BY TOM SOMACH

Howard “The Professor” Lederer, Allen Cunningham, Dan Shak, Steve Billirakis and Dario “Poker Mafioso” Alioto are the latest big names to get knocked out of the Main Event of the inaugural World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE), as Main Event action concluded its fourth day in London, England.

Lederer, a top American poker pro originally from New Hampshire, is the brother of top female pro Annie Duke, who is still alive in the tournament.

Alioto, of Palermo, Sicily, Italy, won Event #2 of the WSOPE,a pot-limit Omaha tourney.

The Main Event–Event #3–the final event of the WSOPE, is a no-limit Texas hold ‘em tournament with a buy-in of 10,000 British pounds, about $20,000 U.S.

Others getting knocked out of the Main Event include Andreas Hagen, Jon Shoreman, David Finney, Neil Channing, Vik Kanwar, Thomas Wissner, Owen Lock, Michael Greco, Ben Roberts, Johnny Lodden, Irfan Hassan, Gerry Kane, Brendan Walls, Justin=A0 Bonomo, Per Hildebrand and Gary Conlon.

Also knocked out were Dorte Jagger, Achilleas Kallakis, Peter Andreas, Roland DeWolfe, Erik Friberg, Jaye Renehan, Jeff Kimber, David Milby, Hasan Irfan, Jan Pruszkowski, Marc Goodwin, Michel Abecassis, Robert Cooper and Thomas Uhlin.

Earlier in the week, bounced from the Main Event were Doyle “Texas Dolly”=9D Brunson, Scotty Nguyen, Alex “The Mad Russian”=9D Kravchenko, Jeff Madsen, Ted Forrest, Liz Lieu, Scott Fischman, Mark Vos, Joe Sebok, Tom “The Pokermeister”=9D Bihl, Freddy Deeb, Robert Mizrachi, Mike MacDonald, Heather Wells, Dave Williams, Mike Binger and Ted Lawson.

Among those surviving the first four days of Main Event action along with Duke are Phil “Poker Brat”=9D Hellmuth Jr., Chris “Jesus” Ferguson, Daniel Negreanu, Johnny “The Orient Express”=9D Chan, Jamie Gold, Andy Black, Kirk Morrison, Phil Gordon, Greg “Fossilman”=9D Raymer, Paul Wasicka, Barry Greenstein, John Juanda, Todd “Son of Doyle”=9D Brunson, Pamela “Daughter of Doyle”=9D Brunson, Mike Mizrachi, Jen Harman, Jeff Lisandro, Erik Seidel, Gus Hansen, Humberto “El Wacko”=9D Brenes and Beth Shak.

Doyle Brunson, Nguyen, Hellmuth, Raymer, Ferguson, Chan and Gold have all won the Main Event of the Las Vegas-based WSOP, with Brunson and Chan winning it twice.

(E-mail Tom Somach at tomsomach@yahoo.com.)