The 17th running of the Full Tilt Online Poker Series kicked off on August 4, and of the twelve days of exciting online poker already underway, there are many ways to win.

The heads-up finale was home to a WSOP final table party, with Welch riding a wave of vocal support to outlast Jon Eaton and take down his first bracelet and $559,371.

The scene around the heads-up finale was rowdy, with the animated rail supporting Welch and Eaton, both regulars in the online tournament scene.

“Obviously he’s a great player,” said Welch from the final table after the win.

“We know a lot about each other. We play a lot online together.”

Known as “gutshtallin” online, Welch has an impressive resume, with major tournament wins in both the Full Tilt Sunday Brawl and PokerStars Sunday Warmup.

Welch has netted more than $1 million in winnings each on both Full Tilt and PokerStars, and now the 27-year-old has made his mark at the WSOP.

The party around the final table was so loud after the win that Welch’s interview session was hard to hear at times, but the account-executive-turned-poker-pro loved the live tournament atmosphere.

“It’s entirely different,” said Welch. “The whole ambiance of being at the World Series of Poker is tremendous. It’s the biggest stage for poker.”

Welch had to ride the rollercoaster of emotions against Eaton, at one point coming one card away from taking the championship before a river straight gave Eaton new life and evened the stacks.

The spectator section went crazy for the big hand, and Welch had to continue his bracelet bid after taking the hit.

“Any time you’re one card away from winning a bracelet and you don’t, it crushes you for a second,” Welch said. “But that’s part of poker. You have to be able to rebound.”

Eaton takes home $344,830 for second place, while other notable cash finishers include Will “The Thrill” Failla (Fourth), Tommy Vedes (Seventh) and James Akenhead (17th).

The 2010 WSOP continues through July 17. For comprehensive coverage of the $25k 6-Max No-Limit event tune in to PokerListings’ Live Updates and News.

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OK, let's start my online poker diary for the month of May with this hand. Let me see what you think. I've got a pair of 10s and a $40 stack at a .10/.25 table playing Rush Poker on Full Tilt. I'm in the small blind. UTG makes a standard raise to 75 cents. A guy in middle position raises to $2.75. Now it's to me.

His session started in the early afternoon on Full Tilt’s $500/$1,000 Cap Pot-Limit Omaha tables heads-up against Hansen.

The match lasted for 138 hands with Hansen making $27,520.

After a two-and-a-half hour break, Dwan restarted his match with Hansen, losing another $46k after 241 hands.

Stuck over $83,000 Dwan took on Ivey at the big cap game, losing another $199,964 after just 109 hands.

Ivey went on to lose $124k to jungleman12 at $300/$600 No-Limit Hold’em, finishing the day up just $86,156.

After losing the $200k to Ivey, Dwan played over 2,400 hands of $5/$10, eventually finishing his day down $280,240. But Despite the loss, Dwan remains the year’s top profit earner so far, up $3.1 million.

In the meantime, Hansen continued to crush the $500/$1,000 Cap PLO games taking $62k from Cole South, and another $65k from Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies.

In total, he finished the day up $257,313.

Below are three of yesterday’s largest pots. For more hand replays head to our online poker stats page.

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The Full Tilt pro removed close to $575k from the former CardRunners instructor’s bankroll in a more than 1,200-hand heads-up session that lasted until the wee hours of the morning Wednesday.

South emerged from a massive session in the Cap games Monday night with a better than $350k profit, mostly thanks to Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies.

However, he gave that back and more Tuesday, losing five of the seven $80,000 capped pots in the $500/$1,000 game with Hansen.

South, who once reigned over the 2010 high-stakes profit leaderboard with over $3.3 million in earnings, has now dipped under the $700k mark on the year.

In the meantime, Hansen, once dubbed a high-stakes fish, has climbed back up and over $700k in profits on the year.

Below are three capped hands from Tuesday’s heads-up session. To see more, head to our online poker stats page.

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