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One of the most popular tournaments each year is the World Championship of Online Poker sponsored by PokerStars – especially for the young poker professional Ryan D’Angelo. One of the reasons that D’Angelo will be looking forward to WCOOP next year is that he has now earned his third WCOOP bracelet, a record breaking win. In other words, D’Angelo is now the only player to have earned 3 WCOOP bracelets.

D’Angelo logged this record breaking win this week at event 55. His final opponent for the title was Ravi Raghaven. By the end of the heads up battle, D’Angelo walked away with some extra jewelry on his wrist and a hefty $199,000 purse. The two remaining players actually came to an agreement where they would both walk away with large prizes – although D’Angelo would be declared the event winner. For his agreement, Raghaven walked away with a comparable prize of $179,000. It was understandable that the two came to a chop agreement as they had spent a considerable amount of time whittling down the 1,066 players that came to have their own shot at the money.

True to his claims earlier this week, Dwyte Pilgrim etched his name on professional poker history on Thursday with a World Poker Tour win at the Borgata. When he prepared to clash with the remaining six players in the tournament, Pilgrim was 4th in chip stack. However, Pilgrim held on to take home a hefty $733,000 after ousting Kia Mohajeri. While Pilgrim casts a tough image at the table, he was brought to tears by the win (and his knees). But hey, who wouldn’t with an extra $700k to throw in the bank?

Last year Dwyte Pilgrim was elected the WSOP Circuit Player of the Year. This recent win has only really been the feather in Pilgrim’s cap the past few years. The New York City native has now amassed more than $1.5 million in career live earnings. During 2008 and 2009, Pilgrim also logged several significant cashes at poker tournaments. However, until now, Pilgrim was a relatively unknown poker player expect with only the most diligent poker enthusiasts. The World Poker Tour win at the Borgata marks Pilgrim’s very first major tournament win on television.

The PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker has always been home to a large number of well known poker players. This year, WCOOP was the feeding ground for many of these poker professionals – most notably this year’s winner, Jason Mercier. Mercier battled his way through all of the competition WCOOP had to offer and ended up the winner, taking home a total prize package of around $435,000 in the $1k NL Texas Holdem tournament.

More than 3,000 poker players turned out to compete in this year’s World Championship of Online Poker to compete for their piece of a $3 million prize pool – much more money than the tournament guaranteed. During the final phase of the tournament, Mercier took part in a 3 person battle with an additional prize package being offered to both the winner and 2nd place finisher, $60k and $15k, respectively.

Long known for featuring huge attendance stats on the East Coast of the United States, the World Poker Tour again set an attendance record at the popular Borgata Poker Open. The most popular stops on the World Poker Tour have typically been Foxwoods and Borgata. However, the attendance this year was far above what anyone on the tour expected – and the packed tournament was evidence of this. After last year’s enormous attendance numbers, it’s hard to believe that this year could have been any better – but it was.

In 2009, the Borgata Poker Open buy in was officially dropped from the normal $10k to only $3.5k – attracting a great deal more players by itself. However, World Poker Tour officials also made the decision to increase the total guaranteed prize package to $2 million. While officials debated whether these changes would have any significant impact on the event attendance, Borgata owners and poker players agreed that the changes would have a positive influence on turnout.

The World Series of Poker has changed the lives of many pro poker players, but sometimes these players fade into oblivion. What ever happened to guys like Chris Moneymaker or Jamie Gold? How about Jerry Yang? These are three of the most popular World Series of Poker Main Event winners of the past 10 years, but they haven’t done a whole lot since. Moneymaker is certainly still floating around in the poker world, Yang still makes an occasional appearance, and Gold may have played a bit too much. The WSOP is proof that one big win is far from enough to ensure success in the future. Anyone who wins the WSOP ME was undoubtedly able to run like an absolute go for a number of days, but that may have very well been the only time that these three players ever find themselves as the last men standing.

One hit wonders come in many different shapes and sizes. Some players tried to repeat their success, but just weren’t able to regain the groove they once hand. Other players decided to move on and keep poker on the backburner. No matter their motives or intent, these three players are among the biggest one hit wonders in the game.