The doubts over interest in the World Series of Poker following the shutdown of internet poker in the US were completely unfounded.

Judging by the numbers being recorded right now at the Rio in Las Vegas the 2007 WSOP looks set to the biggest and therefore richest ever.

Ciaran O’Leary has won Event #3, the largest non-WSOP main event poker tournament in history. This year’s first $1,500 buy-in no-limit hold championship destroyed the previous record by 107 players. There were approximately 2600 entries and 400 alternates, for a combined field of 2,998 players. This ranks as the third-largest poker tournament of all-time, behind the 2005 and 2006 championship (main) events.

The new champ is originally from Ireland, but now lives in Seattle, Washington. O’Leary has played at the WSOP during six of the last ten years, however this was his first ever cash finishing, and what a payout it was - $727,012 for first place.

A full house of spectators packed into the Rio poker arena and was treated to an exciting final table. O’Leary was clearly the crowd favorite, after going all-in five times and surviving them all. Each time the chips went in, he got up and walked away from the table.

Several times he left the arena entirely and walked into the busy tournament area, with television cameras rolling to capture every step. It was obvious this was O’Leary’s way to relieve tension. The strategy worked.

At the start of the final table, all eyes were on Alex Jacob. He arrived with a monstrous chip lead – with over 3,000,000 in chips while the average stack was about 800,000, but only managed third place. Perhaps more was expected after Jacob cashed four times at last year’s WSOP and made two final table appearances.

The runner up was Paul Evans from Mt. Shasta, CA. This was his second time to take second place in a WSOP event, having finished second at the final table back in 2000.

Final results:
1. Ciaran O' Leary, Seattle, WA, $727,012
2. Paul Evans, Mt. Shasta, CA, $450,150
3. Alex Jacob, Las Vegas, NV, $282,367
4. Jeff Yoak, Whittier, CA, $184,152
5. Craig Crivello, Scottsdale, AZ, $128,907
6. Andreas Krause, Stuttgart, Germany, $94,122
7. Thad Smith, Dallas, TX, $73,661
8. Bart Hanson, Los Angeles, CA, $55,246
9. Matt Vengrin, Red Hook, NY, $43,378