Andrey Zaichenko defended his title in the K Omaha Hi-Lo WCOOP event (PokerStars/Neil Stoddart photo)

Saturday’s World Championshiop of Poker Action final table action on PokerStars, which consisted of just two events playing to a winner, had a bit of a theme to it: back- to-back.

Russia’s Andrey Zaichenko won the same event he won last year, $1,050 Eight Max Omaha Hi-Lo, while the runner-up, ‘hotmark777’, finished second in an event for the second straight day. Zaichenko topped the 185-player field in Event #71 High ($1,050 Eight Max Omahad Hi-Lo) to win $36,700.23. Last year he beat out 230 players to win that title. This is the third WCOOP title for Zaichenko, with his first coming in 2010 in a Pot Limit Omaha Hi-Lo event.

Dutch grinder ‘hotmark777’ finished second for $28,474.90. On Friday night he finished runner-up to Jens ‘Fresh_oO_D’ Lakemeier in Event #67 High ($1,050 Seven Card Stud). Third place went to ‘gangstachel9’ for $22,093.14.

The only other final table on Saturday’s docket, Event #76 High($1,050 Six Max No Limit Hold’em (Turbo, Progressive KO)), came down to heads-up battle between Rachid Ben ‘SkaiWalkurrr’ Cherif and Andrey ‘drupa-lucker’ Chernokoz. Cherif eventually eliminated Chernokoz to win and collect the tournament’s final bounty to bring his total haul to just over $210,000. Chernokoz took home $80,831.06 plus an additional $10,154.29 in bounties.

The final table also included Anton Wigg, Viktor Blom and Anthony Spinella.

Event #71 (High): $1,050 Eight Max Omaha Hi-Lo
Entries: 185 (126 entries + 59 re-entries)
Prize pool: $185,000

  1. Andrey ‘Kroko-dill’ Zaichenko – $36,700.23
  2. hotmark777 – $28,474.90
  3. gangstachel9 – $22,093.14
  4. nilsef – $17,141.65
  5. Andrey ‘Gigaloff’ Zhigalov – $13.299,89
  6. raare01 – $10,319.13
  7. Slavik_Krs – $8,006.43
  8. Drento18 – $6,212.02

Event #76 (High): $1,050 Six Max No Limit Hold’em (Turbo, Progressive KO)
Entries: 1,522 (1,076 entries + 446 re-entries)
Prize pool: $1,522,000 ($761,000 + $761,000 in bounties)

  1. Rachid Ben ‘SkaiWalkurrr’ Cherif – $116,008.79 + $94,805.57 in bounties
  2. Andrey ‘drupa-lucker’ Chernokoz – $80,831.06 + $10,154.29 in bounties
  3. 99Palanke – $56,320.84 + $14,983.40 in bounties
  4. Mark ‘scrubbyz’ Zajdner – $39,242.86 + $20,884.76 in bounties
  5. Viktor ‘Isildur1’ Blom – $27,343.33 + 9,039.07 in bounties
  6. Anton ‘antesvante’ Wigg – $19,052.09 + $5,453.12 in bounties
  7. Anthony ‘holdplz’ Spinella – $13,302.96 + $6,578,13 in bounties