The final weekend is almost here for 2015 World Championship of Online Poker players and they were given a small tournament, big prize pool gift before the really big games take off.

Event 56 was a $530 No Limit Hold'em tournament with unlimited rebuys during the late registration period plus a bonus add-on if they decided to stick around that long. The tournament drew 560 players and they popped the rebuy button 376 times then threw another 467 add-ons in there.

All told they created a $701,500 prize pool to easily surpass the $500,000 Guarantee with some big money loaded up top. The final table would all bank at least $10,000 with the winner getting the only six-digit payout; $132,583 is a nice goal.

Day 1 finished after they already hit the final table, not a normal occurrence but that left the last nine players with plenty of ammunition to fire at pots. There were plenty of big names remaining including Mike "Tîmex" McDonald.

The high roller specialist is just a small cash away from having $12 million in live career earnings though he has yet to break through in a major online event. He has five live cashes over $1 million and finished 2nd in the 2014 PCA Main Event. McDonald came close to combining his High Roller skills and first online major just a few days ago. He was deep in the $51,000 WCOOP Super High Roller but went out in 5th place.

Peter "Belabacsi" Traply had the most interesting story coming in to the final table. Traply is one of only a handful of players in line this series for the elusive Triple COOP honors. Traply won his first SCOOP title in 2010 then followed up with a TCOOP title in 2013 and second SCOOP that spring. If he could pull off the win today, he would join James "Andy MCLEOD" Obst and Shawn "buck21" Buchanan as only the third player with a title from WCOOP, SCOOP, and TCOOP each.

Not to be left behind, Ben "vindog03" Vinson has some impressive results himself, especially over a short span in 2014. Vinson made a lot of money in a few days when he finished fourth in a Sunday Million event for a nice chunk then followed it up with an outright win in the next Super Tuesday tournament. He was another to keep an eye on at the Day 2 restart.

Event 56 Final Table

Seat 1: Giuseppe "Ansgar2000" Pantaleo (404,875 in chips)
Seat 2: Ben "vindog03" Vinson (776,735 in chips)
Seat 3: rodckz (387,870 in chips)
Seat 4: superf1sh (375,692 in chips)
Seat 5: dreamland23 (1,136,359 in chips)
Seat 6: Peter "Belabacsi" Traply (512,234 in chips)
Seat 7: Mike "Tîmex" McDonald (537,674 in chips)
Seat 8: No Shock (445,796 in chips)
Seat 9: maggess88 (565,765 in chips)

Blinds: 6,000/12,000 with 1,500 Ante

Final table starts out with the ol' suck/resuck

There were plenty of chips in play with all the rebuying and fast Day 1 play. The nine players took some time to get their feet under themselves and feel each other out, it took 30 minutes to get the first major hand and it was a good one.

Vinson opened the action from middle position with a little raise to 35,000 and superf1sh three-bet it up to 87,621. No Shock had to like a little of the action four-bet shoved with a big hand. It was a quick call and No Shock saw his dilemma, his big hand wasn't so big after all.

No Shock: [qs][qd]
superf1sh: [as][ad]

No Shock was in trouble but the dealer gave him a potential bailout on the [qc][8d][2d] flop. It looked like a tough beat for superf1sh when the [4s] turn dropped before he hit the two-out [ac] river to complete the classic suck/resuck. A very swingy hand for No Shock but he was the first eliminated from the final table, picking up $10,732 for his efforts.

No second leg for Pantaleo

While the majority fo the attention was on Traply and McDonald, Pantaleo was also looking for another major title. He had the first part of the Triple COOP with a SCOOP win 2014 and close to adding a WCOOP title.

He came to the final table with one of the shorter stacks and was never able to run it up. He moved all-in for a tick over ten big blinds and rodckz moved in over the top to isolate. It worked and Panteleo's [kh][jh] was live against [ad][qh].

He caught the flop but rodckz hit it a little better when it came [ah][ks][3s]. It left Panteleo drawing very thin and he missed as the board completed [6h][as] to cut him short of the second leg, gone in 8th place for $15,783.

maggess88 has not time for Tîmex

It took more than one hand to knock out one of our most accomplished players at the final table. Even someone with McDonald's record has to win some flips to get a title. He lost one and was gone soon after.

The hand to really damage McDonald came against maggess88 after a lengthy stretch of play with few big hands. It was a battle of the blinds with maggess88 getting all-in with [ac][tc] in the small blind against McDonald's [9h][9s] in the big.

maggess88 hit right on the [ad][jd][2h] flop and McDonald never caught up. He was left with less than four big blinds and lasted only a few more hands. McDonald put his last chips in the middle with [ac][3c] but lost to Traply's [5c][5h] flopped set, rivered full house. McDonald ran deep but could not pick up his first COOP title.

rodckz climbs the ladder, cashes out

rodckz was never a big stack at the final table despite his KO of Panteleo but slowly moved up the payout ladder until he had to make a move one hand after McDonald was gone. He was down to peanuts when he moved all-in from the big blind with [ad][jc] after Traply opened with [js][9d].

It was less than a min-raise and the bet was quickly called. rodckz was ahead for the double up but Traply hit his lone live card on the [kh][9h][4d] flop. Not a good situation for rodckz then only went downhill on the [2c] turn and [7c] river to send him out in $29,813 for a nice payday.

superf1sh makes it three-for-three

After such a long draught of big hands, they tore through two hands with two eliminations and tried again on the next one. This time it didn't take a bad beat to get them one player closer to a champ.

superf1sh was under ten big blinds when action folded to him in the small. He put them all in the middle with [tc][7c] and maggess88 called in the big with [td][9d]. superf1sh needed that same type of flop Traply found on the previous hand but the board ran dry for both with [ad][ac][4s][2d][ts] and the kicker played to send him out.

dreamland23 goes to sleep after leading

Three staight knockout hands and they took a little break. They woulnd't get another big pot until an near-marathon five hands later. And this time around they waited longer than preflop action to get things moving.

It was three-way action to the [qc][8c][7d] flop between Traply, maggess88, and dreamland23. Traply and dreamland23 checked before maggess88 led out for 135,200 to get a fold from Traply and call from dreamland23.

It was a check/raise from dreamland23 after the [4s] turn facing a maggess88 299,000 bet. The move was for all his chips and maggess88 quickly called with the flopped set [8d][8h]. It was bad timing for dreamland23, he was drawing dead with top pair [qs][jd]. There was no miracle card available and he was gone in 4th place for $54,015.

Vinson can't duck Jacks

Three-handed action settled down after the quick string of eliminations boosted the average stack and they could all see a six-digit payout at the end. Vinson was in no danger of getting blinded down but found a pair to get things moving.

He was over 30 big blinds when he got into a preflop raising war with maggess88. Vinson opened the action from the button and maggess88 popped it back with a big blind three-bet. Vinson responded with a shove holding [2d][2h] but his baby pair was in deep trouble when maggess88 called with [jd][js].

Vinson needed another duck or miracle cards but found none of them. The virtual dealer ran out a [kd][8d][7c][8s][7d] board to send Vinson out in 3rd place and set up a potential Triple COOP title.

maggess88 denies Triple COOP to Traply with Event 56 win

Seat 5: maggess88 (3,568,020 in chips)
Seat 9: Peter "Belabacsi" Traply (1,574,980 in chips)

Blinds: 17,500/35,000 with 4,375 ante

maggess88 began heads up play with a healthy chip lead but Traply wasn't going to give up the battle easily. His "short stack" was still 100 big blinds deep and they settled in for the long haul.

Despite the gap in tournament results, maggess88 never let Traply get a toehold. They went at each other for more than 30 minutes with Traply slowly getting deeper in the hole. He finally took a stand and it was one final tough beat to close out Event 56.

Traply was ground under ten big blinds and all-in from the button with [qs][th]. maggess88 called with the better hand but [kh][jd] was out flopped when it came [qh][5h][3c] to give Traply the lead. maggess88 paired the [jc] to give him more river outs and he nailed the [kd] to hand a tough loss on Traply.

It was an impressive run for the Hungarian champ but he will have to wait for another chance to add to his SCOOP and TCOOP titles, he will have to be content with the $97,157 consolation prize. maggess88 never gave up at the final table and rode it all the way to his first WCOOP title and a very healthy $132,583 payout.

WCOOP-56: $530+R NL Hold'em
Entrants: 560 (376 Rebuys, 467 Add-ons)
Prize pool: $701,500
Places paid: 72

1. maggess88 (Germany) $132,583.50
2. Peter "Belabacsi" Traply (Hungary) $97,157.75
3. Ben "vindog03" Vinson (United Kingdom) $71,553.00
4. dreamland23 (Argentina) $54,015.50
5. superf1sh (Norway) $37,881.00
6. rodckz (Brazil) $29,813.75
7. Mike "Tîmex" McDonald (Canada) $22,798.75
8. Giuseppe "Ansgar2000" Pantaleo (Germany) $15,783.75
9. No Shock (Canada) $10,732.95