Monday saw thousands of tournament hopefuls in action at PokerStars for the ongoing 2008 World Championship of Online Poker, every one of them dreaming of adding their name to the growing list of winners in the world's longest-running online poker tournament series.

By early Tuesday morning, three of them had claimed their places in the WCOOP history books.

Event 6: $530 NLHE

To start things off, 72 players returned for the second day of Event 6. They represented just one percent of the 7,351-strong field that had begun play on Sunday afternoon chasing a guaranteed $3 million in prize money.

That prize pool ended up being even larger, with a total of $3,675,500 being distributed among those who cashed.

The field was whittled down to just nine by about 9 p.m. ET, with Russia's solovka leading the field with 22,993,538 in chips. His nearest competitor was Calvin32 of the United States, and fittingly, the two would eliminate all the rest of their competitors to play heads-up.

solovka enjoyed a huge chip lead when the final matchup began, with $53,800,000 of the more than $73 million chips in play sitting in his stack.

Turning down repeated entreaties from Calvin32 to work out some sort of a deal, solovka proceeded to lose the chip lead over the course of almost 40 hands before the next break. Then he gained it back, gave it away, and gained it back again as the two engaged in a match that lasted over 200 hands.

In the end solovka would fall short, choosing to move all-in before the flop for $12,500,000 with K-J. He had the best hand going in, as Calvin32 called with Q-9, but the dream was over when the nine of diamonds showed up on the flop.

Place
Name
Prize
1st
Calvin32
$452,086.50
2nd
Solovka
$306,169.15
3rd
Roland_NL
$205,828
4th adonislee $169,073
5th
cassie13
$132,318
6th
DUBBZZ
$95,563
7th
randomcrayon
$64,321.25
8th
Yo Burger
$42,268.25
9th
Papio Papio
$25,728.50
Event 7: $215 PLO Six-Max

The early tournament for the day was a short-handed Pot-Limit Omaha event that drew 2,457 players.

Many of the Team PokerStars Pro contingent were on hand to take a shot at the $491,400 prize pool, including Bill Chen, Alex Kravechenko, Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier, Chad Brown, Gavin Griffin, Humberto Brenes, Isabelle Mercier, Vanessa Rousso and Victor Ramdin.

By the time the final table rolled around, though, there wasn't a pro to be found.

After three players had been eliminated, the remaining final three decided to make a deal based on chip equity that left $6,000 and the bracelet on the table. With that deal in place, the action was over almost before it began.

Mary 717 quickly knocked out Kev19 in third place to build what would prove to be an insurmountable 5-1 chip lead over mddgfc, encouraging her opponent to go ahead and gamble. In the end mddgfc's #Jd#Td#Ts#9h was in bad shape against Mary 717's #Ad#Ah#Qs#Tc, and the win was secured when her flopped broadway straight held up through the river.

Place
Name
Prize
1st
Mary 717
$71,730
2nd
mddgfc
$50,301
3rd
Kev19
$49,861
4th
HORERogHALM
$30,221.10
5th
rkruik
$12,481.56
6th
bearbeer123
$12,481.56
Event 8: $320 Eight-Game Mixed

Finishing off the schedule for the day was a new event on the WCOOP schedule, the Eight-Game Mixed. An impressive field of 1,128 players turned up, generating a prize pool of $338,400.

Players needed to bring their A-game to the table in this event, as every discipline in poker would be put to the test. The rotation of games changing every 10 minutes included five limit games (2-7 Triple Draw, Hold'em, Omaha Hi-Lo, Razz, Stud, Stud Hi-Lo) in addition to No-Limit Hold'em and Pot-Limit Omaha.

The chip stacks were close enough together when the final table began that after a few rotations there was talk of an even chop six ways. In the end, however, the players elected to let the chips fall where they would.

When heads-up play began Seitz333 held a lead of better than 3.5-1 over Ulett_23, but five levels - and five different games - leveled off the chip stacks to even. The two players then made a deal, leaving $4,000 and the WCOOP bracelet on the table for the winner. On the next level, Ulett_23 finally claimed victory during the 2-7 Triple Draw proceedings when his 8-7-6-3-2 conquered Seitz333's T-9-8-7-3.

Place
Name
Prize
1st
Ulett_23
$50,797.28 2nd
Seitz333
$46,797.28
3rd
Booster_JJ
$30,456
4th
osten
$23,688
5th
SC72A
$17,766
6th
Andrejkovics
$11,844

The WCOOP action continues today on PokerStars with two more events, the $215 four-max NLHE and the $215 Razz. As usual, we'll have full coverage for you here on PokerListings tomorrow.

In the meantime, poker fans can also head to PokerStars to play a little poker on their own as well.

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