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While it’s not as sexy a story as the recent Jose Macedo/Daniel Cates/Haseeb Qureshi saga that unfolded on 2+2, another high-profile poker player came under fire today on the 2+2 poker forums as fellow high-stakes charged 2011 WSOP bracelet winner Darren Woods with colluding in high-stakes online poker games on 888Poker and iPoker.

In a lengthy post, a 2+2 member by the name of “feruell” detailed the play of Darren Woods along with an accomplice using multiple screen-names. The evidence was sent to 888 Poker by feruell and was signed by several other high-stakes poker players on the network.

The initial post is extremely lengthy, and in a follow-up post feruell posted a number of hand histories to back up the groups claims. Here is a look at the Cliffs Notes of the story as posted by feruell:

- Darren Woods, known as Dooshcom, a sponsored 888 poker pro and a WSOP winner, colluded with his friend Benkaremail (real name unknown) at the 500-1000 shortstack tables.

- A help with the investigation is appreciated.

Complicating matters is the fact that Woods is a sponsored pro at 888 Poker, but despite this, later in the day a spokesman for 888 Poker appeared in the thread and stated that they are thoroughly looking into the matter.

The Kreschatyk Poker Club recently played host to the Russian Poker Series Kiev Main Event, sponsored by PokerStars. A total of 322 players paid buy-ins of $2,500 each to generate a $718k prize pool. Russia’s own Oleg Prokhorov emerged victorious on the final day of play, earning the title, a trophy and $102k.

Only 40 players remained by the third day of action and the top 36 finished in the money. Alex Kravchenko of Team PokerStars Pro made a deep run and started Day 3 in 12th place. After a strong showing on Day 3, Kravchenko entered the final table with the third-largest chip stack on a leaderboard dominated by locals, including Vadim Ostomaty, Paul Lee, Levan Karmanishvili, Martin Dietrich, Yuri Skorzeny, Andrew Pateychuk, Anton Ponomarev and the aforementioned Prokhorov.

Pateychuk was first to hit the rail. He took a bad beat when his pocket aces were topped by Karmanishvili’s pair of 10s with another 10 on the board. Skorzeny, Dietrich and Kravchenko were next to face elimination. Kravchenko was four to a flush following the flop, but garbage on the turn and river gave trip Kings to Ponomarev.

Lee and Karmanishvili were then eliminated in fifth and fourth place. The remaining three players struck a deal, with Prokhorov earning only $94k compared to Ponomarev and Ostomaty’s $135k. The final $8k along with the title was still reserved for first place.

Ponomarev was quickly eliminated and heads-up play ensued. Prokhorov had a lot of catching up to do, given his stack of 1.15 million compared to Ostomaty’s 8.45 million. After fighting his way back, Prokhorov scored trip 9s on the turn to defeat Ostomaty’s two-pair, giving him the ultimate victory. There’s little doubt that Prokhorov will think twice before striking a three-handed deal in the future.

The list of US-based poker players leaving the country in order to continue playing online poker continued to grow this week as one of the Internet’s most prolific multi-tablers, Randy “nanonoko” Lew announced he has made the move to Canada in order to play online poker.

Lew celebrated the fact by creating a video of himself playing a $1,500 Sit and Go on PokerStars –where he is a member of the sites Team Online. The perennial Supernova Elite has been mulling the decision to relocate since Black Friday, and its likely not a coincidence that his move, and subsequent return to PokerStars, comes during the running of the popular WCOOP tournament series on the site.  Since Black Friday, Lew had been prompted by his legions of Facebook and Twitter followers to leave the US and continue plying his trade at the online poker tables.

Lew joins other high-profile online players who have moved abroad, following the likes of Ben “Sauce123” Sulsky and Phil “MrSweets28” Galfond to Canada, while William Reynolds headed for Costa Rica, and Justin Bonomo and Ike Haxton decided on Malta. Other players who have relocated, or are looking to relocate include Vanessa Selbst, Daniel Cates, Daniel Negreanu, and Shaun Deeb.

You can check out Lew’s video of his first $1,500 Six-Max Hyper-Turbo Sit & Go tournament at the following link on YouTube: “My return to poker begins in Vancouver!”

Players and railbirds looking for an escape from the typical Hold’em grind found it on the ninth day of action at the PokerStars WCOOP (World Championship of Online Poker), when Stud and Pot Limit Omaha events rounded out the evening.

WCOOP 24 was a Stud tournament with a $300 buy-in and a $50k guaranteed prize pool. PokerStars clearly underestimated the popularity of the event, as 337 players paid their buy-ins to double the guarantee. Mickey Petersen, aka mement_mori, was the most dangerous player and chip leader heading into final table action .

Petersen held strong until nearly the end, when a pair of kings on the part of Big_Nemo finally depleted his chip stack. Heads-up play was practically over before it even started, as Big_Nemo had 12 times as many chips as second-place finisher Billybob88. A single hand gave Big_Nemo the victory, a bracelet, and $19,462. Billybob88 and Petersen earned roughly $14.4k and $10.9k, respectively, for their performances.

Event 25 of the WCOOP was a PLO Turbo 1R1A with a $200 buy-in, 1,086 competitors and a $417k prize pool that once again nearly doubled the guarantee. The fan favorite was undoubtedly Joel Adam Gordon, aka 2FLY2TILT. In the past week alone, Gordon made the final tables of a triple stud event and a 2-7 low-ball single draw event. He entered the final table of Event 25 with the third-biggest chip stack.

Unfortunately for Gordon, aggressive play on the part of his opponents left him exiting in 6th place, with a respectable cash of $16.7k. Gordon will no doubt be remembered after the WCOOP for his well-rounded game.

The top 3 spots ultimately belonged to MiPwnYa, L0ve2playU and sllvllasH, who earned $73k, $53k and $40k, respectively.

Events 21 and 22 were played to completion a few days ago in the PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker and a total of nine players added six-figure scores to their bankrolls.

WCOOP 21 was a NLHE Two-Day tournament with a $200 buy-in and a guaranteed prize pool of $1.25 million. As has been the standard in the 2011 WCOOP, the guarantee was greatly exceeded. A whopping 8,484 players bought their seats, generating a prize pool worth just under $1.7 million.

Just 60 of those players made it to Day 2. The most notable player was Athanasios Polychronopoulos, who gained fame over the summer by winning a bracelet at the WSOP. Despite holding one of the biggest chip stacks, he suffered some bad beats and hit the rail in 27th place.

A deal was struck at the final table between the remaining five players. Despite finishing in first place, gregor7878′s prize of $158,627 was smaller than third-place finisher Gnostan’s $169,324. Prot0 ($145k), borvik ($116k) and BlockWinner ($147,099) rounded out the top 5.

The single biggest score of the day belonged to Flying Smile, who managed to finish first in WCOOP 22 – another NLHE Two-Day, this time with a buy-in of $500. Only 131 of the 3,739 players that started Day 1 made it to Day 2 with a prize pool of just under $1.87 million at stake.

Although a deal was discussed at length at the final table, Mad4it4life, Paul Van Nunes and Flying Smile ultimately decided to finish the event without an agreement. Flying Smile bagged over $293k, while runners-up Van Nunes and Mad4it4life earned $219k and $154k, respectively. Van Nunes entered online poker infamy last August when he scored $234k for winning the Sunday Million.