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2008 WSOP Results |
 Event 53 was the last under card event before the insanity of the World Series of Poker Main Event took center stage. Anybody who thought that the last day of this event would just wilt under the shadow of the WSOP signature competition and that this would be just another day at the office would be completely wrong. The final day of this event was perhaps one of the most entertaining of the entire World Series of Poker season. |
 David Daneshgar has the sort of resume that most poker players would like for themselves. His lifetime earnings top the 1.5 million mark. He has gotten paid in over fifty of the tournaments he has entered, five of those being first place finishes, and in cash games he has been a consistent money maker. After a while players seated at the casino table with him submissively wet themselves when he makes a bet. The only thing missing from his credentials was a high profile tournament win. In short, there was a bracelet sized hole in his resume that he was looking to fill at this year’s WSOP. Event #52 was his best chance to finally attain this prize. |
 When most casual fans hear the name J.C. Tran, they just assume that this is a player who has more than one World Series of Poker bracelets. A lot of these people would be surprised to hear that coming into Event #49, J.C. Tran has never won a WSOP event before. He has had so much success at the World Poker Tour, and throughout the rest of the sport of poker, it just seems odd that he has never found success on this particular stage. That all changed for him this year. After Event #49, he could finally add that elusive WSOP bracelet to his resume. |
 Phil Hellmuth had probably spent the night before the Event #51 final table working out the choreography for the touchdown dance he was going to perform after accepting his 12th bracelet and working on how to get just the right inflection in his voice when taunting the second place finisher. Alas, it was not to be. The day started with twenty players, and the final table did not get started until after the dinner break. Phil started off the final seating number two in the chip count, and he never would overcome the chip leader Tommy Hang. |
 If break down the earnings of Richard Lyndaker and Joe Commisso during Event #46, and figure out an hourly rate, they are both still doing pretty well: not quite what Bill Gates makes per hour, but still more than most world leaders. Lyndaker and Commisso started the day as the top two players in terms of the chip count. Lyndaker acted as a hammer during this event, taking out three of the four players that had to be moved out of the way so that he and Commisso could dance uninterrupted. |
 Marty Smyth has cashed just about everywhere in the world. His bank has accepted checks from 2007 Irish Open, 2008 PartyPoker World Open, along with dozens of other tournaments. Rumor has it he even took some cookies off a girl scout by beating her pocket Kings with a set of Aces; of course there are also rumors that the moon landing was faked, and Tom Cruise prefers the company of male hair dressers, so we can’t really rely on a rumor mill for good information. |
 The final table of Event #44 was unusual in one particular respect: none of the players seated around the piece of felt covered furniture had ever won a World Series of Poker bracelet before. Something just looks odd when you see nine players competing for one of the sport’s most prestigious prizes and none of them has been to the promised land before. It’s sort of like watching nine guys who have never had a date chasing after Heidi Klum. |
 Usually when somebody puts on a display like the final table performance of Event #43 champion Martin Klaser, people usually start in with nicknames like "Klaser the Conqueror", "The Great", or the "The Terrible". In the case of the last example "terrible" is a compliment that hints to the fact that he personally eliminated half of the final table. It wasn’t all roses and nicknames for King Kong Klaser: he may have started the final day near the top of the pack, but he had to work his tail off to break away from the pack on Day 2, and put himself in position to win it all. |
 Somebody once made the reasonable observation that paybacks are hell. This was pretty much the theme of the Seniors No Limit Holdem event. Day 2 ended with Dale Eberle knocking Dan LaCourse out of the chip lead on the last hand, and Day 3 ended with Dan LaCourse knocking Dale Eberle out of the tournament and collecting his bracelet on the last hand of the day. If given a chance, Dale would probably have given up his Day 2 chip lead in order to be the one doing the eliminating at the end of Day 3. At the start of Day 3, only 50,000 chips separated Eberle and LaCourse. |
 Ryan Hughes is the first person in WSOP history to have a Stud hi/lo bracelet for each wrist. To accomplish this feat he had to overcome a Day 2 mini-disaster that put a hurt on his stack just before the end of play, and a final day field where he was in 9th place out of the remaining 13 players. Even though starting towards the back of the pack, he was the lead dog by the time the final table rolled around. After having a bit of a stumble, and temporarily losing his lead to Alessio Isaia, Ryan reasserted his dominance by making his first "final table" victim a name synonymous with good, sound poker: David Sklansky. |
 It takes a special type of person to pay a $50,000 buy in in order to test their poker skills in one of the toughest tournament formats in existence. The word most folks would be looking for when describing this type of "special" person, is crazy. Some people could try to make that word stick when describing Scotty Nguyen, but he has five WSOP bracelets draped around his wrists that testify to the fact that this guy knows exactly what he is doing. Scotty spent the last five days playing his heart out in an effort to win what is arguably the toughest of all the WSOP events. |
 At the start of Event #48’s final table, Marco Johnson had almost exactly twice as many chips as middle of the pack dweller, Alexandre Gomes. In fact Gomes was firmly ensconced in fourth place when the day started, but these two would eventually meet at the final table. Of course before that could happen, seven other players would have to find their way to the rail, and in most tournaments, nobody is really anxious to be relieved of their place at the final table. This tournament was a little different. At times it looked more like speed dating than a poker tournament. |
 Nick Binger had the sort of final table performance that just about every poker player dreams of. He was unstoppable, of the nine players that started the day, he was personally responsible for sending six of them to the rail. Yes it was an impressive run, the sort that allows writers to break out the really good adjectives like "overpowering", "amazing", and "dominating". When it got down to three-handed play, it all went suddenly wrong and we had to start thinking of other words to use like "bewildered", "stunned", and "choke". |
 John Phan added a World Series of Poker bracelet to his resume when he was crowned the Event #29 Champion. Either he thought that having only one wrist decorated with WSOP gold threw off his personal aesthetic symmetry, or the weight of the jewelry was making him list too much to one side is unclear, but he felt the need to quickly add another one to his collection. About one week and eleven events later, Mr. Phan added some balance to his life by strapping the Event #40 bracelet around the other wrist. |
 Day 2 of Event #39 was stamina testing, life-force draining grind that left Thom Werthmann with a 345,000 chip lead over his nearest competitor. Considering the fact that he started the day with a nice head start, was the only one at the table who had a World Series of Poker bracelet on his wrist, and very few of his opponents had even cashed in a WSOP event before, this was a tailor made situation for him to get a piece of jewelry for his other wrist. Of course, before any of friends can pop the champagne to celebrate his victory, they had best remember the old adage about the best laid plans of mice and men. |
 The final table of Event #38 was one of those affairs where the casual fan probably would have benefited from the players having their names on the back of their shirts like they do in football or hockey. When it comes to "star power" this table was seriously lacking. Thankfully poker is less about the personalities and more about people who know how to play the game. In that particular case, this table was loaded. Davidi Kitai started the day in the middle of the pack but that was a temporary situation at best. While he did not score any of the early eliminations, he still won a number of pots, and was quietly building his war chest while Chris Bell drove most of the final table’s higher profile action. |
 During this year’s World Series of Poker we have seen a couple of people who held the tag "The best player to never win a bracelet" finally shed that particular legacy. Most notable among these people was Erick Lindgren who looked like somebody had kicked a three ton weight off his back after he raised his well earned WSOP bracelet. Unfortunately, that weight fell squarely on David Benyamine who had to be wondering when, after making three final tables this year, his time would come. Well David’s weight would not be that long, it turns out that 37 was his lucky number. In a "come from behind" win, David claimed the Event #37 championship. |
 The story of Event #36 could be written with the simple words that Jesper Hougaard started the day with the chip lead, and that is also how the day ended. Technically this would be accurate, and leaving it as such would save a lot of computer ink, but there were a few more things that happened during this event than one man devouring the competition like a Jurassic Park T-Rex eating a lawyer. At the start players were almost flying from the table at fevered pitch. During the early goings a player was eliminated on an average of about every twelve hands. |
 When your trophy case includes a World Poker Tour stud championship along with a World Series of Poker bracelet that represents your skills in stud as well, you have had a pretty good career. This is probably what Mike Rocco is thinking today after winning Event #35, the Seven-Card Stud final. After adding a WSOP championship to his already impressive resume, all that is probably left for him is to get engaged to Pam Anderson. |
 Anybody who doesn’t think that Layne Flack is one of the best poker players on the planet probably also believe that Tiger Woods is just an okay golfer with a good upside. Since 1999 Mr. Flack has been as dominant in the sport of poker as just about anyone else that can be imagined. At the end of Event #34 he was the person draping a World Series of Poker bracelet around his wrist. That makes a total of six since 1999. By way of comparison, Phil Hellmuth has won five since that time, Johnny Chan has won five, Erik Seidel has scored 4, and Doyle Brunson has claimed 2. |
 When you are sitting at a World Series of Poker final table and look across the felt to see Chris "Jesus" Ferguson, Marcel Luske, and Annie Duke staring back at you, it is a foregone conclusion that you are going to have a very long day (or a very short one). Fortunately for Sebastian Ruthenberg he came into this final table with a substantial chip lead, and some carry over momentum from the previous day’s play. |
 Most of the time a World Series of Poker final table is a dramatic back and forth battle where chip leaders aren’t chip leaders for very long, and the underdog has as much chance as the favorite. Event #32 was not one of these tournaments. From the moment Jose Luis Velador sat down at the final table it was sort of like watching somebody with a shot gun taking out a room full of people armed with only pop tarts and foul language. This was the sort of rare domination of the table that only happens once or twice during a WSOP season. |
 Dario Minieri resembles a hobbit that has been accepted to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Much of this isn’t his fault. He probably picked up the metabolism of humming from one, or both of his parents. And who knew that his favorite football squad, Associazione Sportiva Roma, would have the same colors as Mr. Potter’s Gryffindor house. Of course if he had a few more hot fudge sundaes and stopped wearing that gold and burgundy scarf wherever he went, perhaps he would be taken a bit more seriously. Of course people looking at his relatively silly outer vestments and underestimating him might be part of a master plan. |
 Rob Hollink has made quite a reputation as an Omaha specialist, but in tournaments when he goes outside of his Omaha box, he seems to be quite successful. Today he has added a World Series of Poker World Championship bracelet to the rest of his trophies. Rob went into the final table second only to Aaron Katz in the chip count. On his way to the winner’s circle Hollink eliminated four of his opponents including the chip leader. |
 There are two incredibly annoying letters in the English language. "I" and "F" are perfectly pleasant and agreeable on their own, but when you add the consonant to the vowel, these two letters can make the difference between somebody having a hall of fame career, and a player just becoming a historical footnote in their respective sport. Until just recently this was the legacy of poker player John Phan: a great player who just couldn’t win the big one. That changed today. |
 If you are playing a final table and upon looking around see Johnny Chan, Phil Hellmuth, David Benyamine, Daniel Negreanu, and John Juanda staring back at you, you are probably not going to win. When your opponents have enough bracelets to keep even Ganesh covered with fashion accessories, you should just be happy with whatever position you wind up cashing out at. To his credit Mr. "OMGClayAiken" Galfond was not intimidated and promptly started chopping down the trees around him. |
 Cashing in a World Series of Poker is an accomplishment that a lot of mediocre poker players hang their hat on. Even the most aggressive self-promoter would have problems talking up their 829th place finish during a WSOP Main Event with a straight face. Yes, that is a position that allows the player to finish in the money, but on Fathers Day nobody buys a t-shirt that states "#829 Dad". Someone who finishes in that position is not often expected to have a bracelet winning performance the next time they see WSOP money. Russia’s Vitaly Lunkin did not exactly go from worst to first, but 829th to first is pretty close. |
 There is an old saying about people who hesitate and how they are completely screwed (in other words "he who hesitates is lost"). There is equally well known phrase that has become a part of the culture that simply celebrates patience as a virtue. Barry Greenstein saw both of these ideas put to the test on his rocky road to the Event #26 bracelet. Barry got through the first day of competition and found himself on top of the chip count at that point. Thanks to some people showing disdain for the practice of hesitation, he was bumped down to second place by the end of the second day. |
 Kenny Tran is a dreadful man; but this commentary does not apply to his personal life, where he is probably the sort of guy you would want to hang out with and have a beer, but when you play against him, the dreadful part of him comes out. Oddly enough, he would probably be flattered by this description of how he plays the game. Kenny is the new Event #25 (10,000 Heads-Up No Limit World Championship) World Champion. This bracelet means that he is currently the best in the world when it comes to playing poker one-on-one. |
 Max "The Italian Pirate" Pescatori shivers the timbers of his final table opponents on the way to his second World Series of Poker bracelet. This final table was no cake walk for the Milan native. He faced some pretty stiff competition on his way to this championship. Not only was he facing proven cash game sharks like Minh Ly, there was a five time bracelet winner in the mix: Allen Cunningham. Eventually they all wound up walking the plank, and Max was the only one left at the helm. |
 The exciting bit with the World Series of Poker is that a lot of events, well most events, have a final table that is like a roller coaster. Chip leaders often are not chip leaders for very long, and occasionally an unknown underdog will rise up and beat the stuffing out of people with household names and an entire wing of their home dedicated to trophies and bracelets. Event #23 was not one of these events. The final table had all the suspense and drama of a battle hardened Roman Legion getting its swords up against a group of Shriners. |
 Usually in an event where Todd Brunson, Jennifer Harman and Marcel Luske are part of the debris field of losers, one would expect the eventual winner would have a name like Hellmuth, Negreanu, Matusow, or Rousso. When it was down to Day 3 of Event #22, and Hoyt Corkins had the lead at the final table while Jennifer Harman and Marcel Luske were still stalking about, who would have expected Jens Voertmann to have his hand raised in victory when the dust settled? |
 The final table of Event #21 was probably over before the end of play on Day 2: most of the players simply didn’t know it was already in the bag for Scott Seiver. Earlier this year he was teased with a final table possibility when he finished 13th during a previous event during the World Series of Poker. This time he would not be denied. On the second day of play he used a late surge of aggression and good fortune to gather up chips like a demented squirrel rounding up enough nuts to get the tiny mammal through the next Ice Age. |
 If your nickname is "Lucky", "Money Bags", or "Ratchet Thunderstud" chances are life is working out pretty well for you. If you happen to sport the moniker of "Pumper" you are probably working in the adult film industry or a gas station; either way you probably should have taken more college courses. In most cases, the "Pumpers" of the world probably feel like the cosmos has dumped a big bushel of lemons on their head. In the case of Duncan "Pumper" Bell he has found his niche and has just made $666,697 worth of lemonade. |
 A big complaint among a lot of casual fans of the WSOP is that a large number of the people winning bracelets are about as high profile as the losers who show up on the American Idol blooper reel. While many poker fans love watching new stars arise during the WSOP, you do have that class of people who are like the hockey fans still crying in their beer because Cindy Crosby didn’t lift the Stanley Cup this year. In short, they aren’t entertained unless a celebrity player is in the mix. While we have had some star powered final tables, those who get most of their poker from their television sets should have been in ecstasy during Event #20. |
 Chip leaders have been an endangered species this year at the World Series of Poker. Most of them start off the final table at the top of the food chain and end the tournament as an obscure footnote to somebody else’s amazing comeback. While the bars at the Rio have been filled with formerly potent chip leaders who seemed to need some poker Cialis to make it all the way to the climax, Vanessa Selbst doesn’t seem to have had that problem. She finished each day of the tourney with the chip lead, including the only day that really matters - the last one. |
 Usually if Mike "The Mouth" Matusow is sporting a big grin it means that somewhere a puppy has been kicked. This time the smile still came at the expense of others but nobody will begrudge him ruining the day for eight other players and capturing his third World Series of Poker bracelet. Mike didn’t just overcome a field of internet qualifiers and anybody who walked in off the street from their accounting job in order to spend their vacation days living a dream: he beat a field of poker players that have as much all star credibility as the current Boston Celtics team. |
 Between the last two days of play, the competitors spent thirty hours in their seats. For a while it would seem that the winner would be the person whose body could process caffeine with the most efficiency. Would anybody blame someone for trying to make this a fast final table? Casey Coleman started off aggressively, and paid for it. He was like a fly going splat on a windshield. He lost a big hand and half of his stack to Matthew Giannetti in the early goings of the final table. He held on for a little longer, but was eliminated in 10th place. Jason Young got his first victim of the day by eliminating Alex Triner in 9th place. |
 There is just something wrong when you look at Andrew Brown. He kind of looks like Carrot Top, but plays like somebody with Brunson DNA going through their veins. Despite the inanity between how he looks and how he plays, Andrew Brown is the winner of a very dramatic Event #16 ($2,000 Limit Omaha Hi/Lo). Before Andrew became the story of this tournament, there was another one developing. Jim Pechac started the day with two thousand dollars. Despite this, he took his meager stack and put on a clinic of short handed play. |
 The next person who compares Anh Le to a bridesmaid is probably going to have the sort of brain damage that only a purse with a brick in it can cause. For the second time in four years, Ms. Le was eliminated in second place, just missing the bracelet by one stubborn player. In this case the immovable object to her not so irresistible force was Svetlana Gromenkova. Svetlana has entered the final day of play in a pretty good position, and after eliminating Patty Till in 3rd place, the Championship looked like it was hers for the taking. |
 Sometimes it is all about the bracelet. That sounds silly: everyone who sits down to play a World Series of Poker event desperately wants that piece of jewelry, but most of them are not crying in their beer when they are given thousands, hundreds of thousands, and sometimes millions of dollars with their wrist bling. The majority of players would probably be upset if they were handed their bracelet, given a firm handshake, and sent off without getting a check to go with it. Eric Brooks is the exception to this particular rule. |
 Marathons are becoming the norm this year at the World Series of Poker. Nobody would have thought this is possible of a profession whose biggest physical challenges include sitting on your arse for hours at a time and one’s personal tolerance for alcohol. This little fact aside, Event #12 ($1,500 Limit Holdem) was another limit event where the second day finished later than planned with more people carried over to the third day than expected. |
 Connor McCloud of the Clan McCloud from the film Highlander, had the right idea when he insisted "There can be only one". Connor would probably do alright if he put down his sword and picked up a deck of cards. When Philip Tom usually finds himself at his best during a World Series of Poker tournament, he is generally surrounded by ten or twenty other people who are also doing well enough to finish in the money. Before today, Philip’s best WSOP finish was in the 22nd spot. |
 A lot of things can happen in four hours. Somebody could watch Dances with Wolves, complete a Nascar event, or broil a turkey to golden perfection. What most people cannot do with that particular time limit is go from start to finish at the final table of a WSOP event and come away with a bracelet. If your tournament day is done at the WSOP after four hours of final table play, chances are something has gone horribly wrong. With that said, sometimes a player can catch lightning in a bottle, do a quick march through the competition and be done in time to watch a Matlock re-run. This is pretty much how Event #10 went for Farzad Rouhani. |
 The final table of Event #9 ($1,500 No Limit Holdem Six-Handed), was slow and clumsy and then suddenly, unexpectedly climaxed and the whole thing was over. There are a lot of women who will say this description also accurately portrays their love lives, but in this case the words fit how Event #9 finished up. In a lot of cases final tables are fast and furious affairs with eliminations coming at a rapid pace. In Event # 9 it took over two hundred hands to get the field from six to three. |
 Most of us are aware that David slew a Philistine with a severe pituitary gland problem named Goliath. This unlikely victory was helped along with the theory that if the giant doesn’t get near you, he can’t hurt you. In other words, David stayed at a safe distance and chucked rocks at Goliath until he fell down. While the Philistine champion was unconscious, David cut his head off and then went on to commit a number of war crimes against the enemy. While nobody lost their head during Event #8 ($10,000 Mixed Games) a number of giants found themselves on the wrong end of the wrath of an unlikely hero named Anthony Rivera. |
 Matt Keikoan is no stranger to WSOP money finishes. During his poker career he has managed five of them. While this is impressive you can’t wrap a money finish around your wrist and make everyone else in the room jealous with it. You can try, but the check will probably just fall apart, rip, or be conned off of your arm by somebody whose personality is enhanced with some serious silicone. Matt Keikoan started the final table second to Theo Tran in the chip count. Theo was a man on a mission during this tournament. He had seized the chip lead on day one and never relinquished it. |
 Despite how lousy being the bubble boy can be, sometimes it can spur people to perform beyond what they thought may be possible. While Thang Luu may have always possessed World Series of Poker level championship skill, when he was sitting on the final table bubble, it really didn’t look like it. When push came to shove though, he shoved hard and not only made it to the final table, but did so with a considerable chip lead. One of the biggest obstacles standing between Thang and a bracelet was Omaha pro Scott Clements. |
 There are some sports teams that have subscribed to the theory of "if it’s not rough it ain’t right". Of course most of them who attempted to apply this idea to a Championship run usually find themselves on the golf course while their opponents are either going deeper into the playoffs or drinking champagne out of an absurdly large trophy. While the "if it’s not rough it ain’t right" approach usually fails in team sports it has done well at this year’s World Series of Poker. Event #5 was not one of these events though. |
 The end of Event #4 ($5,000 Mixed Holdem) came down to Erick and one of those internet kids: Justin "ZeeJustin" Bonomo. After an hour of back and forth action, Bonomo went all in with two-pair (4s and 5s). Lindgren just smiled, called the bet, and then dropped a wheel straight on the 23 year old’s noggin. Erick Lindgren walked away from the encounter with $374,505, his first WSOP bracelet, and the glory of never hearing himself described as the "best player to have never won a WSOP bracelet". |
 David Singer has been to a lot of World Series of Poker and World Poker Tour final tables, including the WSOP Main Event in 2003. He was always close, and came away with some big checks, but could never close the deal when it came to actually taking the championship. To date his poker career could only be called a Cinderella story if the handsome prince stopped just short of slipping the glass stiletto on her dainty foot and went to a keg party instead. Today though, the glass slipper fit. |
 It was long, it was brutal, and for the most part it was fueled by caffeine, alcohol and bitterness. Now we are aware this description could fit a lot of things, including this year’s season of "The Flavor of Love", but it also describes the World Series of Poker’s most contentious event of the year so far: Event #2 ($1500 No Limit Holdem). The eighteen hour marathon play before the final table is well documented and will probably become a part of WSOP lore in the years to come. |
 A lot of people have complained that watching the WSOP over the last few years was kind of like viewing a good independent movie. It was interesting with some intriguing story lines, but seriously lacked anything that resembled a recognizable star. This was not the case with the Event #1 final table. The last players standing (metaphorically) during the $10,000 Pot Limit Holdem Championship were some of the most recognizable people in the sport. |
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