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The Main Event of the PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker was played to completion last night and the player to finally emerge victorious was Thomas “Kallllle” Pedersen. Pedersen survived a field of 1,627 competitors that whittled itself down to 176 by Day 2, earning his first WCOOP bracelet and a stunning $1.26 million in the process.

Pedersen was a force to be reckoned with in later stages of the tournament, maintaining the chip lead throughout the final table and personally knocking out six of the final table players. The final five decided on a deal in which Pedersen received $1.1 million, with an additional $100k set aside for his win.

The completion of the event also solidified Mike “goleafsgoeh” Leah’s position as one of the most successful overall players of the WCOOP. Leah ended in third place, winning $560k and adding to a number of other victories and deep runs booked earlier in the tournament series.

Other noteworthy online poker pros that made it deep into the money bubble included Niki “RealAndyBeal” Jedlicka, Dani “supernova9″ Stern, Tom Marchese, Terrence Chan, Mickey “mement_mori” Petersen and Luke Schwartz.

Second place belonged to Vojtech “Vojta_R” Ruzicka. Pedersen had an enormous chip advantage when heads up play began and the gap only widened from there. On the final hand, Ruzicka held 3-3, which wasn’t enough to hold up to Pedersen’s A-10 given a 10-9-2 flop. The turn and river provided no help to either player, solidifying Pedersen’s win. Ruzicka earned $710k for his impressive performance.

The biggest heartbreaker for fans had to be Eugene Katchalov. Widely considered one of the best players in the world in terms of pure skill, Katchalov was competing for bracelets in both the Main Event and the $10k 8-Game High Roller on the same day. Although Katchalov only made it to 66th in the Main Event, he did manage to take the runner-up spot in the 8-Game tournament.