BY TOM SOMACH

There are no big names left at the Main Event of the inaugural World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE) in London, England.

In the past 24 hours, the biggest name still alive in the tournament–Annie Duke–was eliminated.

She finishes the tourney in 21st place and takes home 30,777 British pounds, about $62,000 U.S.

Other notables knocked out of the tournament in the past 24 hours were Erick Lindgren, Will Durkee, Kenny Tran and Gus Hansen.

Lesser-knowns eliminated in the past day were Steven van Zadelhoff, Julius Colman, Terry Cook, Patrick Jouven, Marco Traniello, Nicolas Levi, Marcello Marigliano and Tino Lechich.

Also knocked out over the past 24 hours were little-knowns Karl Mahrenholz, Henrik Waltersson, Aleksander Vathne, Shaun Needham, Jakob Paulsen, Abishek Khaitan, Patrik Antonius, Janne Lamsa, Pat Scanlan and Andreas Berggren.

What started as a Main Event tournament field of 362 players has now been whittled down over the past week to a final table of nine players.

Those nine will keep playing until one person is left to be crowned winner of the Main Event–and winner of the WSOPE.

That winner will take home a million British pounds–about $2 million U.S.–and a gold winner’s bracelet.

The Main Event–a no-limit Texas hold ‘em tournment–is the third and final event of the first-ever WSOPE.

The Main Event had a buy-in of 10,000 British pounds, about $20,000 U.S.

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