet 1,000,010, prompting djk123 to fold. Udon Wannit went into the tank for a bit, then shoved all in for 2,702,458. PeachyMer thought for a while, then made the call, leaving herself just 99,498 behind.

Udon Wannit showed [Ac][Kc] and PeachyMer [Ad][Qh]. The river was the [5c], and PeachyMer was in dire straits.

She'd double up with ace-ten versus Chong94's pocket eights, spiking a ten on the river to do so. But then she was all in again with [Ad][7s] against djk123's [As][Kd]. The board went [Kh][6h][7c][3h][9d], and PeachyMer is out in 9th place, earning $96,480.

1:48 am-- Xaston doubles though Jovial Gent

Holding about 1.5 million in chips, Xaston opened for 180,000 and Jovial Gent set him all in from the big blind, three-bettting to 1,760,000. Xaston called, his [Ah][Kh] ahead of Jovial Gent's [Qc][8d]. Xaston survived the [9h][9s][3s][8h][6h] board, rivering an ace-high flush to double his stack to 3.21 million.

1:40am-- Jovial Gent revealed

Mudvaynes said "i am really tired of stars putting yev and djk directly to my left"
PeachyMer said "hahaha"
PeachyMer said "poor thing"
Mudvaynes said "ALL DAY LONG"

The "Yev" Madvaynes speaks of? None other than WPT World Champion Yevgeniy Timoshenko, the man behind the name "Jovial Gent."

Tough draw, man.

1:35am--Jovial Gent catches Kelly

After about 15 hands of the final table, Jovial Gent has pulled even with Daniel "djk123" Kelly, with both having right at 12 million chips. That's over half the chips in play!

And they are sitting right next to one another, with djk123 enjoying the positional advantage of getting to act after Jovial Gent on most hands.

1:32am-- Greenstein, Raymer host final table

barryg1 said "does anyone mind if we postpone the final table until november?"
PeachyMer said "har har!"
Xaston said "ZING@"
PeachyMer said "id cry"

Tonight's final table has a couple of very distinguished hosts, Barry Greenstein, who is no doubt getting some witty one-liners ready, and Greg Raymer, who is soliciting deuce-to-seven action.

FossilMan said "seat open in 200-400 triple draw with Barry, myself, and some other nice guys"

1:26am-- Final table starting chip counts

Here's how our nine survivors stacked up as the final table action began:

Seat 1: reddeevil (4,222,220 in chips)
Seat 2: Mudvaynes (700,486 in chips)
Seat 3: Jovial Gent (10,616,564 in chips)
Seat 4: djk123 (12,160,610 in chips)
Seat 5: Udon Wannit (4,549,346 in chips)
Seat 6: Chong94 (3,857,482 in chips)
Seat 7: Xaston (2,150,576 in chips)
Seat 8: PeachyMer (3,617,956 in chips)
Seat 9: Supa4real (1,004,760 in chips)

1:25am--slammedfire extinguished in 10th

slammedfire opened with an all-in bet of 1,356,870 from middle position, and Jovial Gent made the call from the big blind.

slammedfire showed [Ad][Ts], but Jovial Gent had him crushed with [As][Ac]. The board came [5h][Qh][Jh][7s][Ah], and slammedfire goes out in 10th place, earning $75,040.

The WCOOP Main Event final table is set!

1:22am-- Still bubbly in here

The short stacks have been winning all the races on this bubble, and we remain in hand-for-hand play with ten players left. Mudvaynes is the low man on the totem pole at the moment, with 700,000 while chip leader djk123 is up to 12.1 million.

12:59am--Chip counts, eighth break, Day 2

Level 37
Blinds 30,000/60,000, antes 7,500
Players remaining: 10 (of 2,144 entered)
Average chip count: 4,288,000
First prize: $1,715,200

1. djk123 -- 13,567,708
2. Jovial Gent -- 8,656,194
3. Chong94 -- 4,595,537
4. reddeevil -- 4,145,079
5. Udon Wannit -- 3,317,727
6. PeachyMer -- 3,174,097
7. slammedfire -- 2,006,870
8. Supa4real -- 1,479,260
9. Xaston -- 1,261,035
10. Mudvaynes -- 676,493

12:57am--vishnu24 out in 11th; tourney now hand-for-hand

Chong94 opened with a raise to 140,000, and it folded to vishnu24 in late position who reraised all in to 938,645. It folded back to Chong94 who made the call.

Chong94 showed [Kd][Qd] and vishnu24 [8c][8d]. The flop came [6d][2d][9d], giving Chong94 a flush. The turn was the [Js] and river the [7h], and vishnu24 was out in 11th place.

The last two five-handed tables are now being played hand-for-hand until the next elimination.

12:55am-- TBomber discharged in 12th place

Down to less than ten big blinds, TBomber moved all in from the button holding [Kc][8c], but reddeevil was waiting for him in the small blind with [Ah][Ks]. The board ran out [3d][Js][5s][Ts][Qs], no help for TBomber, and he ended his WCOOP run in 12th place.

12:53am--Kelly claims another victim, as maxxmeister falls in 13th

Daniel "djk123" Kelly opened with a minimum-raise to 120,000, Chong94 called, then maxxmeister reraised to 360,000. It folded back to Kelly who reraised again to 729,000. Chong94 got out, then maxxmeister shoved all in for 2,362,663 and Kelly made the call.

maxxmeister [8d][8c]
djk123 [Kd][As]

Looks like a race situation, Vince.

The flop came [5s][5c][Kh], putting Kelly in front. The turn was the [2s] and the river the [9c], and Kelly's hand took it. maxxmeister is out in 13th, while Kelly now moves up to 12,847,708 -- about five million ahead of second-place Jovial Gent.

12:46am-- Jovial Gent up to 8.8 million after claiming fetonzio's stack

After Jovial Gent opened for 118,000, fetonzio three-bet to 302,500. Jovial Gent came back with another reraise to 670,000 and fetonzio moved all in for his nearly 3 million stack. Jovial Gent made the call, turning over [As][Kc] to fetonzio's [Ad][Tc]. Jovial Gent flopped a king and rivered two pair, fetonzio's Main Event at an abrupt and sudden end in 14th place.

With that hand, Jovial Gent was up to over 8.8 million in chips, right behind djk123 at the top of the leaderboard.

12:47am-- buck21 shot down in 15th place

Buck21 got his reamining 449,000 in the pot with [Ah][Kd] after a raising war with Chong94, who held pocket sevens. Though the flop was a tantalizing [Jh][8h][3h], the sevens holding, with buck21 picking up the nut flush draw, the turn came the [6c] and the river the [4d]. Buck21 hit the rail in 15th place while Chong94 picked up the 2.1 million pot, his stack up to 3.86 million, good for third in chips.

12:45am--bcans bounced in 16th; djk123 continues climb

Not long after that rash of eliminations came another big hand over on Table 90. bcans opened with a raise from middle position to 123,999, then djk123 reraisd to 266,000 behind. It folded back around and bcans called.

The flop came [9d][7s][2s]. bcans checked, djk123 bet 244,000, bcans check-raised to 780,000, djk123 reraised again all in with his gawdy stack of 6.5 million, and bcans called with his lasat 957,195.

bcans showed [Qd][Qh] for the overpair, but djk123 had hit the flop hard with [9h][7h]. The turn was the [4d] and the river the [3s], and bcans was eliminated in 16th.

djk123, a.k.a. Daniel Kelly, is now closing in on 9 million, still way out in front.

12:34am--Boom, boom, boom: Three eliminations in four minutes, 16 remain

Jovial Gent raised to 118,500, and Rip_Cheese reraised to 350,000. It folded back to Jovial Gent who repopped it all in, and Rip_Cheese called with his remaining 1,412,732 chips.

Rip_Cheese had [7h][7d], but Jovial Gent had him crushed with [Ks][Kh]. The board went [2h][5c][Jh][2c][3d], and Rip_Cheese was eliminated in 19th.

Right after that hand, maxypaxy open-shoved all in for 670,610 over at Table 4, and PeachyMer called. maxypaxy had [Th][Qh] and PeachyMer [As][9s]. The flop was [Ad][3s][Jd], giving PeachyMer a pair of aces. The turn was the [4d] and river the [6h], and maxypaxy was knocked out in 18th.

Then it was thepractice's turn to shove all in preflop for 997,998, and Udon Wannit made the call. thepractice showed [6d][6c], and Udon Wannit [Jd][Js]. No six came to save thepractice, as the board went [2h][9c][4h][4s][Kh], making thepractice our 17th place finisher.

12:31am--tommyboy83 tumbled in 20th

tommyboy83 opened with a raise to 400,000 from the small blind, leaving himself just 110,849 behind. Xaston reraised all in for 1,067,686 from the BB, and tommyboy83 called with his last chips.

tommyboy83 showed [Qc][2c] and Xaston [Ac][9d]. The flop came [5s][8c][Kc], putting the flush draw out there for tommyboy83. But the turn was the [4d] and river the [7h], and tommyboy83 is out in 20th.

Xaston is in the middle of the pack right now with just over 1.44 million.

12:29am-- Hunter "HEMIpowerSWT" Frey eliminated in 21st place

Hunter "HEMIpowerSWT" Frey got his money in before the flop with a dominating hand, holding [Ah][Kc] to maxxmeister's [Ad][Jd]. The flop, however, gave both players a sweat, coming down [Kd][Td][8c], Frey flopping top pair and maxxmeister hitting flush and straight draws. The [Qs] on the turn, however, filled maxxmeister's straight, Frey unable to catch up on the [6h] river. He exited in 21st place while maxxmeister moved up to 3.37 million in chips.

12:26am-- PeachyMer back over 2 million

After making a huge call on the river for all her chips against reddeevil, PeachyMer is back up to 2 million in chips. Check out the action on our snazzy replayer.

12:17am--Excitement on Table 4

There'd been a relatively lengthy quiet stretch on the three tables, with most hands ending before the flop with either a raise or reraise being enough to do the job.

The tourney had just crossed into Level 36 (blinds 25,000/50,000, antes 6,250) when some action erupted over on Table 4. PeachyMer opened with a raise to 123,456 from UTG, and it folded around to vishnu24 who reraised all in for 1,029,875 from the small blind. PeachyMer quickly called, showing [Ah][Ac] to vishnu24's [Th][Ts].

The three flop cards then arrived, a stunning [7d][7s][Td], giving vishnu24 a full house and a huge lead. The turn was the [6s], and Peachymer had already typed "nh" when the river brought the [Kh].

A few hands later, PeachyMer doubled back up through vishnu24, leaving her with 839,016 and vishnu24 1,774,617.

12:05am-- maxypaxy trips up against reddeevil

Maxypaxy opened for 95,000 and reddeevil made the call from the big blind. Both players checked the [Kd][Jd][Tc] flop. When the [6d] hit the turn, reddeevil checked, leaving maxypaxy to bet 160,000. Reddeevil called and they saw the [6s] fall on the river. Reddeevil checked again, maxypaxy bet 240,000 and reddeevil called.

Though maxypaxy hit runner-runner trips with [Ac][6c], reddeevil flopped the nuts with [Ad][Td] and took down the million chip pot. Once near the top of the leaderboard, maxypaxy was left with 913,000.

Reddeevil is currently second in chips with over 3.7 million.

11:57pm--Chip counts, seventh break, Day 2

Level 35
Blinds 20,000/40,000, antes 5,000
Players remaining: 21 (of 2,144 entered)
Average chip count: 2,041,904
First prize: $1,715,200

1. djk123 -- 6,904,710
2. fetonzio -- 3,876,069
3. reddeevil -- 3,352,286
4. Udon Wannit -- 3,267,360
5. Jovial Gent -- 2,528,100
6. Chong94 -- 2,292,242
7. thepractice -- 2,126,747
8. Supa4real -- 2,071,760
9. Rip_Cheese -- 2,011,482
10. TBomber -- 1,674,536

11:51pm--xmrstyle no longer in vogue, out in 22nd

With the blinds 20,000/40,000 (5,000 ante), Chong94 opened with a raise to 90,000 from the cutoff, then xmrstyle raised all in for 589,701 from the button. The blinds folded, and Chong94 called.

Chong94 [Th][Ts]
xmrstyle [7d][7h]

Not what xmrstyle wanted to see from his opponent, to be sure. The flop was even less pleasant for xmrstyle -- [3h][Ad][Td] -- giving Chong94 a set of tens. The turn was the [Jc], meaning xmrstyle was drawing dead when the [Qd] arrived on the end.

xmrstyle goes out in 22nd place and like all of those going out 19th-27th picks up $35,376 for doing so. Meanwhile, Chong94 currently sits in sixth with a little more than 2.18 million chips.

11:45pm-- GIVE_IT2 hands stack to djk123

A short-stacked GIVE_IT2 moved all in for his remaining 460,000 and djk123 moved all in behind him, chasing away the rest of the table. It was the [As][7s] for GIVE_IT2 and [Ac][Kh] for djk123, the board running out [Kc][Qc][Jc][8c][4s] to send GIVE_IT2 home in 23rd place.

Meanwhile, djk123 continues his amazing run, his tournament-leading stack up to more than 7.3 million.

11:32pm--Big call by fetonzio pays off

The average stack is more than 46 big blinds at the moment, so we'll see if players sit tight with their chips or gamble it up here as we enter the endgame.

Just saw a couple of players not sitting tight in an interesting hand on Table 114 -- between a couple of the bigger stacks, actually, thepractice and fetonzio. thepractice opened with a raise to 82,500 from middle position, and fetonzio, sitting to thepractice's left, made the call.

Both checked the [5c][5d][6s] flop. The turn was the [4h]. thepractice checked, fetonzio bet 95,500, thepractice raised to 280,000, and fetonzio called.

The river brought the [9c]. thepractice fired 630,000 into the middle, and after some thought fetonzio called. thepractice showed [Th][Jc] for a lot of nothing, and fetonzio the mighty ducks -- [2d][2c]. The pair was good, and fetonzio claimed the 2,068,125-chip pot.

fetonzio is in third at the moment with 3.17 million, while thepractice is in fifth with 2.53 million.

11:32pm-- Millions on the table, NFL on the brain

As Monday Night Football ticked toward its conclusion, the chatter across our three remaining tables switched almost entirely from poker to football.

A few of our favorite comments:

"CHAD PENNINGTON UR A JOKE"
"Miami is lol"

and for the sports bettors in the mix,

"COLTS -3 FTW!"

11:19pm--jclan5 out, 23 left

A short-stacked jclan5 pushed all in for 302,107 from late position and Chong94 called from the big blind. Chong94 had [Ad][Jh], while jclan5 was rolling the dice with [5s][7s].

The flop was [8s][Kc][9c], giving jclan5 hopes for a straight. But the turn was the [Qd] and river the [4d], and jclan5 was knocked out in 24th place.

With 23 left, djk123 still has a sizable chip lead with over 5.6 million, trailed by thepractice (3.73 million) and reddeevil (3.35 million).

11:16pm-- mystie45 evaporates in 25th place

PeachyMer opened for 88,888 from early position and the action folded around to mystie45 in the small blind. Holding nearly as many chips as PeachyMer, mystie45 moved all in for 971,179, putting his opponent to a decision for nearly all her chips. PeachyMer, however, found a call, her [Th][Td] in great shape against mystie45's [Ah][8c]. No love for mystie45 on the board and PeachyMer's stack rocketed past 2 million (much to the delight of her railbirds) while mystie45 collected $35,376 for 25th place.

11:11pm--Bambeklis bamboozled, sunk by Supa4real's sixes

Supa4real opened for 79,775 from middle position, then Bambeklis reraised all in for 169,547 from the button. The blinds folded, and Supa4real called.

Supa4real showed [6s][6c] and Bambeklis [Ad][8d]. The flop brought an eight for Bambeklis, but there was a six as well -- [8c][3s][6h]. The turn was the [3h], giving Supa4real a boat, and when the [Ks] fell on the river, Bambelkis was out in 26th place.

Supa4real pushes up to 924,947 -- below average, 19th place.

11:07pm--dawnkey954 rides off in 27th place

Dawnkey954 had already caught a miracle on the river once, getting all in with pocket threes against Q-9, and spiking a three after his opponent turned two pair. However, when dawnkey954 moved all in for over a half a million on a [Tc][8s][3s] flop holding [Jd][Jc] only a few hands later, he couldn't outrun fetonzio's pocket kings, the turn and river falling the [9h] and the [8h] to end his tournament.

10:59pm--Chip counts, sixth break, Day 2

Level 33
Blinds 15,000/30,000, antes 3,750
Players remaining: 27 (of 2,144 entered)
Average chip count: 1,588,148
First prize: $1,715,200

1. djk123 -- 5,140,341
2. thepractice -- 4,082,997
3. TBomber -- 3,503,922
4. Udon Wannit -- 3,045,417
5. reddeevil -- 2,763,886
6. slammedfire -- 1,929,966
7. Mudvaynes -- 1,871,156
8. maxxmeister -- 1,839,019
9. bcans -- 1,733,460
10. HEMIpowerSWT -- 1,632,083

10:54pm -- bcans freezes CASINOICE in 28th

CASINOICE got his last 13 big blinds in the middle before the flop against bcans, but his [Ac][Qs] couldn't outrun pocket tens, ending his WCOOP run in 28th place.

10:53pm--BobCore busted in 29th

A below-average-stacked BobCore open-shoved all in from middle position for 379,784 and reddeevil called from the small blind.

reddeevil [As][Qs]
BobCore [Tc][Ks]

The flop came [8c][5c][8d] and the turn [Jc], giving BobCore a club draw to go with those hopes for a ten or king. But the river was the [Jd], and BobCore is out in 29th place.

10:46pm--Natemower cut down in 30th

It started as an innocuous-seeming blind-vs.-blind battle, with Natemower making a minimum raise to 60,000 from the SB and buck21 calling from the BB. Then the flop came [6d][5h][2h], and all hell broke loose as Natemower pushed all in for 394,901, and buck21 made the call.

Natemower shoed [Qc][Qs] for an overpair, while buck21 showed [Jh][6h] for a pair and a flush draw. The turn was the [8h], giving buck21 the flush and making the [As] on the river inconsequential.

Natemower is out in 30th, while buck21 moves up over 1.13 million.

10:43pm-- Isaac "philivey2694" Haxton exits in 31st place

Facing a 70,000 opening raise from TBomber, Isaac "philivey2694" Haxton shoved from the big blind for his remaining 478,982, probably hoping to get a fold. Unfortunately for Ike, TBomber snap-called, turning up pocket kings. Haxton was in dire shape with [Kc][Jd] and couldn't catch a miracle on the [Ts][5s][3s][Qc][7c] board. He hit the rail in 31st place, while TBomber took his stack up to 3.2 million, good for second in chips.

10:42pm--reddeevil drums Percussion out

Percussion raised to 75,570 -- a smidge over 2.5x -- from middle position, and got one caller in redeevil in the small blind.

The flop came [Td][8d][9c]. reddeevil checked, Percussion pushed all in for 376,268, and reddeevil called. Percussion showed [Qd][Qc], but had run into reddeevil's better pair, [Kd][Kc].

The turn was the [6c] and river the [2h], and Percussion is out in 32nd.

10:39pm--Two more gone, 32 left

Zack-AA just got in a preflop raising war with thepractice that resulted in Zack-AA being all in for just over a half million chips with [8c][8h] versus thepractice's [Qs][Qc]. Two more queens would land on board by the time the hand concluded, giving thepractice quads and eliminating Zack-AA in 34th.

Just three hands later, jclan5 opened with a raise and Braisss pushed all in over the top for 539,852, soliciting a call from jclan5. Braisss showed [Qs][Jc] and would need help against jclan5's [Jh][Ad]. The board came [3d][9h][8c][Kd][7c], though, and Braisss is out in 33rd.

10:29 pm-- Derek "derek8" Lerner out in 35th place

Derek "derek8" Lerner had been short-stacked for several levels, but had managed to bob and weave masterfully, picking up several pots without a showdown. After Daniel Kelly opened for 50,000 from UTG, Lerner moved all in for 314,291, probably hoping to take the pot right there, but Mudvaynes shoved for over 560,000 behind him, leading Kelly to fold. Unfortunately for Lerner, his [As][Kc] couldn't improve against Mudvaynes' pocket jacks, ending his Main Event run.

10:27pm--djk123 = unstoppable?

Shortly after Dunkelb1 was eliminated in 37th, niccc was raising to 65,000 from UTG and the table folded around to Daniel "djk123" Kelly who reraised to 157,500 from the button. The blinds folded, and niccc called.

The flop came [Tc][7s][Th]. niccc checked, djk123 bet 186,000, niccc check-raised to 480,000, and djk123 called.

The turn was the [Kh], and both players checked. The river then brought the [3c]. niccc checked, and Kelly made a hefty bet of 1,775,000 -- well more than the 1,037,833 niccc had left. After a bit of thought, niccc made the call, showing [9s][9c] for nines and tens. But Kelly had [Ac][Ts] for trip tens, and niccc is out in 36th place.

Kelly is now up over 5.35 million -- about twice what his nearest competitor, Udon Wannit, currently has.

10:16pm-- Niccc sinks Dunkelb1 in 37th place

Just...watch.

As the rail erupted in "OMGs," niccc raked in the 1.6 million pot while a stunned Dunkelb1 was crippled.

Now severely short-stacked, Dunkelb1 open-shoved all in for 46,153, mystie45 reraised to 100,000 to isolate, and the rest of the table folded.

Dunkelb1 showed [5s][5h] and was hoping the small pair would outlast mystie45's [As][Tc]. mystie45 would not pair either hole card, but the [7s][9d][7h][Kh][Ks] made Dunkelb1's fives no longer good versus mystie45's better kicker. Dunkelb1 is out in 37th.

10:12pm--Alikmin all in, then all out in 38th

Shortly after sethsethseth's elimination, chip leader Daniel "djk123" Kelly opened with a minimum raise to 50,000 from UTG over on Table 90, and Alikman responded by pushing all in for his last 176,803. It folded back to HEMIpowerSWT in the big blind who shoved over the top all in for 1.2 million-plus, forcing Kelly to skedaddle.

HEMIpowerSWT [As][Qc]
Alikmin [7h][Ah]

The board came [9d][2d][9c][3d][8h], and HEMIpowerSWT's queen kicker meant Alikmin was out in 38th place. HEMIpowerSWT is now at 1,552,678 -- just inside the top ten for now.

10:08pm-- Nonono, sethsethseth!

Our hats go off to sethsethseth for making a gutsy pre-flop shove for 427,526 holding [2h][7h] (aka "the suited hammer"), but unfortunately he ran headlong into Bambeklis' [As][Kh]. Still, there was hope for sethsethseth, who hit a flush draw on the [9s][8h][3h] flop, but he couldn't improve on the turn or river, which fell the [Js] and the [Ks].

Sethsethseth exited in 39th place while Bambeklis moved up to 1.4 million in chips.

10:05pm--caicu blows up versus TBomber

With the blinds 12,500/25,000 (3,125 ante), TBomber raised to 58,800 from middle position, then caicu reraised to 125,000 from the small blind. TBomber called, and the flop came [Js]{Qd][3d]. caicu checked, TBomber bet 150,000, and caicu called.

The turn was the [2d], putting a third diamond on the board. caicu again checked, and TBomber again bet 150,000. caicu then check-raised all in for 404,456, and TBomber quickly called.

Bad timing for caicu, who had nothing but [Ah][6s]. Meanwhile, TBomber had [Kd][Jd] for the flush, meaning caicu was drawing dead. caicu is out in 40th place, while TBomber chips up close to 2.2 million.

9:55pm-- Chip counts, fifth break, Day 2

Level 31
Blinds 10,000/20,000, antes 2,500
Players remaining: 40 (of 2,144 entered)
Average chip count: 1,072,000
First prize: $1,715,200

1. djk123 -- 3,900,610
2. Udon Wannit -- 2,523,997
3. maxxmeister -- 2355,494
4. Xaston -- 1,975,057
5. maxypaxy -- 1,565,421
6. jclan5 -- 1,543,864
7. PeachyMer -- 1,522,173
8. thepractice -- 1,478,855
9. TBomber -- 1,473,919
10. slammedfire -- 1,469,452

9:50pm--Kelly killing it, takes chip lead

HEMIpowerSWT raised to 49,600 from middle position, and Daniel "djk123" Kelly, sitting to HEMIpowerSWT's left, called. Then bet2win reraised to 167,987, and it folded back around to HEMIpowerSWT who stepped aside.

djk123 then reraised to 388,888 total, prompting an all-in shove for 1,427,995 from bet2win. Kelly made the call, showing [Th][Td] to bet2win's [Ah][Jd].

Tens proved good for Kelly once again, as the board ran out [9c][3c][Kc][8h][Kd], knocking bet2win out in 41st place.

With 40 players left, Kelly moves into the chip lead with more than 3.5 million. Click here to read more about the two-time WCOOP bracelet winner looking for yet another big score.

9:42pm-- PeachyMer puts the pressure on

Mystie45 led off the betting, opening for 57,688 from under-the-gun. PeachyMer flat-called from middle position and the two saw a flop of [Qs][Jc][5h]. Mystie45 led out for 89,000 and PeachyMer raised to 231,093, mystie45 tanking for a bit before making the call. The turn paired the board with the [Js] and mystie45 checked over to PeachyMer, who moved all in for 992,111. After a long thing, mystie45 folded, PeachyMer picking up the 630,000 pot to take her stack up to 1.6 million, good for seventh in chips.

9:41pm--River sinks stefos

Stefos raised all in to 109,646 from middle position, and sethsethseth called from the cutoff. It folded to Jovial Gent in the big blind who then reraised to 700,000, pushing sethsethseth out of the hand.

Jovial Gent [9c][9s]
stefos [Qs][Qc]

The flop was [8h][7d][Jc] and the turn [2d], and stefos' queens were still good. But the river brought the [Tc], giving Jovial Gent a straight and sending stefos out in 44th place. Jovial Gent now has a little over 1.32 million in chips, which puts him in 13th place currently.

9:32pm--Can Kelly make it a triple?

Last night, Daniel Kelly became the third player this year to win two WCOOP bracelets, adding a win in the $10,300 High Roller H.O.R.S.E. event to his $215 Razz title. The first player to score a double win this year, Ryan "g0lfa" D'Angelo, just stopped by to rail Kelly and offer his congratulations.

g0lfa said, "djk... wanted to congratulate you man... hell of a series"
g0lfa said, "well done"
g0lfa said, "you're a very sick human"
djk123 said, "ty"
g0lfa said, "gl gettin to the FT"

Kelly is well on his way, currently sitting on 1.64 million, good for third in chips.

9:25pm--DrunkPPlaya down, Chong94 charges

slammedfire opened for 40,000 from UTG+1, then DrunkPPlaya called from middle position. We might as well call it a "smooth" call, giving away what's to come.

Chong94 called as well from the button, as did dawnkey954 from the big blind. The flop came [5d][8d][3s]. dawnkey954 checked, slammedfire continued for 80,000, then DrunkPPlaya raised to 180,000. Next Chong94 repopped it to 440,000, prompting the others to fold back to DrunkPPlaya who reraised once again for just 40,105 more. Chong94 called.

DrunkPPlaya turned over [Ad][Ah] for the overpair, and Chong94 showed [6d][7d] for a straight flush draw. The turn was the [4h], giving Chong94 the straight and making the river [Qd] just a final bit of trivia.

DrunkPPlaya is out in 47th, while Chong94 now has 2,083,332 and the chip lead.

9:11pm-- Sweden_Pound sinks on the river

So often in this game we live by the river and die by the river. All in with [Kd][Qh] against buck21's [Qd][Jd], Sweden_Pound had to feel pretty good about his chances, and when the flop came down [Ac][7c][5d], his confidence must have multiplied ten-fold. The turn had to give him pause, falling the [4d] to give buck21 a flush draw, but the death blow came when the [Js] spiked on the river, pairing buck21's kicker and sending Sweden_Pound to the virtual rail in 50th place. Ouch.

9:07pm--Tens hold for ten-time cashing Kelly

Daniel "djk123" Kelly -- he of the 10 cashes and two WCOOP bracelets this year -- has turned in yet another impressive showing, now inside the top 50 of the Main Event. Just now Kelly's tourney life was on the line after he found himself all in with a pair of tens against pakd650's [Kd][As]. A ten would flop, but that still didn't make the hand any easier for Kelly. Here's how it played out:

9:00pm--Chip counts, fourth break, Day 2

Level 30
Blinds 8,000/16,000, antes 2,000
Players remaining: 50 (of 2,144 entered)
Average chip count: 857,600
First prize: $1,715,200

1. GIVE_IT2 -- 1,837,176
2. tommyboy83 -- 1,534,802
3. Xaston -- 1,527,280
4. Natemower -- 1,416,967
5. maxxmeister -- 1,412,250
6. slammedfire -- 1,399,084
7. Udon Wannit -- 1,350,933
8. pakd650 -- 1,254,522
9. maxypaxy -- 1,240,423
10. HEMIpowerSWT -- 1,232,870

8:54pm-- Hunter "HEMIpowerSWT" KOs MikeTyson68

Mudvaynes led off the betting, opening for 36,669, Hunter "HEMIpowerSWT" Frey came in with a three-bet to 87,400 and MikeTyson68 moved all in for 131,182 from the small blind. Mudvaynes folded, but Frey called, only to find his [Ac][7c] dominated by MikeTyson68's [Ad][Kh]. The flop was safe for MikeTyson68, coming down [5d][4s][3s], but the [7h] spiked on the turn to pair Frey's kicker. The river was the [9c] and Frey took down the pot, ending MikeTyson68's WCOOP Main Event in 51st place.

8:49pm--Ilovepoker95 eliminated, tommyboy83 making good

With the blinds 7,000/14,000, slammedfire raised to 35,000 from middle position and it folded to Ilovepoker95 who reraised to 140,000 from the hijack seat. tommyboy83 then made it 252,000 from the cutoff, prompting the button, blinds, and slammedfire to fold. Ilovepoker95 thought a moment, then made the call, leaving himself 241,049 behind.

The flop came [4s][Ac][4h]. tommyboy83 checked, and Ilovepoker95 pushed all in. tommyboy83 made the call, showing [Qc][Qd], well ahead of Ilovepoker95's [9h][9d].

The turn was the [8c] and river [3s], giving tommyboy83 the pot and eliminating Ilovepoker95 in 52nd place.

"j2ij2o2jo3if23fijoioj32fjiofiojf23ji23f" said slammedfire as the chips slid tommyboy83's way. What do you suppose he had?

Holy schnike! tommy83 is up to 1.43 million now, in seventh place.

8:41pm--One bet, two bet, three bet, four

Zach-AA opened with a raise to 29,800 from early position, then BobCore reraised to 84,555. Then fetonzio repopped it to 201,000, forcing everyone to fold.

All three players are hovering right around the average stack (824,615 at the moment). fetonzio is up to 971,468 now, while Zach-AA has 606,180 and BobCore 759,496.

8:34pm-- Layne "reloadthis" Flack eliminated

After opening for 36,700 from under-the-gun, Layne "reloadthis" Flack was faced with a three-bet to 82,500 from Jovial Gent. Flack decided to take a stand, moving all in for 180,994 and earned a call. His [Ac][Qs], however was dominated by Jovial Gent's [Ad][Kd], and with no help on the board for Flack, he hit the rail in 55th place, $21,440 his consolation prize.

8:24pm--iggymcfly busto, buck21 chips up

A short-stacked iggymcfly had just recently survived an all in versus GtRealGtOut, but still was left with less than 100,000. With blinds at 6,000/12,000 and 1,500 antes, iggymcfly hadn't much time to wait to make another move.

Finally came a hand in which buck21 opened for 29,800, and iggymcfly reraised all in for 59,868. buck21 made the call, showing [As][5s]. iggymcfly would need some help with [Qc][Kh].

No help came, as the board ran out [Jd][7c][4s][2s][9d], sending iggymcfly out in 58th. buck21 is just inside the top 40 at the moment with 585,548.

8:17pm--Darwinism out, slammedfiresurges

slammedfire opened with a raise to 30,000 (2.5x) from middle position, and Darwinism -- who had 426,476 to start the hand -- reraised to 110,000 from the next seat over. The table folded back around and slammedfire repopped it all in for 786,246, well more than Darwinism's stack. Darwinism made the call, showing [Ah][Qh] to slammedfire's [Jd][Jh]. The race was on.

The board came [7d][9h][8d][2h][Ks], and Darwinism was out in 60th place. slammedfire won a couple more pots after that one and is now up to 1.315 million, currently good for third place behind GIVE_IT2 and sethsethseth.

8:15pm-- "niccc" hand, sir

After DrunkPPlaya opened for 27,750 and weeminer moved all in for 252,966 behind him, niccc shoved for his entire 857,862 in chips. DrunkPPlaya got out of the way and the cards went on their backs, [Ah][Qh] for weeminer and pocket queens for niccc. Niccc hit top set on the flop and rivered a full house, the board running out [Qs][Js][8s][9s][8c] to send weeminer to the rail in 59th place.

Niccc is currently on 1.2 million in chips, good for sixth place.

8:03pm--Scott "dorinvandy" Dorin eliminated

Like his fellow competitor Jason "TheMasterJ33" Dewitt, Scott "dorinvandy" Dorin was still alive and well in the WPT Borgata Poker Open today and faced a multi-tabling dilemma. Dorin, however, elected to remain up in his hotel room to concentrate on the WCOOP, but after going out in 61st place, can now head downstars and resume his live action.

Slammedfire opened for 30,000 from middle position and Dorin moved all in for 226,246 right behind him. The rest of the table folded and slammedfire called, his [8h][8s] in a race situation against Dorin's [As][Qc]. The [Th][7c][7s] flop favored slammedfire, and Dorin couldn't catch up on the [Td] turn or the [4s] river, his WCOOP Main Event run at an end. For 61st place, Dorin picked up $21,440.

7:59pm--Chip counts, third break, Day 2

Level 28
Blinds 6,000/12,000, antes 1,500
Players remaining: 61 (of 2,144 entered)
Average chip count: 702,950
First prize: $1,715,200

1. Udon Wannit -- 1,950,144
2. GIVE_IT2 -- 1,806,899
3. Rip_Cheese -- 1,601,441
4. sethsethseth -- 1,544,314
5. mystie45 -- 1,283,428
6. HEMIpowerSWT -- 1,273,023
7. bcans -- 1,208,580
8. pakd650 -- 1,196,520
9. Xaston -- 1,093,530
10. Chong94 -- 1,091,200

7:56pm--Sevens suit Sussie Smith

Sussie Smith opened with a raise to 26,500, and daPHUNNIEman reraised all in for 95,177. It folded back around and Sussie Smith made the call.

Sussie Smith showed [7c][7h], while daPHUNNIEman turned over [6d][6s]. The flop came [9d][4d][Kc], and daPHUNNIEman was still looking for one of those sixes. But the turn and river came a decidedly unphunnie [7d][7s], giving Sussie Smith quads and sending daPHUNNIEman out in 62nd place.

7:48pm--A marathon to the money

According to the tourney clock, players have been at it now for a total of 26 hours and 48 minutes, all told. And for the player who will eventually claim all 42,880,000 chips in play, there's still a long, long way to go.

As we wind our way down to the final stages of this WCOOP Main Event, players currently being eliminated are being rewarded with some nice paydays. With 63 players remaining, the next nine to go out will all receive $21,440 for their efforts. Not bad, but not quite what awaits those who reach tonight's final table:

1st -- $1,715,200
2nd -- $1,286,400
3rd -- $933,712
4th -- $643,200
5th -- $482,400
6th -- $375,200
7th -- $268,000
8th -- $182,240
9th -- $96,480

Needless to say, while these current prizes are nice, everyone is eyeing the big money that awaits the final nine. Including the railbirds over at Table 4:

ZepHendrix (observer): if you all ran like me
ZepHendrix (observer): you'd be working at mcdonalds

7:44 pm-- Daniel Kelly scores a KO

Daniel Kelly has seen his share of swings in this tournament, but just managed to take himself back over the 1 million mark after eliminating Markovits A.

Markovits A opened for 24,200 from early position and the action folded around to Kelly in the big blind. He three-bet to 62,400, prompting Markovits A to move all in for his remaining 412,193. Kelly made the call, turning over pocket tens while Markovits A showed pocket fives. Kelly's hand held up on the [4c][4h][2s][Kd][7c] board and he took his stack up to 1.14 million.

7:31pm--The beat goes on for Percussion

Percussion has been enjoying a fantastic WCOOP this year, with a half dozen cashes including an eighth-place finish in Event #8, that $109 no-limit hold'em event that attracted a WCOOP-record 15,675 entrants.

A little while ago, Percussion pushed all in preflop with [Ts][Tc] and was up against Str8upGay's [9s][9d]. The flop came six-high, then a ten on the turn ensured Percussion would take the nearly half-million chip pot.

At the moment Percussion has chipped up further to 698,614, 28th place with 67 players remaining.

7:19pm--Try to read this hand without wincing

With the blinds 5,000/10,000, Jovial Gent opened with a raise to 24,250 from early position and the table folded back around to ilvdnfl who reraised all in for 184,396 from the button. The blinds folded, and Jovial Gent made the call.

Jovial Gent [Jh][Jc]
ilvdnfl [As][Ac]

A good spot, apparently, for ilvdnfl, until the flop came out a staggering [4d][Jd][Js], giving Jovial Gent quads. The [7s] on the turn meant ilvdnfl was drawing dead, but that didn't make the [Ad] on the river any less painful to see.

ilvdnfl is out in 71st. Meanwhile, Jovial Gent happily skips up to 34th place with just over 600,000.

7:12pm--HEMIpowerSWT getting the job done

Just saw a tricky three-way hand involving Hunter "HEMIpowerSWT" Frey, DTA4, and bet2win. HEMIpowerSWT would come out ahead on this one, moving up to 1,345,623 and into fourth place overall (behind Udon Wannit, Xaston, and Rip_Cheese), while DTA4 would end up getting knocked out of the tourney in 77th.

See how it played out here:

7:09pm-- Jason "TheMasterJ33" Dewitt eliminated

If there is any silver lining to Jason Dewitt's elimination from the WCOOP Main Event, it's that he can now concentrate on playing in that other tournament he's in-- the World Poker Tour Borgata Open Main Event.

Dewitt had been playing up in his hotel room in the early hours of Day 2, then brought his laptop down to the Borgata Poker room, where the staff graciously allowed him to set up in a room adjacent to the tournament area so he could play in both events.

Dewitt was crippled by his old nemesis philivey2694 after they went to war on a [Jh][2h][2c] flop. Philivey2694 led out for 44,444, Dewitt raised to 120,000, philivey2694 three-bet shoved for his remaining 489,607 and Dewitt made the call, turning over [Qs][Js] while philivey2694 showed pocket kings. Dewitt couldn't catch a queen or a jack on the turn or the river, and found his stack knocked all the way down to 52,669.

Dewitt moved those chips in before the flop three hands later holding [Ac][8c], but ran into garage13's pocket queens. Garage13 made a full house on the turn, the board running out [5s][9s][5h][Qd][Kd] to end Dewitt's WCOOP Main Event in 87th place.

(Photo courtesy of the World Poker Tour)

6:57pm--Chip counts, second break, Day 2

Level 26
Blinds 4,000/8,000, antes 1,000
Players remaining: 84 (of 2,144 entered)
Average chip count: 510,476
First prize: $1,715,200

1. Udon Wannit -- 1,888,131
2. Xaston -- 1,312,585
3. bcans -- 1,083,940
4. HEMIpowerSWT -- 1,067,779
5. Supa4real -- 1,067,528
6. Rip_Cheese -- 1,062,482
7. GIVE_IT2 -- 999,382
8. philivey2694 -- 993,638
9. 5902838181 -- 955,377
10. bet2win -- 927,828

6:48pm--Darwinism ensures BigRed0000 survives no more

After that "ul" hand decimated his stack earlier, BigRed0000 survived for a while, but its hard to last for long with a below average stack.

BigRed0000 just now had to push all in for his last 89,061 with [Tc][As] and was called by Darwinism who held [Ks][Kc]. The flop brought a ten -- [7s][Ts][9h] -- but the [8d] turn and [5s] couldn't help BigRed0000 improve, and he's out in 89th.

Darwinism has 729,630 right now, good for 21st place.

6:43pm--Xaston crosses out another

Xaston just knocked out another foe -- AlusivPnkBny -- pushing his stack up past 1.2 million in the process.

In this one, AlusivPnkBny opened with a raise to 21,000 from middle position, then Xaston reraised to 61,000 from the big blind. AlusivPnkBny pushed all in for 381,189 total, and Xaston called.

AlusivPnkBny showed [7c][7h] and Xaston [Qh][Qs]. The flop and turn made it interesting -- [6d][6s][9d][8s] -- but the [Kh] on the river meant AlusivPnkBny was out in 91st.

Xaston moves into second place with 1,222,587, still well behind leader Udon Wannit who is closing in on 2 million.

6:41pm--TheMasterJ33 doubles up philivey2694

Jason "TheMasterJ33" Dewitt just took a tumble from the top of the leaderboard, falling to 614,000 in chips after doubling up philivey2694.

Dewitt opened for 20,259 and philivey2694 made the call. Dewitt lead out for 33,000 on the [Kh][3c][2d] flop, philivey2694 looking him up. The turn was the [9h] and Dewitt set his opponent all-in with a 168,000 bet. Philivey2694 snap-called, having turned a set with [9c][9s]. Dewitt showed [As][Kd], his top pair up in flames as the [7s] hit the river. Philivey2694 doubled to 558,000 while Dewitt was left with 614,000.

6:33pm--iggymcflyin' up the leaderboard

iggymcfly just eliminated Terken89 after the latter got all 142,595 of his chips in with [Qc][Kh] only to run up against iggymcfly's [Js][As]. The board went [2d][Td][Ah][4d][8c], and Terken89 is out in 96th place, earning $16,616.

iggymcfly now has over 820,000, which puts him just outside the top 10 at the moment.

6:26 pm-- Setback for Flack

Over the course of two hands, Layne "reloadthis" Flack saw his stack shrink by nearly half, going from 894,000 to 477,000.

First, Flack called Madvaynes' all-in on a [Qh][8c][7c] flop holding [Ac][5c] for the nut flush draw while Mudvaynes held top pair with [Ah][Qs]. Flack couldn't catch a club and Madvaynes claimed the 564,000 pot. Three hands later, Flack called a pre-flop three-bet from TBomber, the pot swelling to over 170,000. Both players checked the [Jd][Jc][6c] flop. TBomber put out a small bet of 70,000 when the [4d] hit the turn, Flack making the call. The river was the [3h] and TBomber checked to Flack, who checked behind. Good thing he did, as TBomber rolled over [Ah][Ac] to take down the 313,000 pot.

6:22pm--100 remain

There are currently 100 players remaining in the WCOOP Main Event. Udon Wannit has had a late surge to move into the chip lead with 1,738,782, well clear of HEMIpowerSWT in second with 1,100,679. slammedfire and TheMasterJ33 are also still hovering right at the million-chip mark.

6:18pm--"P" stands for poker, not politeness

BigRed0000 just lost most of his stack in a preflop all-in confrontation versus Chong94. BigRed0000 had the advantage with [As][Kh] versus Chong94's [Qs][Ac], but a queen flopped and BigRed0000 couldn't catch up. Chong94 moved up to 449,217, while BigRed0000 slipped to 85,561.

As they say, hilarity ensued...

aquaregia67 said, "ul"
BigRed0000 said, "really aqua?"
BigRed0000 said, "was that ul?"
BigRed0000 said, "thank."
BigRed0000 said, "you"
BigRed0000 said, "I didn't know"
tommyboy83 said, "ya he is village idiot of table"
aquaregia67 said, "is that so suckout boy"
aquaregia67 said, "thats what i get fo rbeign polite"
tommyboy83 said, "=)"

6:08pm--Xaston puts out hotstuff38's fire

hotstuff38 opened with a raise from middle position to 14,200, and Xaston reraised to 38,200 behind. It folded back around to hotstuff38 who pushed all in for 221,633 total, and Xaston called.

hotstuff38 showed [Qc][Kh] and Xaston [9d][9s]. The flop came [Th][3d][Jd], giving hotstuff38 the open-ender. The turn was the [Jh], then the river came the [9h], giving hotstuff38 that straight but Xaston the better hand with a full house.

hotstuff38 is out in 109th, while Xaston climbs into the top 10 with 816,133.

6:00pm--Chip counts, first hour break, Day 2

Level 24
Blinds 3,000/6,000, antes 750
Players remaining: 111 (of 2,144 entered)
Average chip count: 386,306
First prize: $1,715,200

1. TheMasterJ33 -- 1,172,614
2. HEMIpowerSWT -- 1,149,154
3. Udon Wannit -- 1,107,166
4. pakd650 -- 927,911
5. reloadthis -- 924,515
6. slammedfire -- 903,366
7. GIVE_IT2 -- 872,938
8. djk123 -- 790,863
9. maxxmeister -- 790,544
10. 5902838181 -- 771,867

Team PokerStars Pros eliminated:
Jan Heitmann -- 141st

5:46pm--Up, down, then out for J.C. Tran

Well, that was an exciting 45 minutes of poker for J.C. "area23JC" Tran. After building his stack back up to above-average status early on, Tran had a table change followed by a crippling hand that knocked him way back down to less than 20,000.

With just 16,573, Tran pushed all in with [Jc][8c] and found himself up against two opponents -- cabbie182 with [7d][7s] and HuGaDaS with [Ad][Th]. The flop came [9h][Kc][7c], giving cabbie182 a set though Tran the club flush draw. The turn was the [2s], but the river brought the [5c] and Tran survived that one with 54,219. Meanwhile, HuGaDaS was eliminated in 120th as cabbie182 claimed the side pot.

Tran's luck didn't last long, however, as two hands later he was reraising all in versus cabbie182 with [Ac][6c] only to be called by cabbie182's [Ad][Qh]. The community cards came [7d][3s][7s][Kc][5h], and Tran goes out in 117th place, earning $15,544 for his efforts.

5:41pm--The millionaires club

Jason "TheMasterJ33" Dewitt -- chip leader heading into Day 2 -- continues to maintain his advantage during the early going this afternoon, pushing out to more than 1.16 million.

But close on his heels is Daniel "djk123" Kelly, owner of not one but two WCOOP bracelets this year. Kelly right now is the only other player with more than a million, currently sitting with 1,043,836.

5:40pm-- Don't mess with the Flack

With the action folded to him in the small blind, Layne "reloadthis" Flack opened for 17,000 and tdomeski moved all in for 124,514 from the big blind. Flack quickly called, his [As][Kc] dominating tdomeski's [Ad][Ts]. Flack's hand held up on the [Qh][Jd][7s][5d][6h] board and tdomeski hit the rail while Flack chipped up to over 545,000.

5:32pm-- Jason Dewitt movin' on up

After Jvilchez13 opened for 12,500 from the cutoff, Jason "TheMasterJ33" put in a pre-flop three-bet to 45,000 from the button. Jvilchez13 responded with a shove for all 162,872 of his chips and Dewitt made the call, turning over [7c][7d]. Jvilchez13 was looking for some help with his [Jc][Th], but couldn't find it on the [Ks][9d][9c][2d][Ah] board and hit the rail in 149th place while Dewitt's stack soared to over a million in chips.

5:30pm--Heitmann's eight-trey cracked, out in 141st

Team PokerStars pro Jan Heitmann began Day 2 in 47th place, though met with difficulty early on and was down to 137,923 when the following hand went down.

troyones opened with a raise to 15,000 (3x) from the button, then Heitmann shoved all in from the big blind. troyones thought a beat, then called, showing [Td][Ad], well ahead of Heitmann's humble [8s][3s].

The board came [Tc][As][2h][Qh][2d], and Heitmann typed "gg" as the last member of Team PokerStars hit the virtual rail in 141st place.

5:23pm--ilovepoker95 loves being on the right end of straight

ilovepoker95 just claimed a few more chips while knocking out a short-stacked THEDUTCH4141. A hand of [Jc][Ah] encouraged THEDUTCH4141 to get all of the chips in the middle preflop, and ilovepoker95 was there to compete with [6h][6d].

The flop came [5d][4h][2h] and the turn [3d], giving both players straights but ilovepoker95 the better one. The river was the [Kd], and THEDUTCH4141 is out in 147th place. Meanwhile, ilovepoker95 currently has 512,718, putting him in 23rd place.

5:06pm--Tran on the move early

J.C. "area23JC" Tran -- winner of the WCOOP Main Event in 2006 -- started Day 2 with a below-average stack and has started the day making an effort to change that situation, pronto.

With the blinds 2,500/5,000, Tran just now opened with a raise to 12,600 from under the gun, and dw2006 reraised to 29,855 behind him. It folded back around and Tran made the call.

The flop came [Js][6h][7s]. Tran checked, dw2006 bet 36,755, Tran check-raised to 80,000, dw2006 pushed all in, and Tran called with his remaining 73,103.

Tran showed [7c][7h] for the flopped set of sevens, while dw2006 showed [Ts][As] for the nut flush draw. The turn was the [5d] and river the [3h], and Tran catapults up to 394,120 -- good for the top 40 at the moment. dw2006 now has slipped to 120,999.

5:00pm-- Cards are on the screen!

Our 178 remaining players are back in action.

4:50pm--WCOOP Main Event Day 2 set to begin

Day 2 of the World Championship of Online Poker main event is about to begin. Sunday, 2,144 people started. One hundred seventy-eight of those players made it through nearly 13 hours of play and will now sit down to fight for the $1.7 million first prize.

We will, of course, be keeping an eye on every one of those remaining players, with a little bit of focus being reserved for chip leader TheMasterJ33, Team PokerStars Pro Jan Heitmann, and now-two-time bracelet winner djk123.

Here's how the numbers look as we prepare to resume play.

Level 23
Blinds 2,500/5,000, antes 625
Players remaining: 178 (of 2,144 entered)
Average chip count: 240,898
First prize: $1,715,200

1. TheMasterJ33 -- 925921
2. pakd650 -- 776413
3. 5902838181 -- 734682
4. SexSeen -- 696659
5. HEMIpowerSWT -- 695540
6. GIVE_IT2 -- 654843
7. Jovial Gent -- 632010
8. reddeevil -- 611559
9. GtRealGtOut -- 580712
10. djk123 -- 555410

Let's just pause for a moment and talk about what Daniel "djk123" Kelly has already accomplished in this year's WCOOP. He had an auspicious start, taking down Event #2, $215 Razz, then went on to cash eight more times in WCOOP events over the next two weeks. Then today, while building a stack in the $5,200 buy-in NLHE Main Event, Kelly entered the $10,300 High Roller H.O.R.S.E. event. By the time Day 1 play was finished in the Main (Kelly finishing up with 555,410, good for tenth in chips out of 178 players), he was going for his second WCOOP bracelet at the H.O.R.S.E. final table. Like Ryan "g0lfa" D'Angelo and now Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier (who picked up his second bracelet tonight in Event #43), Daniel Kelly became a double-bracelet winner and now sits atop the Player of the Series leaderboard for the 2009 WCOOP. Not bad for a 20-year old Villanova junior.

Some of the biggest names in poker rounded out the 103-strong field in this event, creating a $1,030,000 prize pool. 16 places were paid, with first place set to earn $252,350.00. Team PokerStars Pro comprised nearly 14% of the field with George Danzer, Greg Raymer, Barry Greenstein, Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier, Daniel Negreanu, Vanessa Rousso, Ylon Schwartz, Chris Moneymaker, Sebastian Ruthenberg, Gavin Griffin, and Joe Hachem all taking a shot. Coming away with cash finishes were Katja Thater (13th) and Chad Brown (10th), while Noah "Exclusive" Boeken made the final table.

Here's a look at how our final six stacked up as action got underway:

Seat 1: wallfly (130,889 in chips)
Seat 2: NoraFlum (199,643 in chips)
Seat 3: matchpoint20 (65,956 in chips)
Seat 4: Noah "Exclusive" Boeken (119,336 in chips)
Seat 5: Jorj95 (13,396 in chips)
Seat 6: ozenc (137,007 in chips)
Seat 7: Daniel "djk123" Kelly (163,978 in chips)
Seat 8: Matt "Hoss_TBF" Hawrilenko (199,795 in chips)

With little more than two bets left in his stack, Jorj95 exited in eighth place on the second hand of the final table after putting his last 10,000 in before the flop in a hand of Omaha hi/lo. Both djk123 and wallfly called and continued betting on the side, wallfly check-calling bets from djk123 on every street of the [Ts][9s][5h][6s][4d] board. Djk123 was betting for a good reason, turning over [As][8c][7s][3h] for an ace-high flush and a 6-5 low. Wallfly made the same low, but only had nines and fours for high with his [Ah][9h][4s][3c], earning a quarter of the side pot and a quarter of the main. Djk123 took down the rest, and Jorj95 mucked, his WCOOP run at an end with an eighth place finish for $30,900.

The game switched over to Razz and matchpoint20 was able to hang on for another fifteen minutes before playing a pot with ozenc. After djk123 brought it in with the [Ks], matchpoint20 completed to 3,000, ozenc raised to 6,000 and matchpoint20 made the call.

matchpoint20 (X) (X) [4s][Qc][Td][2h] (X)
ozenc (X) (X) [4d][9h][6s][5s] (X)

Ozenc made the low board on fourth street and lead out, matchpoint20 making the call. He kept the lead on fifth and fired again, matchpoint20 looking him up despite catching a second brick. Ozenc led again on sixth street and matchpoint20 called, having caught a deuce. Ozenc set matchpoint20 all in for his last 2,500 on the river and he made the call, turning over [3h][5c][9c] in the hole for a 9-5-4-3-2 low, but ozenc had the better low, showing [7s][8h][9c] for a, 8-7-6-5-4 low. Matchpoint20 hit the rail in seventh place, earning $41,200 for his finish.

Meanwhile, wallfly was coming off a disastrous Omaha Hi/Lo level, having lost nearly every pot he played to take his stack from 105,000 down to 29,000. Luck wasn't on his side in Razz either, his stack eroding all the way down to 5,204 before he got the rest of his chips in the middle on third street against Noah Boeken.

wallfly ([8h]) ([6d]) [3s][8d][6s][2h] ([6c])
Exclusive ([Td]) ([2s]) [4h][6h][Ad][Tc] ([4c])

Boeken made a T-6-4-2-A low while wallfly finished the hand with a pair, heading to sleep with a sixth place finish and an extra $51,500 in his PokerStars account.

Sitting on 90,000 in chips while his other four opponents were all hovering around 200,000, Boeken was able to hang on with a short stack for a full forty-five minutes. Boeken took a significant hit on a stud hand against Hoss_TBF, losing nearly half his stack when his flush draw failed to come in against Hoss_TBF's two pair, then sustained another blow when ozenc scooped him in a stud hi/lo pot with a queen-high flush. Despite being left with only 10,000 in chips, Boeken refused to give up and managed to double up several times before falling back down to 11,000. With only two bets left and facing the blinds in limit hold'em, Boeken raised to 10,000 from early position and was three-bet by Hoss_TBF. Boeken called all in, showing [Tc][6c] while Hoss_TBF tabled [Qd][9s]. It was all but over on the flop when a queen hit, and though Boeken picked up a flush draw on the turn, the river blanked out, his tournament at an end in fifth place. For his performance, Boeken earned $66,950.

Four-handed play was a long, hard grind, lasting well over 150 hands. While ozenc and djk123 steadily chipped up, Hoss_TBF and NoraFlum found themselves slipping toward short-stack status. Omaha hi/lo was especially rough on Hoss_TBF, who tumbled from 135,000 chips to 63,000 during the level. Not one to give up easily, Hoss_TBF fought for every last chip before finally getting his last 5,600 in on third street against NoraFlum in a stud hand. Unfortunately for Hoss_TBF, NoraFlum had buried aces that improved to trips on the river, sending him to the rail in fourth place for a $92,700 payday.

Despite knocking out Hoss_TBF, NoraFlum was still on the short stack with 64,000 while ozenc was up to 593,000 and djk123 was on 372,000. NoraFlum lost most of his stack in a stud hand where he folded on the river to ozenc, then made a stand a few hands later, getting his remaining 12,000 in chips in on third street against djk123.

NoraFlum ([Tc]) ([4h]) [4s][2d][Kc][7c] ([Ah])
djk123 ([Td]) ([Ts]) [2c][Ad][9h][Qh] ([9c])

NoraFlum was looking at an uphill climb with split fours against djk123's buried tens and couldn't pull a miracle, djk123 rivering two pair to KO NoraFlum in third place. He took home a hefty $133,900 for his performance.

Ozenc started heads-up play with a 1.7 to 1 chip lead over djk123:

Seat 6: ozenc (645,713 in chips)
Seat 7: djk123 (384,287 in chips)

Heads-up was nothing short of a marathon, lasting 141 hands. Though ozenc started off with a solid chip lead, he quickly lost it to djk123, who pulled nearly even with him on this hand of seven-card stud.

From there, djk123 simply dominated the rest of the match, hitting hand after hand in the stud and stud hi/lo rounds. Aces up. Kings up. A nine high straight. Hard as he tried, ozenc couldn't get his stack to head in the other direction. After djk123 scooped a stud hi/lo pot with an eight-high straight, ozenc tried to make something happen on the next hand, but was run down again by two pair.

In what would be the final hand of the tournament, djk123 had the bring-in with the [Th] and ozenc completed showing the [Ad]. Djk123 made the call, and they went to fourth street, where ozenc caught the [7c] and led out for 8,000, djk123, showing [Th][7h] raised, ozenc reraised all in and djk123 made the call.

ozenc ([Qs]) ([4c]) [Ad][7c][9h][4d] ([Js])
djk123 ([2h]) ([3h]) [Th][7h][Jd][6s] ([6c])

Though djk123 had four to a flush on fourth street, neither player made as much as a pair until sixth street when ozenc paired his four. Djk123's hand, though was rife with outs, needing a heart, a six, a seven, or a jack on the river to scoop or an ace, four, five, or eight to make a low to split. He hit a six, making a pair of sixes to take down the hand and seal up his second WCOOP victory of the year! In addition to the champion's bracelet, djk123 pocketed $252,350 while runner-up ozenc earned $175,100.00.

WCOOP Event #44 ($10,300 High Roller H.O.R.S.E.) Results

1. Daniel "djk123" Kelly $252,350.00
2. ozenc $175,100.00
3. NoraFlum $133,900.00
4. Matt "Hoss_TBF" Hawrilenko $92,700.00
5. Noah "Exclusive" Boeken $66,950.00
6. wallfly $51,500.00
7. matchpoint20 $41,200.00
8. Jorj95 $30,900.00.

Djk123 is now atop the 2009 WCOOP leaderboard, but can anyone catch him? Check out the WCOOP page for details. For highlights and replays from the first 43 WCOOP events, head over to PokerStars.tv for the finest in poker multimedia.

After nine-and-a-half hours of play, the field had been whittled down to 250 players, with Team PokerStars pros Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier in 12th, Victor Ramdin in 22nd, and Barry "barryg1" Greenstein in 90th. At that point, 0926ricsi held the chip lead with 683,105, followed closely by LakersGTD, kezug, ångvälten, and HN Kakaroto.

At the 11-and-a-half hour mark, they were down to 100 players. Greenstein had departed in 203rd, followed by Team PokerStars Holland Pro Lex "RaSZi" Veldhuis in 152nd. But Ramdin was still there in 42nd, and Grospellier had chipped all of the way up to second place, just behind LakersGTD who was nearing the 200,000 mark.

ElkY would soon overtake LakersGTD and claim the chip lead. With five cashes already this WCOOP and a bracelet in Event #38 (NLHE $530 + 1R1A), the London-based French pro appeared to be gearing up for yet another deep run in an WCOOP event. (Click here to read ElkY's reflection on his WCOOP win for the PokerStars blog.)

ElkY would maintain his lead over the next ninety minutes, and while LakersGTD would briefly sneak in front at around the 13-hour mark, with 50 players left ElkY was back on top with more than 3.7 million, followed by LakersGTD, KNtheKid, kezug, and ixi0n. Victor Ramdin was still there, too, sitting in 13th.

LakersGTD would subsequently retake the lead, and would maintain the advantage for the next few hours, during which time Ramdin would finally be eliminated in 22nd place. LakersGTD's stack began to dwindle, while jm18 pushed out in front. Then, 16-and-a-half hours after the tourney began, bundesmiro knocked out LakersGTD in 10th place, and the final nine were set:

Seat 1: bundesmiro -- 3,872,471
Seat 2: Profesigh -- 4,165,536
Seat 3: chilipepp -- 5,385,642
Seat 4: Team PokerStars Pro Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier -- 4,918,030
Seat 5: jm18 -- 11,144,998
Seat 6: Trippple_A -- 1,838,006
Seat 7: jektiss -- 3,831,843
Seat 8: kezug -- 4,554,226
Seat 9: KNtheKid -- 6,389,248

As most of the final nine traded congratulations with one another, Team PokerStars Pro George Danzer, host for this final table, chimed in as well, adding a special message to Grospellier by calling him "sick" for making yet another deep WCOOP run. "ty ty george," replied ElkY. "I'll try to make you guys proud once again :)"

Just one orbit into the final table, Grospellier set to work doing just that. With the blinds 60,000/120,000 (15,000 ante), Grospellier opened from the button with a raise to 267,896, then Trippple_A reraised all in for 1,643,006 from the big blind. ElkY made the call, showing [Ac][Kd] to Trippple_A's [Qd][As]. The community cards came [Ts][9c][Th][7s][8d], and Trippple_A was out in ninth.

It would take another 40 minutes before the next elimination. Profesigh opened from under the gun with a raise to 344,777, Elky called, then bundesmiro pushed all in from the big blind for 2,060,628. Profesigh called, and ElkY stepped aside. bundesmiro showed [Ah][Td] and Profesigh [7c][7s]. The flop came [7h][4c][9d], giving Profesigh a set. The turn was the [Ts], pairing bundesmiro, but no river card could take the hand from Profesigh, and bundesmiro was out in eighth.

Meanwhile, jm18 had fallen below the 2 million mark, becoming one of the table's short stacks. jm18 would open-shove all in for 1,861,140 from middle position, and kezug called from the small blind. kezug showed [9h][9c] and jm18 [Ts][Ad]. Again we'd see a flopped set, as the flop came [4d][9s][Qs]. The turn was the [4h], giving kezug a full house and closing the door on jm18 who ended the night in seventh.

With six left, chilipepp had pushed out in front with more than 16 million, followed by jektiss with 12.26 million, then ElkY with just under 6 million. A series of unfortunate hands for kezug had suddenly made him the new short stack. Then came a hand when it folded around to kezug in the small blind who open-pushed all in for 243,414. KNtheKid didn't waste much time calling from the BB, showing [Ks][Jh] to kezug's [Ac][7d]. kezug was okay through the turn -- [3s][Qh][Qs][Td] -- but the [9s] on the river gave KNtheKid the straight, and they were down to five.

Soon afterwards, with the blinds now 100,000/200,000 (25,000 ante), Profesigh was raising from middle position to 444,444, and got two callers in chilipepp (small blind) and ElkY (big blind). The flop came [Ad][5c][Kd]. chilipepp checked, ElkY bet 567,896, then Profesigh raised all in for 4,044,371. chilipepp folded and ElkY made the call.

ElkY showed [Ac][5s] and Profesigh [5d][Kc] -- both had flopped two pair, though Grospellier's was the better hand. Watch as the turn and river didn't help Profesigh, who was eliminated in fifth:

That hand would push ElkY near the chip lead, though he'd lose a chunk back to chilipepp soon thereafter, making him the short stack with four to go. He'd survive an all-in versus KNtheKid, though, to move back into third place. Then came a hand in which jektiss opened with a raise to 700,000, then KNtheKid reraised all in for 5,211,403. jektiss quickly called, showing [Qs][Qh] while KNtheKid had [7d][Ad]. The board came [9d][6h][Tc][4c][3s], and KNtheKid was out in fourth.

At that point, jektiss and chilipepp asked ElkY about possibly making a deal, but Grospellier said he wasn't interested, so the remaining trio played on. After 18 hours of poker, jektiss had over 21 million, chilipepp about 16.2 million, and ElkY 8.85 million.

Grospellier managed a swift double-up through chilipepp. After a flop of [3s][3d][7s], chilipepp checked, ElkY bet 678,965, chilipepp check-raised all in, and ElkY instacalled, showing [4h][3h] for trip treys. chilipepp had [2h][7h], and after the [8c] turn and [Ac] river, Grospellier was now in second and chilipepp the short stack. ElkY would take another chunk off of chilipepp in a subsequent hand when his preflop four-bet forced chilipepp to fold, after which came this chatbox exchange:

chilipepp: u should fold there elky
ElkY: i should
ElkY: i don't really like to fold
chilipepp: new things are often good 4 u

ElkY wasn't listening, and on the very next hand was again not folding, and rather opening with a raise to 600,000 from the button. chilipepp reraised to 1,555,555 from the big blind. ElkY shoved all in, and chilipepp called with his last 5.69 million. chilipepp showed [Qh][Qs], well ahead of ElkY's [8c][8h]. Until the flop, anyway -- [8d][Jd][6s]. The turn was the [6c], giving Grospellier a boat. chilipepp was looking for one of the two remaining queens to save him, but the river was the [3c] and chilipepp landed in third.

When heads-up play began, ElkY and jektiss were almost dead even in chips. jektiss had 23,400,235, just ahead of the Team PokerStars Pro who had 22,699,765.

After 14 hands, jektiss still had a slight edge when he opened with a raise to 600,000 (2x) from the small blind/button, and ElkY called from the big blind. The flop came [Jd][5c][6h], and both checked. The turn brought the [8c], and ElkY fired a bet of 678,965. jektiss called.

The river was the [9s]. ElkY checked, jektiss bet 1,555,555, ElkY check-raised to 5,678,965, jektiss reraised all in, and Elky called with his remaining chips. jektiss showed [Th][7s] for a jack-high straight, but ElkY had [Tc][Qh] for a queen-high straight. That hand left jektiss with just under 1.8 million, and it would just take three more hands for ElkY to claim the last of his opponent's chips.

In the final hand, ElkY opened from the button by pushing all in, and jektiss called. ElkY showed [8c][Th] and jektiss [Kh][As]. The flop -- [Jd][3c][Js] -- and turn [7d] -- were safe for jektiss, but the [Ts] on the river meant Grospellier had claimed his second WCOOP bracelet this fall.

WCOOP Event #43 ($215 NLHE) Results
1. Team PokerStars Pro Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier (United Kingdom) -- $263,323.20
2. jektiss (Germany) -- $193,620.00
3. chilipepp (Norway) -- $137,285.80
4. KNtheKid (Canada) -- $92,200.00
5. Profesigh (United States) -- $73,760.00
6. kezug (Denmark) -- $55,320.00
7. jm18 (Canada) -- $36,880.00
8. bundesmiro (Germany) -- $20,284.00
9. Trippple_A (Netherlands) -- $12,908.00

Congratulations to ElkY, the second player to score two WCOOP bracelets in 2009 (along with Ryan "g0lfa" D'Angelo)!

One more day of WCOOP action, as Day 2 of the Main Event plays out later today. Come back to the PokerStars blog for complete coverage, and check the WCOOP site for all of the results from this year's series.

When the 2009 WCOOP Main Event got underway on Sunday, September 20, the magnitude of it all was clear. Registration for the $5,000 + $200 buy-in event ended with 2,144 entrants, which put the prize pool at an impressive $10,720,000. Though only the top 306 finishers were set to receive any portion of it, it was the stunning $1,715,200 first place prize that caught everyone's eye. The winner of the two-day online tournament would win more money than most live tournaments could ever hope to offer, becoming more than a millionaire in less than 48 hours. And the second place finisher? That person will also be a millionaire.

While those numbers sink in, let's get to the details of the day, as provided to us by David Aydt, Martin Harris, Change100, and Brad Willis in the Main Event Day 1 Live Blog.

First, to concentrate on the final table payouts that will come into play as the tournament nears on Monday, those prizes are:

1st place: $1,715,200.00
2nd place: $1,286,400.00
3rd place: $933,712.00
4th place: $643,200.00
5th place: $482,400.00
6th place: $375,200.00
7th place: $268,000.00
8th place: $182,240.00
9th place: $96,480.00

Next, let's get to the players. The PokerStars Pro Team was out in force for the event, and WSOP Main Event champions like Greg Raymer, Joe Hachem, Peter Eastgate, Tom McEvoy, and Chris Moneymaker competed in the same field as stars known for their work outside of poker, such as tennis legend Boris Becker and television superstar Jason Alexander. But the majority of the massive list of Team members did not make it near the money, giving way to the cards early in the tournament.

Those Team PokerStars players nearing the money, though still not cashing, were Chad Brown (492nd), Angel Guillen (435th), Veronica "Princesa" Dabul (428th), Vanessa Rousso (421st), Gaulter "stockcar99" Salles (396th), Ylon Schwartz (370th), Alex Gomes (351st), Bill Chen (340th), and Leo Fernandez (365th). And exiting just inside the payout window was Katja Thater in 305th place.

Also in the field was the 2008 WCOOP Main Event champion, Carter "ckingusc" King, though he was knocked out by xaroCjes in 2031st place early in the day.

When the field thinned enough to hit the money, it was GoMukYaSelf who moved all-in with pocket kings and PeachyMer with the call holding [Ac] [Jd]. When an ace hit on the turn, GoMukYaSelf was ousted on the bubble in 307th place.

Play continued through the last few levels of the day with two PokerStars representatives still in action. Baseball legend and not-too-shabby poker player Orel Hershiser was certainly looking to do more than simply cash in the tournament, and amidst Level 21 action, he doubled up to stay alive for another day:

Not long after, Rabbiej doubled through Hershiser with A-6 versus K-Q, leaving the Cy Young award winner with less than 10,000 in chips. Two hands later, Hershiser pushed with [Ts] [7s] against the [Kh] [Th] of Mudvaynes, and the board came [3d] [Ks] [Tc] [As] [7d] to knock Hershiser out of the tournament in 217th place.

Meanwhile, Team Pro Jan Heitmann of Germany had been sitting near or at the top of the leaderboard through the better part of the day, making an impressive run toward the second day of the Main Event. His chip stack fluctuated throughout the latter part of Day 1, though he didn't take a big hit to his stack until late in Level 21 when he lost a 232K pot to pakd650.

By the time Day 1 action came to a close, TheMasterJ33 had jumped out to a serious chip lead after having recently won a 350K pot against SkaiWalkurrr with pocket sixes that held up to [Ad] [Qc]. That propelled TheMasterJ33 to the top, and the accumulation of chips continued to extend the lead over the rest of the pack.

Play stopped at the end of Level 22, and the tournament was paused, set to resume at 5:00pm ET on Monday, September 21, which was 11 hours and 10 minutes from break time. Players would start at the beginning of Level 23 with blinds 2,500/5,000 and a 625 ante, with 178 players still in the running and the average chip stack holding 240,898.

2009 WCOOP Main Event Top Ten Chip Counts:

1. TheMasterJ33 (925,921 chips)
2. pakd650 (776,413 chips)
3. 5902838181 (734,682 chips)
4. SexSeen (696,659 chips)
5. HEMIpowerSWT (695,540 chips)
6. GIVE_IT2 (654,843 chips)
7. Jovial Gent (632,010 chips)
8. reddeevil (611,559 chips)
9. GtRealGtOut (580,712 chips)
10. djk123 (555,410 chips)

Team PokerStars Pro remaining:
47. Jan Heitmann (321,457 chips)

All of the 2009 WCOOP information can be found on its special WCOOP website, and replays of the events can be found at PokerStars.TV. And tune in to this blog on Monday for the live chronicle of events as Main Event finds its new champion!

After holding the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure on a cruise ship in 2004, it moved the growing event to the Atlantis Resort and Casino in 2005. PokerStars also decided it wanted to hire a blogger...just for the week...to cover the event. That blogger was me.

Within minutes of my being on the assignment, somebody pulled me aside and pointed to a young guy I'd never seen before.

"That's Terrence and he used to work with us," I was told.

That was the first time I saw Terrence Chan.

The 2005 PCA happened to coincide with Chan leaving his job at PokerStars where he had been a large part of creating the top notch customer support system and team. He was moving on to play cards professionally.

Over the course of the next few days, I noticed Terrence's former co-workers seemed impressed with him. It was as if they knew he could play, but didn't know he could play.

Chan showed them they were right. He made a run all the way to 20th place in that tournament. During that week, he became a friend and person I genuinely enjoyed covering.

Since then, I've watched him almost win a WSOP bracelet and win hundreds of thousands of dollars in the live tournament world. And those hundreds of thousands are only what he wins when he's not really working.

In the years since Chan first played poker in 1999, he's turned himself into a fierce and feared high-stakes heads-up and six-max limit hold'em player. Because it's very rare to find that particular blend of poker in live games, Chan's efforts are aimed almost entirely online.

Over the years, I have written quite a bit about Chan on this blog, and each year he gives me more to write about. Last Spring, he won two limit hold'em SCOOP events in one night. Now, he's won a WCOOP bracelet.

At 28 years old. he does it all as he travels around the world, training in Mixed Martial Arts, and living what appears to be a pretty great life.

With all that in mind, I asked Chan a few questions the day after he won. Here's how he responded.

***

PokerStars Blog: Were there any particular moments in the tournament when you thought, "I'm going to make the final table?"

Chan: Strangely, the first time I thought this was with 11 players left and I was in third place. I did some quick math in my head and figured I was a pretty solid favourite to final table. Of course you really never know, and at any given point you can just lose 2-3 big pots and go broke.

PokerStars Blog: How would you describe your basic philosophy as it pertains to poker?

Chan: There is always a correct play. We may not know what it is, but we know it is there.

PokerStars Blog: You're friends with a lot of the members of Team PokerStars Pro. Did you end up facing any of them during your victory?

Chan:I started at a table with Bill Chen and was at tables late in the tournament with both Ylon Schwartz and Chad Brown.

I tortured Bill. I won like every hand I played against him and busted him early. I kind of felt bad ,of course, since he's a good friend. I played very few pots against Ylon. I played a lot of pots against Chad, and in the early going he was torturing me and accumulating a big stack of chips, but in the end I won a gigantic pot off him with set over set (TT vs 55). He never really fully recovered from that.

PokerStars Blog: Who do you look up to in the poker world?

Chan: I have always -- despite not being a very mathy person myself -- looked up to the most mathematical and analytical minds in the game. Guys like Bill Chen, Jerrod Ankenman, Chris Ferguson, Andy Bloch and so many others who have done real original work in the areas of poker, math and game theory blow my mind. These guys -- and others -- who have done real work and I have mostly just ridden their coattails to success.

PokerStars Blog: Really? Two SCOOP and one WCOOP in one year? What have you got figured out that nobody else knows?

Chan Again, I have a fantastic support system. I have the best friends in the world to learn from.

PokerStars Blog: When you're playing, it seems so automatic. How did you develop the ability to play hands on auto-pilot?

Chan: Hundreds of thousands of hands of high-stakes limit hold'em -- that's pretty much it! When you've played that many hands, you've pretty much had nearly every hand on nearly every flop (or at least a similar one) after every betting sequence!

PokerStars Blog How often does it happen that you actually have to think for more than two seconds about what the correct play is?

Chan: Actually, there are a lot of decisions where I wish I had more than a
second to decide. However, I've played enough to know that if I'm unsure about a decision, that it necessarily must be a close decision (otherwise I would know clearly what the right play was). It would actually be worse to play really fast and suddenly stop and think about a decision every so often, since my opponent would be able to infer that I wasn't 100% confident about my decision. Regardless of whether the game is online or live, if you play at a fast pace, it is better to make a quick decision that might be slightly wrong than to give away the tell that you have a tough decision.

PokerStars Blog: In the grand scheme of things, $60,000 isn't that big a win for you, but at the same time, you seemed really intent on winning. Why?

Chan: Actually, when it got down to like 50-100 players or so, I was actually thinking "Heh, it'd be kind of cool to make the final table." I never really thought about winning. I thought making the final table would be cool because I'd still get some props after the SCOOP performances.

At one point during 4-handed play I lost a number of pots and was the short stack and thought I was about to bust. At that point I was even okay with going out fourth. But once I got the chip lead 3-handed, I thought, "Now I'm going to be really upset if I don't win."

For some reason I just felt that I had to win, that my friends and even total strangers who had known what I had done in the spring wanted me to win. People want to see Roger Federer win Grand Slams, Tiger Woods to win golf majors, Anderson Silva to knock people out and so on. Once I got down near the end and had all of the interwebs cheering for me, I got to feel what that's like for a few brief moments. And that definitely motivated me.

PokerStars Blog: You seem to spend more time on the road than you do at home. Why? Any thoughts of settling down?

Chan: It's not so much more that I spend more time on the road than at home that I just think of the concept of "home" as more fluid than most people. I like to go places for a month or maybe a couple months at a time and just experience what it's like to live there.

I certainly may settle down in the future. But for now I am single with no kids, unattached from the world, so I see no reason to. Settling down is totally reasonable for people who have wives and kids and stuff, but if you don't have any of those things holding you down, then why not enjoy what the world has to offer? If I were to find the right person that I would want to settle down with, then obviously I would do so. But it'd have to be a pretty special person to make me do that (and they'd have to be willing to put up with me!).

PokerStars Blog: You play online cash games almost exclusively. Is it just impossible to find the kind of live action you need or do you just prefer online?

Chan.: Casinos won't typically spread a heads-up game, nor are there usually even 6-max tables for limit hold'em live. Also, a lot of the action I get are from players in not only the U.S. but also various parts of Europe, so unless those people happen to be where I am, I'm more likely to be able to play them on PokerStars than in any given casino.

But even without these things I prefer online poker. I can show up and leave when I want without issue, I don't have to carry a ton of cash around or make arrangements at my bank to wire money. I can quit my session and go to the gym with ease (which is very important to me). I can sit and wait for an opponent and pop in a movie and watch it until someone shows up. It's just a combination of conveniences that makes it so much superior to the live experience.

***

Congrats again to Terrence Chan for his first WCOOP title and once again proving why I wouldn't play him at anything over $4/$8 HORSE, and that would only be if I were looking for lessons.

Click REFRESH to see the latest updates.

5:50am--WCOOP Main Event Day 1 ends

Day 1 of the World Championship of Online Poker main event has just come to a close. After nearly 13 hours of play, 178 of the starting 2,144 players remain. We'll have a wrap up in just a bit, but for now, here are some of the biggest stacks.

Also, be sure to join us back here in in eleven hours for Day 2 live blog coverage.

Level 23
Blinds 2,500/5,000, antes 625
Players remaining: 178 (of 2,144 entered)
Average chip count: 240,898
First prize: $1,715,200

1. TheMasterJ33 -- 925921
2. pakd650 -- 776413
3. 5902838181 -- 734682
4. SexSeen -- 696659
5. HEMIpowerSWT -- 695540
6. GIVE_IT2 -- 654843
7. Jovial Gent -- 632010
8. reddeevil -- 611559
9. GtRealGtOut -- 580712
10. djk123 -- 555410

5:46am--Boosted J eliminated in 184th place

Only a few hands after losing half his stack to Supa4real, Justin "Boosted J" Smith limp-reraised all in pre-flop with [6c][6d] and got a call from Tonimonntana with [Ad][Ks]. Smith kept his lead on the [Qh][Jh][8h] flop as well as on the [Jc] turn, but Tonimonntana hit a Broadway straight on the river when the [Th] fell, sending Smith to the rail only minutes before the end of Day 1.

5:39am--Three-barrel bluff, one new chip leader

SkaiWalkurrr came in for a raise with [Qc] [Ad] and when he got called by TheMasterJ33, things got sticky. SkaiWalkurrr fired on each of the three streets on a [9d] [5s] [2c] [4d] [2s] board and each time TheMasterJ33 called him down with [6h] [6d]. The resulting pot was worth more than 350,000 and pushed TheMasterJ33 to the chip lead with 821,000.

5:38am--Boosted J's stack halved

Sitting on over 311,000 in chips, Justin "Boosted J" Smith opened for 10,200 from UTG+1 and was met with a three-bet to 32,000 from Supa4real. Smith called and they saw a [Td][8d][4s] flop. Smith checked, Supa4real moved all in for 145,885 and Smith made the call. It was overpairs for both, Smith's [Jd][Js] trailing Supa4real's [Qh][Qd]. The [9d] on the turn gave both players straight draws, and the [Jc] on the river not only made Smith a set of jacks but filled Supa4real's queen-high straight, sending Smith's stack tumbling all the way down to 132,000.

5:34pm--New chip leader crosses 800,000 mark

Budapest's pakd650 just cracked QTgirlE3's pocket kings with ace-queen for a 408,000 pot. That pot puts him over the 800,000 mark and gives him the chip lead.

5:32am--Tmay420 smoked in 208th place

After opening for 9,785 from the cutoff, Tim "Tmay420" West was put to a decision for his entire stack after Natemower moved all in for 171,859 from the small blind. West made the call, only to find his [As][Jh] dominated by [Ac][Kc]. No help for West on the board and he hit the rail in 208th place while Natemower moved up to 234,000 in chips.

5:27am--Orel Hershiser eliminated

Orel Hershiser had been running well over the last couple of levels, chipping up from the 30,000 range to over 75,000 during his stint on Table 59. With the blinds up to 2,000-4,000, Hershiser opened for 12,000 from the button, onlyto have Rabbiej shove for 65,000 from the big blind. Perhaps sensing weakness, Hershiser made the call, turning over [Ks][Qd] to Rabbiej's [Ad][6c]. Hershiser, however, couldn't improve on the [Jh][Ts][2d][8h][6d] board and came off the mound in 217th place for a $10,184 score.

5:17am--djk123 double-dips with ease

With five players remaining in the $10,300 H.O.R.S.E. event, Daniel "djk123" is fourth in chips, all while continuing to play in the Main Event, where he is presently 15th of 221 players remaining. His feat has not gone unnoticed by his opponents in the H.O.R.S.E.
Hoss_TBF said, " dj, maybe you should sit this one out, focus on the 5k main event"
djk123 said, "hah"
Hoss_TBF said, "gl there :-)"
djk123 said, "ty"
djk123 said, "can we make this one nl too"

5:13am--RaSZi no more

Lex "RaSZi" Veldhuis hadn't been able to get much going over the last few levels, his stack hovering between 40,000 and 60,000. With the blinds up to 1,500-3,000/375, Veldhuis looked down at pocket jacks and was probably more than happy to shove for his remaining 43,235... only sam2price woke up with pocket queens. No love for Lex on the board and he exited in 258th place.

5:12pm--Heitmann building back

After a bad hour or so that saw Team PokerStars Pro Jan Heitmann going the wrong way he's managed to build his stack back to around 350,000, a lot of those chips coming when his ace-king held up against ace-queen just moments ago.

5:02am--PiKappRaider gets caught

After Mudvaynes opened for 7,669, Steven "PiKappRaider" Burkholder decided to three-bet light, holding [Qc][Td]. Mudvaynes called and PiKappRaider hit top pair on the [Th][4c][3h] flop. Mudvaynes checked, PiKappRaider bet 23,600 and Mudvaynes called. The turn came the [5s] and Mudvaynes checked again, allowing PiKappRaider to bet 23,600. Mudyvanes flat-called again, and checked when the [8d] hit the river. PiKappRaider bet 28,800 and Mudvaynes called, showing [Jh][Jc] to take down the pot, leaving PiKappRaider on 165,000 in chips. After the hand, Mudvaynes was up to 472,000, good for eighth in chips.

5:00am--Last Day 1 break

Level 21
Blinds 1,500/3,000, antes 375
Players remaining: 256 (of 2,144 entered)
Average chip count: 167,500
First prize: $1,715,200

1. TheMasterJ33 -- 594993
2. SkaiWalkurrr -- 594871
3. iggymcfly -- 585085
4. HEMIpowerSWT -- 541327
5. bet2win -- 535693
6. SexSeen -- 488165
7. bcans -- 476153
8. Mudvaynes -- 470913
9. Lateski -- 465355
10. troyones -- 444323

4:45am--Katja Thater makes money, goes bust

Team PokerStars Pro Katja Thater made it past the bubble in the main event, but then quickly ran pocket tens into pocket queens and went broke. She finished 305th place.

4:39am--Ouch. Just ouch. Bubble bursts

GoMukYaSelf had something to say before he acted.

"Don't call," he said and then pushed in his 19,000 chips.

PeachyMer didn't listen and...well, he called with [Ac] [Jd].. a good but behind the short-stack's pocket kings.

Of course, you know what happened. It waited until the turn, and then the ace popped up. PeachyMer could only say...""omg im SO SO SORRY."

My guess is GoMukYaSelf was thinking something along the lines of..."you can stuff your sorries in a sack."

We are now sickly in the money.

4:28am--Pure bubble

We are now hand for hand on the pure bubble. Only one more person will exit with no cash.

4:14am--Tran gives bubble kick in the ribs

In the continuing tales of bubble abuse, former WCOOP champion J.C. Tran is showing off his abusive side. MaxErosAmore came in for a raise and Tran called. Both players check a [7h] [6d] [8d] flop. On the [Ks] turn, Tran bet 7,500 and MaxErosAmore min-raised him. Tran didn't think long before putting MaxErosAmore all-in. Tran got the fold he was looking for and then showed [4c] [4s].

MaxErosAmore then...well, he called Tran a bad name. It was the kind of name that usually invovles a letter 'f' but in this case used the letters 'ph.'

Tran simply replies, "It was good, right?"

We're gonna guess...no.

4:06am--Justin "Boosted J" Smith slapping bubble around

Now 12 players off the money, Justin Smith is using his experience to pick up some chips. He's chipped up by nearly 100,000 chips in just the last few hands with some pretty impressive bubble abuse. If it were illegal, he'd get already be convicted and sentenced.

4:00am--11th hour break

Level 19
Blinds 1,000/2,000, antes 250
Players remaining: 323 (of 2,144 entered)
Average chip count: 132,775
First prize: $1,715,200

1. TheMasterJ33 -- 492647
2. iggymcfly -- 487700
3. SexSeen -- 453598
4. bgr9292 -- 442207
5, bet2win -- 393268
6. slammedfire -- 389250
7. Jan Heitmann -- 387277
8. Lateski -- 386235
9. dw2006 -- 371148
10. Percussion -- 354800

3:50am--Time for bubble abuse

Those players who know how to abuse the bubble (and we'll assume most of the people in this tournament know what they're doing in this regard) are now working their game to its full effect. With 328 players remaining, we're just 22 players from the money.

Go get those blinds and antes, folks!

3:47am--Dorinvandy picks up aces at the perfect time

Scott "dorinvandy" Dorin just scored a massive double-up, eliminating chicken&boot and putting himself amongst the top 25 in chips. After chicken&boot opened for 4,000 and Underoath57 flat-called, dorinvandy made it 14,400 to go. Chicken&boot four-bet to 30,400, Underoath57 got out of the way, and dorinvandy moved all in for 139,415. Chicken&boot called, his [Ah][Qh] in dire shape against dorinvandy's [As][Ad]. The board ran out [Js][5d][2s][6c][8d] and dorinvandy scored a double-up to over 286,000 in chips.

3:41am--Leo Fernandez, Alexandre Gomes Eliminated

They call them "ace magnets" and right now, Leo Fernandez could tell you why. On a flop of[As][8c][3d], SJMags checked to Fernandez, who bet 3,200. SJMags raised to 9,600, Fernandez moved all in for 23,107, and SJMags called, turning up [Ad][3s] to Fernandez's [Kd][Ks]. No miracle for Fernandez on the [4c] turn or the [9c] river and he exited in 365th place.

Moments later, Alexandre Gomes' tournament life was on the line after getting all 84,000 of his chips in the middle before the flop holding [Ad][Qc] against Empire2000's [Ac][Kd]. Though both players flopped an ace, Gomes couldn't pair his kicker and ended his run in 351st place.

3:28am--Momentum on djk123's side

Daniel "djk123" Kelly already has a WCOOP bracelet, having won the $215 Razz event. He's currently fifth in chips with ten players remaining in the $10,300 H.O.R.S.E. event, and only moments ago, doubled up in the Main Event in dramatic fashion. After M@d@M@d@D@ne opened for 4,000, Kelly three-bet to 9,800 only to be met with a shove, M@d@M@d@D@ne having him covered. Kelly made the call for his remaining 48,000 turning over [Qh][Qd] to M@d@M@d@D@ne's [Jd][9d]. The flop was an unbelievable [Qs][Jh][9c], Kelly hitting top set while M@d@M@d@D@ne flopped bottom two pair. The turn was the [7d], the river was the [3c] and Kelly took down the monster pot, his stack soaring to 174,135.

3:26am--Elsewhere in WCOOP

There are two other WCOOP events trying to finish up tonight. The $10,300 HORSE event has ten players remaining, including Noah "Exclusive" Boeken and Chad Brown.

Meanwhile, the $215 NLHE contest is down to 24 players, among them ElkY and Victor Ramdin.

3:19am--So long, Ylon

As we near the bubble, we must bid goodbye to Ylon Schwartz. His pocket nines couldn't outrun pocket queens, all-in pre-flop. He's out in 370th place.

3:11am--The S.S. "Princesa" Sinks

Veronica "Princesa" Dabul opened for 4,200 from early position and got a call from buck21. Dabul check-called a 6,700 bet on the [Qd][Jc][Th] flop, then checked again when the [Jh] hit the turn. Buck21 bet 11,980, Dabul moved all in for 37,250 and buck21 called. Though Dabul had turned trip jacks with [Ah][Jd], buck21 hit a full house with [Qs][Js]. The river was the [Ts], making Dabul an inferior boat and she ended her evening in 428th place.

3:08am--Salles crashes

Team PokerStars Pro from Brazil Gualter Salles had a chance to triple up with pocket nines all-in against A-K and A-Q. Both the queen and ace fell and Salles was eliminated ini 396th place.

3:00am--Break leaders and numbers

Level 18
Blinds 800/1,600, antes 200
Players remaining: 395 (of 2,144 entered)
Average chip count: 108,556
First prize: $1,715,200

1. iggymcfly -- 507174
2. Jan Heitmann -- 456687
3. slammedfire -- 406130
4. Lateski -- 337148
5. TheMasterJ33 -- 312422
6. bet2win -- 299145
7. petteytheft -- 291410
8. Udon Wannit -- 282757
9. bgr9292 -- 282080
10. cumicon -- 273310

Team PokerStars Pros in Top 100:

2. Jan Heitman -- 456,687
63. Ylon Schwartz -- 178,603

2:55am--Orel Hershiser doubles

Entering short-stack territory with 26,323 in chips, Orel Hershiser called Sussie Smith's opening raise to 3,025 along with DTA4, and all three players checked the [7c][7d][3c] flop. The turn came the [Ks] and Hershiser and Sussie Smith checked to DTA4, who bet 7,000. Both Hershiser and Sussie Smith called. When the [9c] hit the river, Hershiser moved in for his remaining 16,123 in chips. After a long tank, Sussie Smith folded, and Hershiser collected the pot, taking his stack up to 48,473.

2:51am--New chip leader breaks 500,000

We have a new chip leader and he's the first person to break the half-million mark. Sitting over at Table 18, iggymcfly has 507,000, a 50,000 lead on second place Jan Heitmann.

2:50am--Dani "supernova9" Stern eliminated

High-stakes cash gamer and budding reality TV star Dani "supernova9" Stern was probably looking to take this pot down before the flop, but instead ran into a monster in the big blind. With the action folded to him on the button, Stern shoved for 19,498 holding [Kd][8s], but ran into 00's' [Js][Jh] in the big blind. Stern couldn't improve on the [7h][7s][2s][9c][Td] board and ended his WCOOP run in 424th place.

2:42am--Vanessa Rousso eliminated

Vanessa Rousso was being patient and waiting on a hand with which to double up. She got it all in with pocket jacks versus pocket kings.

And she was drawing dead on the flop.

Her opponent, alexos888 flopped quads and Rousso was out in 421st place.

2:27am--Chad Brown eliminated

Chad Brown's hopes for a WCOOP title now hinge on the $10,300 H.O.R.S.E., as he was just eliminated from the Main Event. After Justin "Boosted J" Smith opened for 3,200 from early position, Brown moved all in for 30,526 and his old nemesis reddeevil called. Smith got out of the way and the cards went on their backs, [Qd][Ks] for Brown and [Ad][Kh] for reddeevil. Though both players caught top pair on the turn, Brown was in kicker trouble and exited in 492nd place. In the H.O.R.S.E. event, however, he's in ninth place with 15 players remaining.

2:24am--Heitmann continues to run good, re-takes chip lead

Jan Heitmann is proving he can win in just about any way. He can win with monsters, win on coinflips, and win when he is behind. The most recent example came when he won a pot worth more than 130,000 with pocket queens all-in pre-flop against pocket kings. He flopped his queen and ended up with queens full by the river. He now has 430,000 and has been joined by Katja Thater at his table. She is sitting on 80,000.

2:21am--shaundeeb, joiso eliminated

Perpetual TLB topper Shaun Deeb was just eliminated after an attempt to move his opponent off a pot on the turn. Deeb checked the [Qc][Qh][4h] flop over to mysterio6044, who bet 4,250. Deeb raised to 11,424 and mysterio6044 made the call. When the [7s] hit the turn, Deeb moved all in for his remaining 28,565 and mysterio6044 snap-called, turning over [Qd][Jd] for trip queens. Deeb had a flush draw with [Ah][Jh], but couldnt fill it on the river, the [Ts] falling to send him to the rail in 537th place.

Also meeting his tournament end in the last few minutes was Alexander "joiso" Kostritsyn, who got his money in with [9d][9s] against Veronica "Princesa" Dabul's [As][3s]. Dabul flopped the nut flush, however and Kostritsyn's tournament came to an end in 527th place

2:17am--Dankes all around

Word of Jan Heitmann's early performance is spreading. People are showing up in the chat bar with as many well-wishes as he can handle. Each one of them is getting a "Danke" in response.

2:08pm--New chip leader firing at 400,000

The WCOOP main event has a new chip leader. Over at table 132, slammedfire is sitting on 394,000. He happens to be sitting across the table from Team PokerStars Pro Vanessa Rousso who is trying to work with 23,000 stack and Team PokerStars Pro Brazil Gualter Salles on 40,000.

2:02am--Brown's down (but not out)

Chad Brown may be happy to chat with his pal Orel Hershiser now that he's taken a seat over at Table 2, but he wasn't too pleased with what happened in this hand, where he lost more than half his chips. Hobbes200 was the initial raiser, opening for 3,000, both Brown and reddeevil making the call. Hobbes200 led out for 6,600 on the [Jd][Ts][8d] flop and both opponents called. When the [2d] hit the turn, both Hobbes200 and Brown checked to reddeevil, who bet 20,000. Hobbes200 folded, but Brown made the call. Borwn checked the [4s] on the river, reddeevil bet another 20,000 and Brown called, only to see reddeevil's king-high flush with [Kd][Td]. Brown mucked, his stack down to 39,000 while reddeevil climber to over 154,000.

2:00am--Heitmann continues to lead at break

Level 16
Blinds 600/1,200, antes 150
Players remaining: 536 (of 2,144 entered)
Average chip count: 80,000
First prize: $1,715,200

1. Jan Heitmann -- 377934
2. slammedfire -- 327300
3. SkaiWalkurrr -- 308430
4. Sumpas -- 300727
5. Percussion -- 273283
6. 5902838181 -- 247707
7. iggymcfly -- 246100
8. Udon Wannit -- 236879
9. Empire2000 -- 232228
10. xmrstyle -- 228127

Team PokerStars Pros in Top 100:

1. Jan Heitman --377934

Team PokerStars Pros Eliminated:

Maria Mayrinck -- 657th
Steve Paul-Ambrose -- 760th
Dennis Phillips -- 800th
Hevad Khan -- 864th
Boris Becker -- 982nd
ElkY -- 1007nd
Humberto Brenes -- 1,012nd
Vicky Coren-- 1,107th
Ivan Demidov -- 1152nd
Grant Levy -- 1206th
Noah "Exclusive" Boeken -- 1284th
Gavin Griffin -- 1323rd
Jason Mercier -- 1519th
Tom McEvoy -- 1609th
Andre Akkari -- 1635th
Victor Ramdin -- 1676th

1:50am--Kostristyn crumbles

Once up to nearly 100,000, Alexander "joiso" Kostritsyn just saw most of his stack evaporate on a single hand. Holding 55,800 in chips, he opened to 2,300 and bluffdeez503 three-bet to 6,275. Joiso came back with a reraise to 13,400 only to have bluffdeez503 move all in for 39,786. Joiso made the call, his [Ac][Qc] up against [Ks][Kc]. The board ran out [Jh][8d][9d][4c][Jc], bluffdeez503 raking in the nearly 82,000 pot, leaving Kostritsyn on the short stack with 15,900 in chips.

1:41am--Turner squeezes, Heitmann gets the juice

It really did seem like a good time to squeeze. There's no questioning Jon "PearlJammer" Turner's move. After seeing a raise and chip leader Jan Heitmann call, Turner pushed from the small blind all-in for 22,472. The original raiser folded, but Heitmann called for an additional 20,000.

Turner held [8d] [7d] and Heitmann turned over [Ac][Jc]. Turner was fortunate. He turned a straight on a [2c] [6c] [9d] [Th] board. Then the squeeze went wrong when the [Tc] came on the river to give Heitmann the flush.

Heitmann now has 375,000.

1:39am--Thater triples

Within the space of two hands, Katja Thater has managed to triple her stack. After a raise from rondalf, a three-bet from eirivi and a four-bet from PokerNoob999, Thater shoved for her remaining 19,752. The first two raisers folded and PokerNoob999 called an additional 3,200, his hand caught in the proverbial cookie jar with [6d][9d]. Thater's [Ad][Kc] held up and she more than doubled to 47,900. On the next hand she added another 14,000 to her stack after three-betting all in on the turn, the board reading [Ac][8h][3d][Qc]. Her opponent, rondalf, folded and Thater took her stack up to 61,000.

1:27am--Deeb slips, gboro780 down

Down to 15,606 in chips, Steve "gboro780" Gross moved all in over the top of petteytheft's opening raise and earned a call. Though gboro780 had the dominating hand with [As][Kd] against [Ah][Qs], a queen flopped, ending gboro780's WCOOP hopes.

Meanwhile, Shaun Deeb's chip count took a huge hit tumbling from 135,000 to 53,000 after this cooler of a hand against skier_5.

1:20am--Heitmann has an acute case of Run Good

In just the past few minutes, Team PokerStars Pro Jan Heitmann has moved up over the 330,000 chip mark. First he made a pair of jacks stand up against a pair of fives (and got paid). Then he stacked another player after turning fours full of nines against a player who made a flush on the river.

1:00am--Break time numbers

Level 14
Blinds 500/1,000, antes 150
Players remaining: 693 (of 2,144 entered)
Average chip count: 61,875
First prize: $1,715,200

1. Jan Heitmann -- 286957
2. slammedfire -- 257734
3. Percussion -- 236161
4. eirivi -- 230663
5. xmrstyle -- 230009
6. aquaregia67 -- 205414
7. gbecks -- 201652
8. T1ckT0ck -- 193512
9. TheMasterJ33 -- 193480
10. wobbly_au -- 188605

Team PokerStars Pros in Top 100:

1. Jan Heitman --267,776
58. Bill Chen -- 127,375

Team PokerStars Pros Eliminated:

Steve Paul-Ambrose -- 760th
Dennis Phillips -- 800th
Hevad Khan -- 864th
Boris Becker -- 982nd
ElkY -- 1007nd
Humberto Brenes -- 1,012nd
Vicky Coren-- 1,107th
Ivan Demidov -- 1152nd
Grant Levy -- 1206th
Noah "Exclusive" Boeken -- 1284th
Gavin Griffin -- 1323rd
Jason Mercier -- 1519th
Tom McEvoy -- 1609th
Andre Akkari -- 1635th
Victor Ramdin -- 1676th

12:56am--Terrence Chan runs into rivered two-outer...and is out

Recent WCOOP bracelet winner Terrence Chan came in for a raise to 2,000 and Belebacsi re-raised to 5,250 from the button. Chan called and they saw a flop of [5c] [4d] [Ad]. Both players checked. On a turn of the [5h], Chan bet out 6,400 and got a call. The river was the [Kd]. Chan bet 14,400, Belabacsi moved all in for 58,643 total. Chan snap-called with [5s] [As] for fives full of aces. Unfortunately for Chan, Belabacsi had [Kh][Kc] and Chan is gone.

12:53am--No one believes shaundeeb

Shaun Deeb's reputation as a hyper-agressive player just paid off big time for him. After deamon10 opened for 1,850 from middle position, Deeb put in a reraise to 5,353 from the button. Perhaps not concvinced of the strength of Deeb's hand, deamon10 moved all in for 28,891 and Deeb insta-called, turning over [As][Kc] to deamon10's [6s][7s]. The flop gave both players a sweat, coming down [Ks][Qh][3s], Deeb hitting top pair while deamon10 had a flush draw. He couldn't fill it on the turn or river, however, the [Ac] and the [9h] falling to send him to the rail. Deeb raked in the pot and is now on a very comfortable 97,458 in chips.

Watching from the rail, two-time WCOOP bracelet winner Ryan "g0lfa" D'Angelo offered this bit of analysis.

g0lfa said, "no one ever believes"

12:39am--Magician Jan Heitmann = New chip leader

If you've never seen Team PokerStars Pro Jan Heitmann perform an impromptu magic show, we highly recommend it. We watched one at a bar late night in Monte Carlo a couple of years back and are still pretty amazed. Perhaps more amazing is what we just witnessed in the WCOOP main event. He just managed to pull three rabbits out of a hat on one hand. Jack rabbbits, to be precise.

When hoodini10 came in for a raise, Heitmann bumped it again to 4,500. His opponent called and they saw a flop of [Jc] [Jd] [3h]. Heitmann led at it for 9,300, hoodini10 raised to 23,500, Heitmann made it 58,000 and hoodini10 pusked all in for another astounding 100,000. Heitmann made the call and turned over [Jh] [As]. Hoodini10 held an unfortunate [9s][9h]. With a king on the turn and the case jack on the river, Heitmann won a monster and moved into the chip lead with 286,000.

12:38am--Dennis Phillips eliminated

So often in this game, we live by the river and die by the river. Unfortunately, the latter just happened to everyone's favorite St. Louis Cardinals fan, Dennis Phillips. Phillips got the rest of his chips in on the turn holding [Ac][Kc] with the board reading [Ks][Qc][4s][8c] and got a call from JBT449 with [Kh][Th]. The [Td], however cruelly spiked on the river, to end Phillips' WCOOP Main Event run in 800th place.

12:34am-- Tran claims another big name

J.C. Tran has his sights set on another big finish. He just put another big name in the elimination column. His flopped set of fours just beat Nenad Medic's pocket eights. They got it all in on a jack-high flop. Tran is up above 160,000 chips and currently sits in 14th place.

12:22am-- Dwan down, former champion Tran up

Superstar Tom Dwan has an exceptionally active past two hours, and it's ended in his demise. Starting with nearly 35,000 in chips, he called a raise from former WCOOP champion J.C. Tran. The flop came down [Kc][Th][6h]. Tran bet out 3,000 and Dwan raised to 9,160. Tran moved all-in and Dwan called for his last 23,000. Tran held [Td] [Ks] to Dwan's...gulp...[As] [Ac]. Tran rivered an unnecessary ten for the full house. Dwan went out 873rd. Tran, meanwhile, is in 20th place with 48,000.

12:20am--Barry Greenstein bites the dust

We're unsure if he had his laptop on a food tray while multitabling in a live cash game, but Barry Greenstein just played his last hand in the WCOOP Main Event. Greenstein opened for 1,600 from earnly position and reloadthis called from the big blind. The flop came down [Ks][4s][3s] and reloadthis check-called a 2.400 bet from Greenstein. The turn came the [Ad] and reloadthis checked over to Greenstein, who bet 4,800. Reloadthis raised to 17,400 and Greenstein called all in, turning up [Kc][Kh] for a set of kings while reloadthis showed [As][Th] for top pair and the nut flush draw. The [5s] on the river was a disaster for Greenstein, reloadthis hitting his flush to take down the pot and end Barry's WCOOP run.

12:11am--Schwartz ahead, behind

Team PokerStars Pro Ylon Schwartz just managed to get [Jd] [Jc] all-in pre-flop versus cantbeat's [Jh] [As]. The board ran out [5d] [Ac] [Td] [5s] [4c] and Schwartz fell below 80,000 in chips. Meanwhile, cantbeat got himself back up over 35,000.

12:08am--Recent eliminations

Here's a quick look at some notable eliminations from the last hour:

Boris Becker -- 982nd
ElkY -- 1007nd
Humberto Brenes -- 1,012nd
Vicky Coren-- 1,107th

12:00am--Break by the numbers

Level 12
Blinds 300/600, antes 70
Players remaining: 919 (of 2,144 entered)
Average chip count: 46,659
First prize: $1,715,200

1. SkaiWalkurrr -- 197600
2. wobbly_au -- 197321
3. T1ckT0ck --183175
4. alottabluff --182508
5. baloo1962 --166266
6. xmrstyle -- 165570
7. odiggitydog --156435
8. Jan Heitmann --149638
9. Sumpas --148547
10. Amke --- 147849

Team PokerStars Pros in Top 100:

8. Jan Heitman --149.565
69. Chad Brown -- 95,400
71. Ylon Schwartz -- 94,308

Team PokerStars Pros Eliminated:

Boris Becker -- 982nd
ElkY -- 1007nd
Humberto Brenes -- 1,012nd
Vicky Coren-- 1,107th
Ivan Demidov -- 1152nd
Grant Levy -- 1206th
Noah "Exclusive" Boeken -- 1284th
Gavin Griffin -- 1323rd
Jason Mercier -- 1519th
Tom McEvoy -- 1609th
Andre Akkari -- 1635th
Victor Ramdin -- 1676th

11:50pm--joiso nabs 48k pot with river shove

Alexander "joiso" Kostritsyn had quite the late night last night on his way to his runner-up finish in WCOOP Event #42, $2,100 8-Game. Now, after only a precious few hours sleep, he's sitting on a robust 80,000 stack in the Main Event, a good portion of it acquired on this hand.

With the action folded to him on the button, joiso made a standard raise to 1,800. MrTile three-bet to 5,000 from the small blind and joiso called. MrTile led out for 6,500 on the [Tc][5h][3c] flop and joiso smooth-called. The turn camed the [Qc] and MrTile fired out again, this time for 12,000. Again, joiso called and they went to the river, which fell the [3d]. MrTile checked, joiso moved all in for 33,212 on the river and after a lengthy think, MrTile folded, conceding the pot to joiso, who increased his stack to 81,442.

11:38pm--Vicky Coren heads to bed

From her fingers, to your eyes, the Victoria Coren Twitter feed tells of her demise.

She says, "CURSES. I flop a set for the first time in 147 years, against someone who can't pass a flush draw. Grr. WCOOP over for another year."

11:30pm-- dorinvandy puts the pressure on

Last year's WCOOP $10K High Roller champion Scott "dorinvandy" Dorin just scored himself a near-double up after putting his opponent to a decision for more than half his stack on the river. Baletta opened for a min-raise before the flop, dorinvandy flat-called from the small blind and toniQ78 made a small raise to 3,000 from the big blind. Both baletta and dorinvandy called. The flop came down [Jc][8h][2s], dorinvandy checking over the toniQ78, who bet 5,000. Baletta got out of the way and dorinvandy called. Dorinvandy checked against when the [5d] hit the turn and toniQ78 fired again for 9,000. Dorinvandy min-raised to 18,000 and earned a call. The river was the [Qd]. No checking this time, as dorinvandy moved all in for his remaining 17,821, sending toniQ78 into the tank. After letting nearly two minutes tick off his time bank, toniQ78 folded and dorinvandy raked in the pot, taking his stack up to 73,361.

11:25pm--Dwan sinking

Tom Dwan is one the way down and now has just over his starting stack. This tough hand was what started the downslide.

11:20pm-- AJKHoosier1 eliminated

Sitting on 18,954 in chips and facing an opening raise from FeiteFrank and a reraise from floes, AJKHoosier1 went for the four-bet shove, most likely hoping to pick up the pot right there. Though FeiteFrank gave up his hand, floes made the call, his [Ac][Kd] dominating AJKHoosier1's [Kh][Jd]. No help on the board for AJKHoosier1 and he hit the rail while floes doubled up to 40,578.

10:58pm--Break time numbers

Level 11
Blinds 250/500, antes 60
Players remaining: 1,145 (of 2,144 entered)
Average chip count: 37,449
First prize: $1,715,200

1. GIVE_IT2 -- 155978
2. T1ckT0ck -- 153711
3. xmrstyle -- 146416
4. MKKMOO -- 141030
5. baloo1962 -- 135788
6. alottabluff -- 134198
7. Nicole_Katz -- 125358
8. wobbly_au -- 122748
9. odiggitydog -- 117737
10. bcans -- 115639

Team PokerStars Pros in Top 100:

49. Chad Brown -- 88,615
52. Ylon Schwartz -- 87,862

Team PokerStars Pros Eliminated:
Ivan Demidov -- 1152nd
Grant Levy -- 1206th
Noah "Exclusive" Boeken -- 1284th
Gavin Griffin -- 1323rd
Jason Mercier -- 1519th
Tom McEvoy -- 1609th
Andre Akkari -- 1635th
Victor Ramdin -- 1676th

10:54pm--Dennis Phillips doubles through Brian "tsarrast" Rast

Dennis Phillips has been short-stacked on a tough table for some time now, having to contend with ComeOnPhish seated to his right and Brian "tsarrast" Rast on his left. Down to 6,605 in chips, he mada a move, shoving from UTG+1 after gibralter11 limped in for 500. Tsarrast moved all in for nearly 26,000 behind him and the rest of the table folded, leaving Phillips heads-up with Rast for all his chips. It was the [Ah][Kd] for Phillips against Rast's [As][Qs], the board running out [Jc][4s][2h][2s][3h] to put Phillips in healthier territory with 14,490 in chips.

10:45-- Notables in the Top 50

Now more than five hours into the tournament, we're starting to see some notable names in the top 50.

8. Justin "ZeeJustin" Bonomo
11. Sumpas
14. xmrstyle
17. Tom "Hold_emNL" Dwan
25. tsoprano
38. Ylon Schwartz

10:40pm--ZeeJustin vaults into the top ten

With the action folded to him on the button, ZeeJustin made it 1,050 to go and was met wiht a three-bet to 2,400 from pleasepick in the small blind. ZeeJustin called and they saw a [Kc][Jh][3h] flop. Pleasepick checked to ZeeJustin, who bet 2,000, then raised all in for the 6,493 he had behind. ZeeJustin made the call, his [Kd][Js] having outflopped pleasepick's [Kh][Qh]. Pleasepick was looking for a queen or a heart on the turn or river to survive, but missed his outs, the [2c] and the [Ad] falling to send him to the rail. ZeeJustin raked in the pot, taking his stack up to over 109,000, good for the top ten in chips.

10:22pm--RaSZi rising up the leaderboard

Team PokerStars pro Lex "RaSZi" Veldhuis is currently sitting on over $52K in chips, looking to improve on a solid run in the WSOP $40K NLHE Event this summer. Despite being eliminated by fellow Team PokerStars pro Greg Raymer in that event, Veldhuis banked $277,940 in the event and has been a welcome addition to the PokerStars family.

While typing this up, RaSZi snagged a 9,050-chip pot and is now up to 56,725.

10:17pm--Up and down for Unassigned

Moments after that hand with 10Gunman, Terrence "Unassigned" Chan was suddenly knocked back down to less than 14,000 after losing a preflop all-in race with booboobutt. In that hand, Chan's pocket queens fell to booboobutt's Big Slick when an ace fell on the turn.

Then, on the very next hand, Chan doubled back up to 28,334 in a hand versus Sumpas. Sumpas had raised preflop from the button with [Ac][5s], and Chan called from the big blind holding [3h][5h]. Chan would manage to turn a heart flush, and when Sumpas rivered trip aces, he'd pay off Chan's all-in bet.

10:10pm--Chan stares down 10Gunman, lives to tell tale

10Gunman raised to 900 from UTG, and Terrence "Unassigned" Chan called from the button. The flop came [7s][5s][Jc]. 10Gunman bet 1,800, and Chan called. Both checked the [4h] turn.

The river brought the [Tc]. This time 10Gunman bet 3,300, and Chan raised to 12,000. 10Gunman thought a moment, then let it go.

Chan has chipped back up to 34,175.

10:00pm--Chip counts at five-hour mark

Level 9
Blinds 150/300, antes 40
Players remaining: 1,462 (of 2,144 entered)
Average chip count: 29,329
First prize: $1,715,200

1. T1ckT0ck -- 162,536
2. diicman -- 111,095
3. reddeevil -- 102,487
4. danloulou -- 101,854
5. MKKMOO -- 94,536
6. TheMasterJ33 -- 91,340
7. wobbly_au -- 87,098
8. odiggitydog -- 86,799
9. bbs99 -- 86,694
10. baloo1962 -- 86,684

Team PokerStars Pros in Top 100:
80. Chad Brown -- 60,752

Team PokerStars Pros Eliminated:
Jason Mercier -- 1519th
Tom McEvoy -- 1609th
Andre Akkari -- 1635th
Victor Ramdin -- 1676th

9:49pm--Looking for chips down under

New Team PokerStars Pro Emad Tahtouh is currently sitting on 28,753 chips out on Table 71.

The Australian pro is no stranger to big events, having final tabled in the 2006 WSOP $5K PLH event for $71K, finished runner-up to fellow Team PokerStars Pro Vicky Coren in the 2006 3,500 British Pound NLHE EPT London event for $538,357, and earned a fifth-place finish in the 2007 APPT Macau High Roller event for $64K.

9:45pm--Dang river cripples dangodokodang

Player dangdokodang just lost a race with pocket queens against !AAelTigre's [Jd][Ac] when an ace fell on the river.

That hand leaves dangdokodang with just 8,675 chips as we approach the next break -- a steep hill to climb for the winner of WCOOP Event #14 ($320 Mixed Hold'em) to get back into contention.

9:39pm--ElkY gets the shocker

ElkY just got his stack sliced in half by the shocker icon'd goodvibe1 after rivering a wheel to goodvibe1's superior hand. Watch ElkY turn into the aggressor post-flop in the video below, but he was unable to catch up to goodvibe's turned flush:

9:32pm--Looking for another big cash

Just seated at Team PokerStars Pro Katja Thater's Table 196 is scarface_79 who is fresh off final tabling WCOOP Event #33 $1,050 NLHE and looking to improve even further on the $84K pulled from that tourney earlier in the week.

For more on scarface_79's run in Event #33 check out PokerStars.TV's recap of the event below:

Watch WCOOP 2009: Event 33 - $1,050 NL Hold'em on PokerStars.tv

9:28pm--T1ckT0ck continues to rock

We were reporting earlier T1ckT0ck's speculations about what could be done with that $1.7 million-plus first prize. Since then, T1ckT0ck has steadily built a sizable stack, making the prospects of actually having to make such a decision marginally more likely. Still a long, long way to go, though.

After taking three pots of more than 25,000 in quick succession just now, T1ckT0ck is now up to 157,349 -- the only player with more than 100,000 at the moment.

9:17pm--Big slick does the trick for Bonomo

Justin "ZeeJustin" Bonomo raised to 750 (3x) from under the gun, and it folded around to nanonoko who reraised all in for 4,962 total. Others got out of the way, and Bonomo called, showing [Ks][Ac] to nanonoko's [Tc][Td].

The flop came [2h][Kd][8d], putting Bonomo in front. The turn was the [9c] and river the [Qh], and nanonoko said "gg" while hitting the virtual rail.

Bonomo is now up to 56,177.

9:12pm--Poker: The only place you'll find an "I" in team

With the blinds 125/250 (ante 30), Team PokerStars pro Gavin Griffin led out by raising UTG to 625. It folded around to fellow Team PokerStars pro Chad Brown who called in the small blind, and both saw a [Jh][5h][8d] flop. Griffin pushed out a 1,250 chip bet after Brown checked, and after a few blinking icons, Brown made the call.

The [8c] came on the turn. Again Brown checked, and Gavin fired a 3,000 bullet into the pot. This time Brown wasted no time check-raising to 6,000 total. Griffin mucked quickly as Brown scooped up the 10K pot.

Brown is currently at 50,771 chips and Gavin Griffin holding at 23,340.

9:03pm--Chip counts at four-hour mark

Level 7
Blinds 100/200, antes 25
Players remaining: 1,718 (of 2,144 entered)
Average chip count: 24,959
First prize: $1,715,200

1. T1ckT0ck -- 116,448
2. TheMasterJ33 -- 92,905
3. troyones -- 85,685
4. gibralter11 -- 82,920
5. vince vegas -- 77,802
6. Dsavo -- 77,388
7. MrKGBoreoman -- 76,650
8. iCeVeNoM -- 76,503
9. In8desyr -- 74,928
10. route666 -- 74,646

Team PokerStar Pros Eliminations:
John Duthie -- 1847th place
J.C. Alvarado -- 1856th place
Chris Moneymaker -- 1881st place
Joe Hachem -- 1992nd place
Daniel Negreanu -- 2012nd place

8:49pm--vince vegas sends Str8$$$Homey straight home

Str8$$$Homey just tangled again with vince vegas, and it didn't go so well for the WCOOP bracelet holder. With the board showing [4s][5s][9h][3h][Qh] and 6,225 in the middle, Str8$$$Homey bet 4,000, leaving just 5,600 behind, then vince vegas raised to 10,000 -- enough to put Str8$$$Homey all in.

Str8$$$Homey went into the tank. "Show?" he asked vince vegas, who offered no response. Finally Str8$$$Homey made the call with his [5c][5d] for a set of fives. Alas, vince vegas had [2h][4h] for the rivered flush, and Str8$$$Homey is out.

vince vegas now has more than 83,000 -- good enough for fourth place at the moment.

8:37pm--Jacks really are okay for Coren

Team PokerStars Pro Vicky Coren has fallen back to 9,000 chips but found a few laying on the table in a hand against foxdadou. After Coren raised to 600 with the blinds at 100/200 ante 25, Foxdadou took the small blind discount and called to see a [5d] [5h] [6c] flop. Coren bet 800 after foxdadou checked, and the small blind made the call.

The [5c] came on the turn and both players checked. The river brought the [7c] which got foxdadou to lead out for 1,200. After a quick thought, Coren made the call with pocket jacks [Jc][Jh] on the draw heavy board. It was the right decision, as foxdadou only produced [Jd][7c], sending the 5,625-chip pot to the Team PokerStars Pro.

8:31pm--Don't I know you from somewhere?

We were just checking over at Table 164, where TheMasterJ33 has taken the chip lead in the tourney with 86,767. The conversation there, however, wasn't about TheMasterJ33's progress thus far, but about another player -- jcada99.

Player D.K.5 just asked "you're the guy that made it to the main event final table??" "ya," answered jcada99.

Indeed, that's Joseph Cada, the 21-year-old from Michigan who will be in fifth place at the start of November's final table at this year's World Series of Poker Main Event. In other words, in better shape than Cada currently is in this tourney, where he's short-stacked at the moment with less than 14,000.

8:22pm--Barry finds a stacked table

Team PokerStarsPro Barry "barryg1" Greenstein has a few new friends out on Table 20. Hikkespett has a Sunday Million final table to credit. Online pro Jason "JasonGray" Gray who is spotted regularly at EPT events, and Scarer who is currently in the top 25 in chips as we move into blinds of 100/200 with 25 antes (Level 7).

8:15pm--g0lfa sent to clubhouse

Two-time 2009 WCOOP bracelet winner Ryan "g0lfa" D'Angelo had a rough afternoon, and found himself down to just 6,230 near the end of Level 6 when the following hand took place.

Player erichuaongdu opened with a raise to 450 from middle position, and it folded to g0lfa who called from the big blind. The flop came [5d][Ad][7c]. g0lfa bet 550, erichuongdu raised to 1,500, g0lfa reraised to 4,500, erichuongdu shoved all in, and g0lfa called with his remaining 1,260 chips.

g0lfa showed [Jd][Td] for the flush draw, while erichuongdu turned over [6d][4d] for a lesser flush draw plus an open-ended straight draw. The turn was the [2c] and g0lfa was still good. But the river brought the [3h], giving erichuongdu the straight and prompting the following post-hand analysis from g0lfa:

g0lfa said, "efrapu9wdfio0[asdfgp"
g0lfa said, "[\sdgop"
g0lfa said, "[dfjops"
g0lfa said, "dfgvjopv"
g0lfa said, "adsfv[adks[fads[fp['"

No third WCOOP bracelet for D'Angelo. Meanwhile, erichuongdu now has 24,778.

8:10pm--iCeVeNoM looking for more

The recent winner of WCOOP's Event #17 Triple Shootout Saul "iCeVeNoM" Khalili was 8th in chips at the third break and looking to add on to the $90,000 he won at Event #17. Check out his winner's interview here.

8:06pm--A long way to go

A little while ago over at Table 181, xoxol73 just asked the rest of the table "how many levels do we play today?"

The answer to that question is 22 one-half hour levels, with the survivors then returning tomorrow afternoon (Monday) at which point they'll play until just one has all of the chips -- all 42,880,000 of them!

8:00pm--Chip counts at three-hour mark

Level 6
Blinds 75/150, antes 20
Players remaining: 1,908 (of 2,144 entered)
Average chip count: 22,473
First prize: $1,715,200

1. T1ckT0ck -- 76,382
2. MrKGBoreoman -- 75,475
3. troyones -- 74,049
4. Lucky69han -- 73,347
5. MaxErosAmore -- 73,125
6. dps813 -- 71,282
7. TheMasterJ33 -- 66,286
8. iCeVeNoM -- 66,040
9. bbs99 -- 65,542
10. retaaded -- 61,074

25. Friend of Team PokerStars Orel Hershiser -- 52,433

7:50pm--No limit to the fun

Terrence "Unassigned" Chan just took a couple of decent-sized pots in a row to bounce back to 17,665 after having taken that hit earlier when simmsux made quad jacks against him. Afterwards, Chan, who has two SCOOP titles and one WCOOP title -- all three in limit hold'em events -- expressed some confusion afterwards:

Unassigned said, "sorry, what's going on here?"
Unassigned said, "i figured the main event had to be a lhe event. do ppl play other games?"

7:45pm--ElkY slowly chips up to 30K mark

Better known for his aggressive play and wild swinging chip stack, ElkY is finding the fold button once or twice tonight and has slowly crept up to a 30K chip stack with timely bets as the blinds are hovering at 75/150 with the introduction of 20 chip antes at the moment.

7:38pm--Hearts in action

Thanks to our crack research department we've found the mysterious results of Team PokerStars Pro Holland Joep van den Bijgaart's bust out hand. Apparently some hearts were broken as Bijgaart got involved in a three way all-in when all three players flopped a heart flush on this flop: [Ah] [6h] [5h]

Bijgaart: [Qh][9h]
MaxErosAmor: [Kh][Jh]
Unknown player: [8h][7h]

The 75K pot went to MaxErosAmor who is currently second in chips as the blinds hold steady at 60/120.

Bijgaart had this to say about the hand:

"I just can't put the guy on a king-high flush. I was 100% sure he would reraise that on the turn or something because there are so many bad cards for him to come."

7:31pm--LadyMaverick hits her draw

Team PokerStars pro Vanessa "LadyMaverick" Rousso opened with a raise to 299 from middle position, and a short-stacked Shantaram called from the big blind.

The flop came [Kh][9s][6h]. Shantaram checked, Rousso bet 480, then Shantaram pushed all in for 3,487 total. Rousso made the call, showing [8h][7h] for an open-ended straight draw plus a flush draw. Shantaram turned over [Kd][8d] for a top pair of kings.

THe turn was the [Ts], giving Rousso her straight, and when the river came the [Qd], Shantaram was out. Rousso is now just over the 30,000-chip mark.

7:24pm--Str8$$$Homey looks for better spot

Str8$$$Homey, winner of 2009 WCOOP Event #23 ($320 NLHE, 10-min. levels), opened with a raise to 360 from early position, then vince vegas reraised to 960 behind. It folded back around to Str8$$$Homey who called.

The flop came [9s][8d][Qd]. Str8$$$Homey checked, vince vegas continued for 1,560, and Str8$$$Homey skedaddled. Str8$$$Homey now has 23,975, while vince vegas is hovering just below the top ten with 54,927.

7:18pm--New Main Event champ to be crowned

On ckingusc's table Zak0707 raised to 300 with the blinds at 50/100 as ckingusc flat called as did both blinds xaroCjes and PureCash25 to see the [3s] [8s] [Kd] flop. Both blinds checked their option as Zak0707 bet 1,000 chips and ckingusc pushed his depleted stack of 6,620 in the middle.

Zak0707 was then check-raised by xaroCjes all in for 14,080. Zak0707 didn't like the hand much anymore and folded as xaroCjes exposes big slick [Ks] [Ac] and ckingusc had the nut flush draw [As] [Qs]. The defending champ had to watch the board brick out [8c] on the turn and [Kh] river and finished the event in 2031st place.

7:13pm--romashka55 rises, Danzer down... and out

Team PokerStars Pro George Danzer kept mixing it up through the first four levels, and as Level 5 began found himself back down to 16,790 when the following hand took place.

zivziv raised to 300 from middle position, th9nip called, then romashka55 reraised to 1700 from the button. Danzer repopped it to 5,250 from the small blind, and it folded back around to romashka55 who shoved all in. Danzer called with his remaining chips.

GeorgeDanzer: [Qh][Ah]
romashka55: [Ks][Kd]

The board came [5c][8d][9d][8c][4c], and Danzer is an early casualty, out in 2,026th place. romashka55 now has 33,925.

7:08pm--Not something you see every day

Out on Team PokerStars Pro Noah Boeken's Table #199 is something this author hasn't seen at PokerStars before. bluffblocker is one of the few Supernova Elite which a player earns by acquiring one million VPPs in a calendar year which opens to prizes such as free entries into live events and... the WCOOP Main Event. bluffblocker is currently at 20,151 chips and winning $1.7 in a freeroll wouldn't be half bad now would it?

7:01pm--Chip counts at two-hour mark

Level 5
Blinds 60/120, antes 15
Players remaining: 2,040 (of 2,144 entered)
Average chip count: 21,019
First prize: $1,715,200

1. MaxErosAmore -- 67,455
2. bbs99 -- 67,401
3. vince vegas -- 65,020
4. dps813 -- 64,248
5. troyones -- 57,694
6. MrKGBoreoman -- 55,060
7. hoops4me7 -- 53,360
8. ramilpokerst -- 52,683
9. irishcurve86 -- 48,034
10. MONSTER_DONG -- 47,833

26. Friend of Team PokerStars Orel Hershiser -- 43,012
57. Team PokerStars pro Chad Brown -- 38,252

6:57pm--Early innings strong for Hershiser

Friend of Team PokerStars Orel Hershiser has been building up nicely here in the early going, more than doubling his starting stack. Just now, with the blinds 40/80, he opened with a huge raise to 640 and got a caller in diablo17172 from the button and stessse from the big blind.

The flop came [2s][5h][Ac]. It checked to Hershiser who bet 960, and only stesse called. Both checked the [Ah] turn. The river then brought the [5d]. stessse checked, Hershiser again bet 960, and stessse called.

Hershiser showed [Kh][Ks] for kings and aces, and stessse mucked. A few hands after that one, the former Cy Young Award winner was up over 44,000.

6:48pm--Seed planted a cooler

Watch below as Supernova Seed85 take a huge pot of Zak0707 when both of them make a hand on the [Qd] [Td] [4s] flop:

And with the set over set Seed85 doubled up to over 47K as Zak0707 slid back to 33K in chips.

6:35pm--Chatting with Chan

Terrence "Unassigned" Chan, who followed up his stunning two-bracelets-in-one-day performance at last spring's SCOOP event with yet another victory in the 2009 WCOOP Event #39 ($1,050 6-max. LHE), took a seat in this one late in Level 2. Soon after his arrival came this exhange with a tablemate:

TheMatadorCC said, "unassigned, thoughts on other chans?"
Unassigned said, "there are others?"
TheMatadorCC said, "how was being in rounders?"
Unassigned said, "it was good, except they cut out my love scene with famke janssen"
TheMatadorCC said, "ah unlucky"
TheMatadorCC said, "what did you have against mike, did you just think he was a stupid tourist?
Unassigned said, "actually it was just that i got paged by my relaxation therapist and had to go"
TheMatadorCC said, "oh i see"

A railbird tried to inform everyone at the table TheMatadorCC was thinking of Johnny, not Terrence, but it seemed clear everyone understood the joke.

The joking quickly ended, though, when Chan found himself was involved in this big hand versus simmsux which resulted in Chan -- a.k.a. "Unassigned" -- losing nearly half his stack. Take a look:

6:31pm--Defending champ takes a hit
Zak0707 opened for 240 with the blinds at 40/80 as ckingusc and ffplaya22 came along for the [9s] [7h] [4s] flop. Zak0707 led out for 650 chips as ckingusc flat called while ffplaya22 took a phone call. On the [9h] turn Zak0707 increased to a 2,000 chip bet as ckingusc covered and pushed Zak0707 all-in minus 50 chips. Zak0707 would call all-in exposing [7s] [7d] for the turned boat while ckingusc held [8h] [6h] for the turned open ended straight flush draw.

The two outs did not hit on the [8s] river as Zak0707 doubled up with the 18,880 chip pot and the defending champ went down to 10,370 chips.

6:25pm--Bloggers = Coolers

All was fine until they broke down the table Joep van den Bijgaart (WSOP interview found here) was at, then looked up to see he finished in 2089th place. Maybe next year will be luckier for the new Holland pro.

6:16pm--Team Holland Represents, Bijgaart over the starting stack

Newly anointed Team PokerStars Pro Holland Joep van den Bijgaart also known as "Pappe_Ruk" is currently sitting on 22,560 as the first break hit. Shown below at the WSOP this summer is looking to improve on the final table he had at the $1,500 Limit Hold Em' Shootout event and to get more people to be able to pronounce his name correctly.

6:11pm--What would you do?

With the prize pool having been settled, players over at Table 19 are discussing that gawdy first prize of $1,715,200:

T1ckT0ck said, "what would you guys do with 1.7mill?"
Markush13 said, "lol"
WhatArunAA said, "put it with the rest"
Markush13 said, "+1"
Markush13 said, " "
rsxpunk said, "buy a rocket car"
rsxpunk said, "and a golden house"
T1ckT0ck said, "i'd go buy me some gum"
T1ckT0ck said, "cause my breath smells like onions"
T1ckT0ck said, "just had a fajita"
T1ckT0ck said, "then donate the rest"
WhatArunAA said, "id donate it all to church"
T1ckT0ck said, "yeah"
WhatArunAA said, "for god gave me the opportunity"
T1ckT0ck said, "church and breast cancer"
Markush13 said, "ty"
WhatArunAA said, "so he deserves it all"
T1ckT0ck said, "my auntie is a breast cancer victim"
T1ckT0ck said, "so i wanna donate $ towards those charities"
T1ckT0ck said, "church"
T1ckT0ck said, "and rest to my families who are all in debt =\"

6:08pm--The Numbers

With registration having closed with 2,144 entrants, the prize pool totals a new online poker tourney record of $10,720,000. The top 306 finishers will be making the money in this historic event.

Here's how the payouts are scheduled to go at the final table:

1st -- $1,715,200
2nd -- $1,286,400
3rd -- $933,712
4th -- $643,200
5th -- $482,400
6th -- $375,200
7th -- $268,000
8th -- $182,240
9th -- $96,480

6:00pm--Chip counts at one-hour mark (first break of Day 1)

Level 3
Blinds 40/80
Players remaining: 2,112 (of 2,144 entered)
Average chip count: 20,303

Our chip leaders are all hovering at around the 50,000-chip mark at the moment. We'll get you top ten counts starting with the next break. Meanwhile, here are how some Team PokerStars people are faring in the early going:

37. Team PokerStars pro Angel Guillen -- 35,885
42. Friend of Team PokerStars Orel Hershiser -- 34,795
44. Team PokerStars pro Chad Brown -- 34,522

5:55pm--Chad Brown putting on pressure, earns a decent pot

"<" swam in a 180 raise from UTG as Chad Brown and Cruzecontrol called but jakoon1985 in the small blind three-bet to 1020 as both "<" and Chad Brown made the call to see the [5c] [4d] [3c] flop. jakoon1985 followed through with a 1,875 bet as "<" found other waters but Brown made the call. On the [As] turn jakoon1985 checked as Brown bet 3,120.

[Kd] on the river and jakoon1985 checked again to Brown as he bet 4,080 which jakoon1985 gave up the 13,290 chip pot as Brown moved up to 28,117 in chips.

5:52pm--T1ckT0ck's timing off in hand with Eastgate

Player T1ckT0ck opened with a raise to 155 from the cutoff, and Team PokerStars Pro Peter Eastgate called from the button. The flop came [2d][2h][9h]. T1ckT0ck bet 175, then Eastgate raised to 600. T1ckT0ck paused a beat, then reraised to 1,400. Eastgate then promptly raised again to 2,940 total. T1ckT0ck again paused, then put in yet another raise -- this time to 4,800. Eastgate called.

The turn was the [Kh]. T1ckT0ck checked, and Eastgate quickly fired 4,000 into the middle, leaving himself about 6,000 behind. T1ckT0ck made the call.

The river was the [Td]. T1ckT0ck again checked, and this time Eastgate bet just 2,000. T1ckT0ck called, showing [9d][Jh] for nines and deuces. Eastgate showed [Th][7h], and claimed the pot.

The defending WSOP Main Event champ now has 26,350, while T1ckT0ck slips to 12,490.

5:43pm--A tiny Danzer pot

Team PokerStars pro George Danzer, winner of Event #19 ($320+R PLO), has started out the day his usual aggressive self, open-raising several pots each orbit as he starts to build his stack.

Just now, after zivziv limped in for 60 from early position, Danzer raised once again to 180, and all folded but zivziv. The flop came [Js][6c][Ac]. zivziv checked, Danzer bet 300, and zivziv called. Both players then checked the [4s] turn and [9h] river.

zivziv showed [6d][6s] for a set of sixes and Danzer mucked, having lost only a piddling amount on the hand. Danzer sits with just under 24,000 at the moment.

5:40pm--Easy as 1-2-3-4 ElkY chips up

ElkY snags an early pot after three-betting fumbo420 to 567 from the big blind as fumbo flat called behind. ElkY bet 678 on the [6c] [Kd] [Kh] flop as fumbo420 raised to 1,380 as ElkY elected to call. Both checked the [6h] on the turn, but fumbo420 took leave from the hand when ElkY bet 1,234 on the river [3h] and raked in the 3,924 chip pot to move up to 21,640 in chips.

5:32pm--New and improved prize pool

And there it is, $10 million guarantee has been met as we stand at nearly 2,100 players with late registration still available to replace the 34 players we've already lost. Its almost certain that the 2,185 record will be broken, stay tuned.

5:29pm--g0lfa misses the green, loses one to Levy

Ryan "g0lfa" D'Angelo has earned himself two WCOOP bracelets this year, taking down both Event #18 ($320 8-game mix) and Event #29 ($320 PLH/PLO). Today D'Angelo finds himself at Team PokerStars Pro Grant Levy's table, and just now was involved in a relatively big hand with the Australian.

The hand began with xoxol73 opening with a raise to 150 from UTG, then Levy reraising to 450 from the next seat. It folded around to g0lfa who reraised again to 1,150 from the cutoff. All got out of the way except for Levy who made the call.

The flop came [8s][5d][3s]. Levy checked, g0lfa bet 1,450, and Levy called. The turn brought the [Ks]. Levy checked again, g0lfa bet 2,840, and Levy called once more.

The river was the [As], prompting a bet of 6,650 from Levy. "you prolly have the QQ with the spades," typed g0lfa on seeing the fourth spade hit the board. "std" (standard), he added. g0lfa spent a solid 60 seconds of his time bank before letting the hand go.

Levy chips up to 27,515 after that one, while D'Angelo now has 13,856.

5:25pm-- Beware of aces and defending champs

Defending WCOOP Main Event champion ckingusc is out on Table 28 after scoring his first of the 2009 WCOOP Main Event ckingusc got involved with ffplaya22 two hands later. ffplaya22 raised to 150 from UTG as it was folded around to ckingusc in the big blind who made the call. [3c] [4s] [Ts] on the flop got a check from ckingusc and 250 chip bet from ffplaya22. ckingusc made the call to see the [6s] on the turn and both put on the breaks and checked for the [Kc] on the river. ckingusc made a 500 chip bet which was called by ffplaya22 who turned up [Ah][Ad] blowing away the [Qs][Td] held by the champ for the small 1,825 chip pot.

5:19pm--Jovial Gent shows logikon the door

With the blinds 25/50, logikon opened with a preflop raise to 200 from middle position and was called by ghost crab on the button and Jovial Gent in the big blind. The flop came [2c][7h][Td]. Jovial Gent checked, logikon bet 250, and ghost crab folded. Jovial Gent then check-raised the minimum to 500, and logikon called. The turn was the [Ah].

Jovial Gent again checked, and this time logikon bet 2,100. Jovial Gent again check-raised -- to 6,300 this time -- and logikon called.

The river brought the [Qs] and an all-in push from Jovial Gent. logikon made the call, turning over [As][Kc] for top pair-top kicker. But Jovial Gent had [7d][7c] for a set of sevens, and logikon became another of our early exits.

5:15pm-- Gavin Griffin and Chad Brown set to do battle
Two Team PokerStars Pros are out on Table 135, WCOOP bracelet holder (2006 HORSE) Chad Brown and poker's "Triple Crown" winner Gavin Griffin displaying his VIP Supernova stars are out at Table 135 all set for the long haul with blinds starting at 25/50 and 20,000 chips. They are joined by a < but we'll reserve judgement on < 's play for later.

5:08pm--More than $1K per minute!

20,000 chips gone in a flash!

Louis Dubois opened with a raise to 180 from early position and got two callers, including purjo1. The flop came [9h][Tc][5s]. Dubois continued with a bet of 400, purjo1 raised to 1,200, the third player got out, and Louis Dubois called.

The turn was the [4c]. This time Louis Dubois checked, purjo1 bet 4,150, Louis Dubois check-raised to 8,300, purjo1 pushed all in for 18,620 total, and Louis Dubois -- whom was barely covered -- made the call.

Louis Dubois showed [9d][9s] for a set of nines, but purjo1 had [Th][Td] for the better flopped set. The river was the [8s], and Louis Dubois is quickly done.

5:05pm-- Five minutes in 1,900 signed up
Hundred players away from the $10 million prize pool and 285 away from the eclipsing last year's mark of 2,185 runners. Unfortunately for danylaroo2, BOLLPOKER, Louis Dubois, and gunning4you they will not be allowed to rebuy as they've already busted.

4:57pm--Newly minted WCOOP Bracelet Holders in the field

Two Team PokerStars Pros snagged bracelets from this year's record breaking 45 event schedule. Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier (Event #38 champ, write up shown here) and George Danzer (Event #19, winner's interview link here)

4:51pm--1,700 and counting

We're keeping an eye on the total number of entrants for today's $5,000 + $200 buy-in event. A total of 2,000 runners will be needed to match the $10 million guarantee. At the moment 1,700 have registered, but that number will surely climb as we approach the first hands, and registration will remain open for another hour after that.

Last year's Main Event drew 2,185 entrants, creating what was at the time the largest-ever prize pool for an online tournament of $10,925,000. Stay tuned to see if this year's WCOOP Main Event sets a new standard.

4:25pm--2009 WCOOP Main Event set to begin

The World Championship of Online Poker is ready to begin in just about half an hour. Stick with us for the most comprehensive coverage of the event from beginning to end.

He was gracious enough to send us some of his thoughts following his recent win in the 2009 WCOOP Event #38.

by Betrand "ElkY" Grospellier

The WCOOP events have always been my favorite online tournaments, and it keeps getting better and better every year.

My favorite part is definitely the great structures, but the guarantees are also amazing and so many satellites run on PokerStars that anyone gets a chance to participate. That is a great thing.

Last year I had an amazing WCOOP series, but ultimately I can never be really satisfied without a title. That's what I live for. I would easily trade 20 final tables for one single win. because the feeling is just incomparable. When you make the final table and you played well all tournament, you can't regret anything and it's nice, but winning it all is just so different.

You can just imagine how thrilled I was to finally win that WCOOP bracelet after five years of playing in the series. It was such a tough tournament, too; I was only a few cards away from elimination a couple of times and the final three tables were filled with all the greatest online players.

When we got to the final table, even though I'd been playing for 13 hours, I could feel it was finally my time in the WCOOP. The adrenaline was pumping so much that I didn't even feel tired. After I won I was exhausted, but at the same time so excited that I still couldn't sleep for the next six hours!

It also meant a lot to me because these days I don't have the chance to play online quite as much due to my very busy live tournament schedule. I'm very proud I was able to accomplish that feat of defeating 1100+ players once again in a tournament, and to come back where it all began for me--multi0tabling on PokerStars.

Now I gotta be ready and prepare because WCOOP is far from over, the WCOOP main event is my favorite online tournament of the year and I'm so ready to play my best once again. I hope to see all of you there,

Good Luck !

ElkY is a member of Team PokerStars and has won just about everything you could ever imagine.

natronjoe123 and umbrillo definitely set the tone for the lengthy night as they battled heads up for several hours getting into the round of 256 causing every remaining contestant to flood their chat box with ahem... "encouragement" to end their epic heads-up battle and rise to the money chop off level. natronjoe123 was all-in twice only to pull out a win against umbrillo's superior preflop hand and the railbirds were left with more "encouragement" to speed along their fun as it reached the 500/1,000 blind levels when they started with just 15K each fold was met with contempt from the crowd as finally umbrillo rivered a deuce to six straight all-in preflop to get the tournament rolling forward to the round of 256 and one step closer to the money.

In the round of 256 it was internet sensation Shaun "shaundeeb" Deeb working against the Wall-e icon'd Percussion in a lengthy battle to determine who was walking away tonight with some cash and who just paid $530 for a long heads-up Pot Limit Omaha tutorial. After being down late in most of the match, the stalwart of the tournament leader board pulled out a victory and advanced into the money and the round of 128. In the last heads-up match, Danny "THE__D__RY" Ryan was battling for the final spot in the round of 128 and the $526.00 guaranteed cash that came with it. Ryan would get his shortened stack in with [Qs] [Qh] [6d] [6h] against house_advntg's [2s] [Ks] [Kd] [8s] but couldn't hit the set or heart flush on the [4c] [9c] [8c] [4h] [5c] to become tonight's bubble boy as 128 players rejoiced to their new found cash.

The lone Team PokerStars Pro in the money was Humberto Brenes fell in the round of 64 (56th place) collecting $1,052.00 for the night.

As the tournament rolled on to the final sweet sixteen, players like 2007 WCOOP Main Event fifth place finisher AB_illusive hung on to their seats with cooler hands like the one below that eliminated ChanceCU in 15th place:

The hand would end with flopped quads for AB_illusive, and the very unfortunate rivered nut full house for ChanceCU. The victim stood little chance of walking away from that boat and couldn't as ChanceCU lost the hand and settled for ninth to sixteenth place money ($2,893.00). In other sweet sixteen action, GambleAB, who already had two final tables in the 2009 WCOOP series (Seventh in Event #4 and Sixth in Event #20), took on Joker$OnYou and advanced to the final eight after hour number sixteen ticked off the tournament clock leaving just VIP Goldstar robert07 and rkruok's match to determine who would advance to the pay jump to $8,153.00 for making the elite eight. robert07 earned the ticket with a rivered straight against rkruok's flopped set of eights sending rkruok out in ninth place ($2,893.00).

After grinding it out for almost 17 hours three of the four final eight matches lasted less than ten minutes as the players continued to enjoy extremely deep stacks starting with 960,000 chips and 1,280/2,560 blinds and 15 minute levels. AB_illusive made short work of well-known young gun Andy McLEOD silencing the Australian after knocking him down to 213,467 chips when both would push their chips in preflop as AB_illusive's aces [Ad] [5c] [Qh] [Ac] would hold on the [3c] [Js] [6s] [4c] [Td] board against the kings [Kc] [7h] [Ks] [Ts] of Andy McLEOD sending the SCOOP Event #11 and 2008 WCOOP Event #16 (in PLO no less) champion home in eighth place ($8,153.00). GambleAB and hartwith joined AB_illusive quickly in the final four as all glazed over tournament eyes moved to the robert07 versus Scary_Tiger match...

... and those eyes would stay there for nearly two hours as Scary_Tiger maintained the chip advantage over robert07 for the most part. After being all-in and facing a set of eights, robert07 would turn a flush taking a sizable 1.4 million chip pot. With the blinds at 6,400/12,800 and a now 3:1 chip lead robert07 would lean on his opponent until Scary_Tiger was left with a 1.6 million to 200K chip deficit facing a bet that put him all-in on a [Td] [5d] [6s] flop. Scary_Tiger would make the call holding a pair of kings [Kd] [Ks] [9s] [3c] as robert07 flipped up [6h] [9d] [Js] [Th] for two pair. The board would blank out [7h] and [4c] for Scary_Tiger as the predator was tamed in fifth place ($8,153.00) setting up the semifinals.

Semifinals 1: robert07 vs. GambleAB

Much like the GambleAB's quarterfinals match this was of the blink-and-you-missed-it variety. The two players started with very deep stacks (1.92 million chips) and blinds (2,560/5,120) but that did nothing to prevent the match from concluding in seven hands. The first big swipe came from robert07 on hand number four after calling a raise from GambleAB on the button the two would view the [4s][Kd][3c] flop. robert07 would check as GambleAB followed through with a 25,600 chip bet and faced a check-raise to 92,160. GambleAB made the call to see the [Th] turn as robert07 this time led out for 155,120 and it was GambleAB who became the aggressor with a raise to 399,360. But, robert07 flat called to see the [Jc] river and led out again for a pot-sized bet that GambleAB couldn't find a call as robert07 took a 2.6 million to 1.1 million chip lead.

In the decisive hand GambleAB would start off with a three-bet preflop as robert07 made the call. Watch the chips fly into the middle after flop in the video below:

robert07's flopped set of fours holding [2h] [5s] [4s] [4h] would fade the club flush draw of GambleAB's [5h] [3h] [Qc] [5c] on the [4c] [3c] [8h] [Td] [Js] board as GambleAB notched his third deep run at this year's WCOOP taking fourth place ($15,780.00).

Semifinals 2: AB_illusive vs. hartwith

As with the quarterfinal matches, one match lasted about the time it takes to eat an Oreo cookie while the other lasted a few packages worth (while dunking them in milk of course). AB_illusive would start this match off red hot winning the first nine hands in a row in taking a slight 2.2 million to 1.5 million chip lead. hartwith would score the first major pot of the match three betting to 1.3 million on the river with the board showing [Kh] [2h] [Js] [5h] [Qd] and AB_illusive was forced to concede the 1.9 million chip pot. AB_illusive would come back while being down 2.7 million to 1.1 million after doubling up on this hand below:

The rivered full house overcoming hartwith's turned flush and higher kicker with trips meant AB_illusive was back in business taking a 2.2 million to 1.6 million chip lead. AB_illusive would extend that lead about twenty hands later after rivering a flush and getting hartwith to pay off a sizable 303,000 chip value bet for a one million chip pot. Three hands later AB_illusive would end the match after calling a three-bet from hartwith with the blinds at 5,120/10,240 to see the [3c] [4s] [8s] flop. Both would check as the [Th] on the turn got them both excited. hartwith would lead out for 102,400 as AB_illusive came over the top with a pot bet to 430,080 and hartwith would four-bet all-in to 838,997 as AB_illusive made the call showing [4h] [Jh] [6d] [Td] for a turned two pair versus the [Qh] [7c] [8d] [Qd] queens of hartwith. [9h] on the river meant the end of a very long night for hartwith in third place ($15,780.00).

Finals: AB_illusive vs. robert07

Players again started with massive stacks (3.84 million) and the small blinds starting at 5,120/10,240 to allow these nocturnal players plenty of play after battling to get to the bracelet match for over 19 hours.

In hands twelve and thirteen the two would trade million chip pots as AB_illusive carved out an early 4.2 million to 3.4 million chip lead. The pot sizes stayed relatively small moving into the 7,680/15,360 blind level until robert07 extracted a 460,080 chip value bet from AB_illusive and 1.4 million chip pot after rivering a full house holding [6d] [5s] [Qs] [4c] on a [4s] [9s] [2c] [Qc] [Qh] board as all AB_illusive could do was muck and watch robert07 take the lead 4.9 million to 2.7 million.

At the twenty hour mark robert07 was still in the lead 4.9 million to 2.7 million as the blinds moved up to 10,240/20,480 but AB_illusive started to gain some traction with several unanswered three-bets, winning 11 of 12 pots in the process and closing the lead to 4.7 million to 2.9 million.

After the five minute break and blinds being bumped to 12,800/25,600 here's how robert07's lead looked:

Seat 1: AB_illusive (2508279 in chips)
Seat 2: robert07 (5171721 in chips)

A little spark for AB_illusive came after the blinds were bumped again 15 minutes later to 15,360/30,720 winning eight of nine pots and ending with an all-in preflop shove by both players holding aces. robert07 was suited in spades and sure enough two spades would hit the flop, but no more appeared and the chips went back to their owners as AB_illusive carved out a 4.2 million to 3.4 million chip lead.

That lead would hold until this hand where AB_illusive tried to find a river fold but couldn't:

The pivotal cooler finally came in the form of turned quads for robert07 [7d] [7h] [Qh] [6d] and rivered full house for AB_illusive [3s] [8c] [9s] [Jc] on the [9h] [Jd] [7c] [7s] [9c] board as both players got it all in on the river as AB_illusive took his time before ultimately calling the three-bet shove by robert07 and lost the 7.1 million chip pot.

Down to 575,118 chips after the huge cooler, AB_illusive would take one pot worth 426K but six hands later both players would commit their stack to a [8s] [5d] [Ks] flop . AB_illusive was holding the nut flush draw and a pair of fives [As] [6h] [9s] [5s] as robert07 made a quick call with pocket queens and the queen-hi flush draw [Qs] [Ad] [Qc] [2s]. The spades missed again as the [Kc] turn and [2d] river handed the well-earned WCOOP Event #41 bracelet and $52,600.00 first prize to robert07 after a staggering 20 hours and 48 minutes of play. Ironman AB_illusive deserves props for the aggressive play and almost walking away with the bracelet but took home $26,300.00 as the runner-up.

Once the video and crew take a quick nap, you'll see the event recaps at PokerStars.TV as well as the WCOOP main page as we gear up for tonight's live blogging of the WCOOP $5,200 buy-in Main Event with a $10 million guarantee. Also on tap today is the high roller $10,300 H.O.R.S.E. tourney.

WCOOP Event #41 $250,000 Guarantee $530 Pot Limit Omaha Heads-up Match Play
1. robert07 (Henderson) $52,600.00
2. AB_illusive (Koebenhavn K) $26,300.00
3. hartwith (Uckfield) $15,780.00
4. GambleAB (Las Vegas) $15,780.00
5. Scary_Tiger (Northborough) $8,153.00
6. WhySoSerius7 (Groningen) $8,153.00
7. tallgeir (Bergen) $8,153.00
8. Andy McLEOD (Adelaide) $8,153.00

Just about any city without a casino has a list of people willing to host poker games for a cut of the action, and unlike Vegas, it's not 10% up to $4. It's not uncommon to find games (even small games) where $20 gets raked out of every pot.

It was just that kind of highway robbery that led one of our newest WCOOP winners to where he is today.

"In my previous hometown, the live poker was all underground games with extremely large rake," Brent "Astrolux85" Roberts told us recently.

The 24-year-old college graduate went from that environment to playing live and online where he has since turned himself into a successful professional poker player, and a pretty wealthy one. Just a few days back, Roberts won $210,000 in 2009 WCOOP WCOOP Event #36.

"It was extremely exciting," he said. "It has been a very long time since my last big online MTT final table. These chances don't come everyday, so I wanted to make the best of it, of course."

Roberts' WCOOP win almost matches his biggest single win ever. Less than a year go, Roberts won the WSOP Circuit event at Harrah's in Atlantic City for $285,000. He currently has more than $800,000 in live winnings to go along with his untold number of online cashes.

"I learned poker by discussing strategy with friends. Having two poker playing college roommates when I was a senior in college is when it really clicked, regardless of having prior success," he said.

With a WSOP circuit ring and WCOOP bracelet in his trophy case, it's now on to winning a WSOP bracelet.

"Piece of cake," he said.

That's exactly what happened to Chris "PiMaster" Viox when he entered the WCOOP $215 WCOOP NLO8 event a couple of days ago. He ended up right across the ethereal table from Barry Greenstein.

"Which is kind of ironic," Viox said, "because his last bracelet at the WSOP in Razz in 2008? I final tabled it with him."

Viox went on to take third and watch Greenstein win the bracelet. When they met in WCOOP, the results would be different. Greenstein finished in 19th and Viox walked away with a WCOOP bracelet.

"It was a huge relief because I had been in the midst of a long stretch where I just couldn't get anything going," he said after the win.

Viox, a 33-year-old married father of two from Illinois, is a full time poker player who uses his spare time to invest money for friends and family. In just the past few years, he's won nearly $400,000 in the live poker world, not to mention no small amount of cash online.

"[The WCOOP win] is my second largest score behind a 3rd place in the Sunday Million on Stars for $85,000. I have four or five live scores better than this," he said.

After that third place Razz finish back at the WSOP in 2008, Viox hasn't run incredibly well. Now, with a big WCOOP win, he once again is starting to feel good.

"I am just trying to get things going more consistently in the right direction," he said. "I've been about even since the 2008 WSOP. So, this is a nice step forward."

245 players got their 8-Game on, creating a $490,000 prize pool. 36 places were paid with first place set to earn $107,800. Team PokerStars Pro had a strong contingent in the field including Jan Heitmann, Juan Maceiras, Greg Raymer, Andre Akkari, Gavin Griffin, George Danzer, Ivan Demidov, Jose Ignacio Barbero, Barry Greenstein, Noah Boeken, Chris Moneymaker, Katja Thater, Daniel Negreanu, and Ylon Schwartz. Making deep runs were Chad Brown, who finished 25th and Joe Hachem who was eliminated right behind him in 24th place.

This final table was loaded down with familiar screen names, even before some of our players revealed their true identities. For plattsburgh, this was his third final table of the 2009 WCOOP, and his second with grampabumkin in the lineup, as the two played together in the final of Event #2, $215 Razz where plattsburgh finished second and grampabumkin fourth. This marked the fourth WCOOP cash for joiso, the third for luetch1, and the second for RugDoctor.

Here's a look at the chip counts for the final six as the action got underway:

Seat 1: luetch1 (342,575 in chips)
Seat 2: Matt "plattsburgh" Vengrin (595,283 in chips)
Seat 3: David "RugDoctor" Williams (279,184 in chips)
Seat 4: Van "Sirens" Marcus (549,447 in chips)
Seat 5: Alexander "joiso" Kostritsyn (372,938 in chips)
Seat 6: grampabumkin (310,573 in chips)

Grampabumkin was the first player to depart the final table. Playing no-limit hold'em with 2,500-5,000/625 blinds, joiso opened for 12,000, grampabumkin three-bet to 25,000 and joiso called. Joiso led out for 28,800 on the [Td][7d][5d] flop and grampabumkin called. The turn came the [6s], joinso firing again for 72,200. Grampabumkin moved all in for 236,948 and joiso made the call, turning over [7h][7c] for a set, snapping off grampabumkin's [Ac][Ah]. The [5c] on the river made joiso sevens full and he raked in the nearly 593,000 pot, sending grampabumkin to the rail in sixth place for $19,600.

Only a few hands later, another huge no-limit hold'em pot developed after a pre-flop raising war broke out that ended with luetch1 all in with [As][Kh] against plattsburgh's [3c][3d]. Luetch1 won the race, the board running out [Ad][Tc][4h][8d][9h] to double him up to 523,000. Plattsburgh's stack sunk to 205,000.

Plattsburgh was unfortunately unable to recover from that hand, getting the rest of his chips in before the flop holding [As][Ks] against RugDoctor's pocket fives. Plattsburgh couldn't get any help on the [Qs][Th][2d][Tc][4d] board and ended his run in fifth place for a $29,400 score.

As the game switched from no-limit hold'em to pot-limit Omaha, luetch1 decided to get in there and gamble. After joiso opened for 15,000, luetch1 three-bet to 45,000 and joiso made the call. Luetch1 checked the [Tc][8h][7h] flop over to joiso, who bet 54,000, then came in for a raise for the rest of his chips, 225,975 in all. Joiso made the call, turning over [As][9h][8d][6d] for a ten-high straight while luetch1 had an overpair with [Kh][Qh][Qc][6c]. Though the [Qd] on the turn made luetch1 a set, he couldn't pair the board on the river, the [Jd] falling to make joiso a queen-high straight. Luetch1 exited in fourth place, collecting $39,200.

Following luetch1's eliminations, our three remaining players finally figured out each others' identities:

RugDoctor said, "joio are you AC?"
joiso said, "whats that"
RugDoctor said, "AK i mean"
RugDoctor said, "alex"
joiso said, "y"
joiso said, "who are u"
RugDoctor said, "hi"
RugDoctor said, "david"
RugDoctor said, "williams"
joiso said, "oh sirrr"
joiso said, "hey"
Sirens said, "rug are u david williams lol"
joiso said, "u told it just to make me call u down?"
RugDoctor said, "plo 10k event"
Sirens said, "cool mate"
RugDoctor said, "me u and nenad"
Sirens said, "hahaahha"
Sirens said, "yeah"

Sirens had a disastrous round of 2-7 triple draw, losing more than two-thirds of his stack as he went from a high-water mark of over 600,000 to only 170,000. As the game switched over to limit hold'em, Sirens tried to make something happen in this hand against RugDoctor, but ended up losing half of his remaining chips:

Sirens was eliminated on the very next hand, after capping the betting against joiso. The flop came down [Kc][Td][5c] and the rest of Sirens' stack went in, joiso making the call. Sirens turned up [7s][7d] while joiso was on an open-ended straight draw with [Qd][Jc]. The [Qh] hit the turn, making joiso a pair of queens and the river was the [Kh], sending Sirens to the rail in third place. For a hard-fought day of poker he earned $56,350.

Joiso had a slight chip lead over RugDoctor as heads-up play commenced:

Seat 3: RugDoctor (1,097,084 in chips)
Seat 5: joiso (1,352,916 in chips)

The two chopped out small pots for the rest of the limit hold'em round, before the chips really started moving around in Omaha Hi/Lo. RugDoctor began pulling away after a successful stretch where he won nine out of ten pots, including three huge scoops in a row. First, he rivered a king-high straight on a board where there was no possible low to rake in a 384,000 pot, then hit an ace-high flush and a 8-7 low on the next hand to pick up another 224,000. Then, one hand after that, joiso was forced to fold on the river in this hand, after missing all his draws:

Joiso couldn't help but bemoan his luck.

joiso said, ";) i have sirens syndrom"
joiso said, "wrap+FD+pair"
RugDoctor said, "he ran awful"
RugDoctor said, "in 2-7"

Joiso's stack continued to shrink, falling as low as 314,000 to RugDoctor's 2.13 million before he regained some momentum in the razz round. Joiso had chipped up to 506,000 before a monster pot unfolded, joiso bringing it in with the [7c] and RugDoctor completing with the [5s]. Joiso raised, RugDoctor three-bet and joiso called.

joiso (X) (X) [7c][8d][5h][2c] (X)
RugDoctor (X) (X) [5s][6s][8c][3d] (X)

RugDoctor led out on fourth street and joiso called. RugDoctor led again on fifth, joiso raised, and RugDoctor called. Sixth street brough another bet from RugDoctor, a raise from joiso, and a call. RugDoctor check-called one more bet on seventh street before joiso showed down [Ah][4s][Ts] in the hole for a 7-5-4-2-A low to take down the 454,000 pot.

By the end of the razz round, joiso was back in this thing with over a million in chips, but RugDoctor would go on another run as the game switched over to seven-card stud, winning sixteen out of twenty hands, including eleven consecutive pots to take joiso back down to 356,000 in chips.

Joiso was crippled after this stud hand, which began with him bringing it in with the [4c]. RugDoctor completed, joiso raised and RugDoctor made the call.

joiso ([Kh]) ([Kd]) [4c][6d][4h][5c] ([2s])
RugDoctor ([8d]) ([8s]) [Qh][Ks][8c][Qs] ([Ts])

RugDoctor lead out on fourth street with the high board and joiso called. Joiso took the lead and bet out after making an open pair of fours on fifth street. RugDoctor raised, joiso reraised and RugDoctor called. RugDoctor led out on both sixth and seventh streets, joiso calling him down. The eight on fifth made RugDoctor a set and the queen on sixth filled him up, running down joiso's two pair kings and fours.

On the next hand, joiso got his remaining 122,000 in chips in the middle on fourth street and RugDoctor made the call.

joiso ([8h]) ([7h]) [Jh][Tc][Qd][9h] ([6d])
RugDoctor ([3s]) ([2d]) [As][5s][9c][Ts] ([8s])

Though joiso made a queen-high straight on sixth street, RugDoctor hit a flush on the river to take down the pot and claim his first WCOOP bracelet along with $107,800. For his runner-up finish, joiso earned $75,215.

WCOOP Event #42 ($2,100 8-Game) Results

1. David "RugDoctor" Williams $107,800.00
2. Alexander "joiso' Kostritsyn $75,215.00
3. Van "Sirens" Marcus $56,350.00
4. luetch1 $39,200.00
5. Matt "plattsburgh" Vengrin $29,400.00
6. grampabumkin $19,600.00

Grampabumkin and plattsburgh aren't the only players making it to multiple WCOOP final tables. Check out the WCOOP page to see how your favorite players are stacking up. If you missed any of the action in this event or any of the 41 before it, head over to PokerStars.tv for replays and highlights.