The World Championship of Online Poker caught into full swing this weekend with the first two events of the series: $215 NLHE (6-max), and the $215 PL Five Card Draw.

Event #1:

$215 No Limit Hold Em' event gathered up a staggering 4,610 players for the initial event of this year's WCOOP. Starting at three o'clock eastern time on Friday, it took until almost nine o'clock the next day for samh133 to take home $155,561 (after a chop) and the second WCOOP bracelet awarded this year (see below why the first was the second...).

Here's PokerStarsBlog.com with the final table results:

Soon samh133 was ahead and comfortable in the heads up, a set of nines good for a 5 million pot from which WiLDmAn75 would never recover. He still had some fight left in him and as his name suggested it would not be a predictable amble into second place. But he still trailed by almost 2 to 1.

As East coasters first noticed signs the morning sunlight and hid their heads under the sheets blissfully aware it was the weekend, samh133 sealed his bracelet win. Re-raising on a flop of 5-J-Q, WiLDmAn75 called and did so again when the turn brought a 7. The 2 on the river was irrelevant as WiLDmAn75 could only manage a pair of queens against samh133's set of fives.

PokerStars WCOOP Event # 1: $215 No-Limit Hold'em (6-Max) Final Table Results

1. samh133 (United States) $172,875 ($155,561 after chop)
2. WiLDmAn75 (United States) $99,115 ($96,352 after chop)
3. LUFCBas (United Kingdom) $64,632.20 ($84,710 after chop)
4. TiltHappens (United States) $36,880
5. bearbeer123 (Sweden) $18,901
6. toomanydonks (United States) $10,142

Five card draw is the poker game most Americans were playing prior to Chris Moneymaker, Pokerstars, and ESPN making Texas Hold Em' the game of choice to the masses. The second event of the WCOOP actually finished prior to the first due to its smaller field of 857 players. Draw being a game usually catering to an older age set, Tom McEvoy had a comment on the PokerStarsBlog about it:

"The average age [of each player] is deceased", quipped Team PokerStars player Tom McEvoy commentating before the final table, speculating as well that a lot of entrants qualified either via satellite or were "hotshot online poker players and they'll play any tournament!"

The first bracelet awarded in the this year's WCOOP to spielraum.at as he defeated Jaygee1984 from the land of Oktoberfest and Lederhosen to take home $26,265 (after a chop). The final table results from PokerStarsBlog.com of the first completed WCOOP tourney listed below:

PokerStars WCOOP Event # 2: $215 Five Card Draw Final Table Results

1. spielraum.at (Austria) $42,850.00 ($26,265 after chop)
2. jaygee1984 (Germany) $23,996 ($20,654 after chop)
3. peseudos (Spain) $14,997.50 ($26,912 after chop)
4. boro83 (Ireland) $9,598.40 ($17,609 after chop)
5. BadgerPro (United States) $5,827.60
6. pairDboard21 (United States) $3,685.10