image from parttimepoker.com

64 players, $25,500 buy-in, head-to-head competition. The biggest buy-in for the 2008 World Championship of Online Poker took place last night at PokerStars, which is also the biggest buy-in the tournament series has ever placed. There were over 64 entries but since it would not be fair for a player to have a "bye" in the bracket formation, a second heads-up tourney was offered (and won by Team PokerStars Pro Hevad "RaiNKhaN" Khan). Khan banked $125,000 for the eight player tourney win.

In the larger field event saw Team PokerStars Pros Vanessa Rousso and Victor Ramdin make the money for making the elite eight (they won $100,000), Gavin Griffin was shooting for his first WCOOP title go with the WSOP,WPT, and EPT titles but fell short in the quarterfinals, winning $160,000. Bertand "ElkY" Grospellier entered the final with Steven "stevebets" Jacobs from New York, for the $560,000 first prize. "ElkY" the Team PokerStars Pro could not make a comeback at the end against Jacobs and banked $320,000 as the runner-up, as Jacobs won the $560,000 plus the WCOOP bracelet.

Don't feel too bad for "ElkY", as his currently one of 43 players left in the two-day Event #20 which carries six different $100K+ prizes including $460,045.20 for first.

Find all the action and live blog on these tourneys at PokerStarsBlog.com