The fifth bracelet of the 2011 World Series of Poker (WSOP) was awarded on Saturday night. Eugene Katchalov (pictured) overcame a 5:1 chip deficit heads-up to take down the crown in a $1,500 Seven Card Stud event and pocketed $122,000. Three countries were represented in the Final Four of the event, the fifth on the 2011 WSOP schedule. Katchalov is a card-carrying member of Team PokerStars and now has over $1 million in WSOP earnings to his name.

The 30-year-old Ukrainian native had a considerable amount of success at the WSOP before Saturday. Take last year, for example, when he turned in three final tables, including a third place finish in the $10,000 HORSE Championship for $248,000. Katchalov also drove deep in the 2009 Main Event, walking away in 39th place, and is probably best known for winning the 2011 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Super High Roller tournament for $1.5 million.

In 2010, Katchalov became the only player in WSOP history to make the final table of three $10,000 buy-in events in the same year. Therefore, yesterday’s bracelet seemed to be a long time coming. On his Seven Card Stud prowess, the PokerStars pro told WSOP officials, “It is not one of my best games. But I do have experience at it because I play in a lot of (live action) Mixed Games. That’s where my Seven Card Stud experience comes from. I feel comfortable with the game in general.”

Katchalov defeated Italy’s Alessio Isaia after making aces-up on his final card of the tournament. Entering heads-up play, he was a 5:1 dog and at one point fell behind by a factor of six. He made sevens full of kings to scoop the largest pot of the tournament and pull to close to even; one hour later, Katchalov laid claim to his first WSOP bracelet.

Applauding Katchalov on his new WSOP hardware was Chris SLOPPYKLODKlodnicki (pictured), who commented via Twitter, “Congrats to @EugeneKatchalov on shipping the Stud bracelet. Well deserved.” You can catch all of the latest Tweets from PocketFives.com members on our WSOP Tweets page.

Here’s how the final table shook out in the $1,500 Seven Card Stud event:

1. Eugene Katchalov – $122,909
2. Alessio Isaia – $75,911
3. Eric Buchman – $48,961
4. Jonathan EMSBas Spinks – $35,476
5. Dennis Parker – $26,083
6. Kai Landry – $19,456
7. Ali Eslami – $14,723
8. Vasili Lazarou – $11,301

Elsewhere at the Rio in Las Vegas, Allen albariBari (pictured) has a stack of 9.12 million chips in Event #4, a $5,000 No Limit Hold’em tournament, with four players left. His chip lead is astronomical, as the other three players still standing entering Sunday’s finale have just 3.87 million combined.

Bari eliminated Thomas Ross in fifth place in the final knockout of yesterday’s action. Ross 3bet all-in before the flop with A-10 and Bari looked him up with A-8 of spades (I bet you can guess how this ends). Bari found one spade on the flop; two more on the turn and river gave him a runner-runner flush for the win.

Today, Bari will have to contend with fellow online poker community member Sean Lefort, who has the second largest stack at 1.42 million. Lefort hails from New York and banked over $400,000 in a tournament on PokerStars five years ago. Joining Lefort and Bari will be Nicholas CapTinBisKuiTBlumenthal and Maria Ho.

Event #4 was originally scheduled to be a three-day affair, but was extended to four days as a result of the WSOP’s stance toward hard stop times. Coverage found on WSOP.com explained, “With the WSOP enforcing a hard stop time of ten levels throughout the entire WSOP excluding the Main Event, the Tournament Director on duty has just informed the players that regardless of when the final table is made, they will be forced to play out the full ten levels under WSOP rules.”

Hence four players remaining entering today’s finale.

The stoppage of the tournament midway through the final table did not go unnoticed on our WSOP Twitterpage, where Jonathan FatalError Aguiar chirped, “The handling of the $5K final table is just so wrong. It’s like stopping a UFC fight in the 2nd rd and fighting the 3rd the next day.”

Each of the four players remaining is guaranteed $255,000 and a top prize of $874,000 is on the line. Stay tuned to PocketFives.com for the latest WSOP coverage of online poker players.