In the 21st event of the PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker, or WCOOP, a field of 10,492 players turned out for a $215 No Limit Hold’em tournament that guaranteed $1.5 million, one of the largest purses put up so far out of the $50 million total on the line. In the end, a three-way deal saw New York’s Anton kutuz_offSmolyanskiy (pictured) come away with a colossal $280,000 payday and a WCOOP bracelet. This isn’t Smolyanskiy’s first big payday, either. In November 2008, he took down a Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS) title for $92,000.

Smolyanskiy walked away with $250,000 following the chip chop and the final three agreed to play on for $30,000 in cash and the title of WCOOP champion. Among his company in the final three were Wisconsin’s UndrAAgeand PokerStars member vic_xcite, who eventually cashed for $206,000 and $190,000, respectively. For Smolyanskiy, the impetus for a chop came after he looked up at the clock, noticed it was 7:30am, and decided that he didn’t want to stress out over a major financial decision.

As anyone who randomly ran across $280,000 would be, Smolyanskiy was elated to bank nearly $300,000 from an online poker tournament. He told PocketFives.com, “I was in a big hole before the day started. I needed a sixth place finish just to get back to the breakeven point year to date. With the way taxes are, you can’t have losing years, so it was stressing me out a bit. It’s a huge relief in that regard besides everything else. Two years ago, there wasn’t quite that much pressure.” Smolyanskiy, who burst onto the scene following a 2008 win in the PokerStars Sunday Second Chance, has been a card-carrying member of the community since 2006.

Despite his continued success, Smolyanskiy is not a full-time poker player. Instead, he’s an actuary by trade and went from winning a WCOOP tournament for $300,000 straight to work for the day. Due to his tough year online, he began questioning whether he could be successful in the long-term. Smolyanskiy admitted, “I was actually doubting if I could pull it off anymore because the games aren’t what they used to be. However, I spent much of the year flying blind, without PokerTracker, just recently installed it again, and here we are.” PokerTracker is a popular piece of poker database software.

He’s been playing backgammon since the tender age of five and then competed semi-seriously in bridge. About five years ago, like many members of the online poker community, Smolyanskiy got his start on PokerRoom. He’s a little older than most PocketFivers, coming in at 31 years of age, and conceded, “Having a job helps dealing with poker swings, that’s for sure. If I did this in college, I’d never have graduated.”

He’s shot up to #806 worldwide in the PocketFives.com Online Poker Player Rankings on the strength of $1 million in earnings from tournaments tracked for the leaderboard. Some of his more recent scores include a runner-up finish in the PokerStars $100 rebuy in December for $27,000 and a final table in the site’s Second Chance in April for $22,000.

Smolyanskiy has also brought his skills over to the live poker arena. In 2007, he finished 13th in the European Poker Tour’s (EPT) Scandinavian Open for $24,000. In late 2009, he took seventh in the United States Poker Championship for $23,000. William Brindise defeated Men “The Master” Nguyen (pictured) in the latter tournament for $261,000.

In case you missed it, here were the results from Event #21 of the ongoing WCOOP, which wraps up on September 26th with a $10 million guaranteed Main Event:

1. Antoshka – $280,000 (kutuz_off)
2. UndrAAge – $206,214 (UndrAAge)
3. vic_xcite – $190,000
4. ganatodoAA – $104,920
5. buriedatsea – $83,936 (buriedatsea)
6. ohnistun – $62,952
7. puicachamp – $41,968
8. Sircall – $23,082
9. XBraumeister – $14,689

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