It’s hard to find anything in life as lucrative as some of the payouts from this year’s World Series of Poker. Take Event 44, for example, a $1,000 buy-in no limit tournament with rebuys that just wrapped up from the Rio All-Suites Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. For Max Greenwood, a 23 year-old Canadian poker player, life-changing money was headed his way after just three days of play. He turned his investment into a $693,392 payday. Event 44 sported one of the largest payouts to first place in any WSOP held so far. Moreover, it was a tournament in which Americans were shut out of the top three spots. Danish natives Rene Mouritsen and Albert Iverson finished second and third, respectively. It was just another day at the Rio’s massive Amazon Room, home of the 2008 World Series of Poker.
Greenwood was two weeks removed from graduating from the University of Toronto with a political science degree. $700,000 makes for a nice graduation present. He had never cashed higher than 24th in any WSOP event and became just the third Canadian ever to score WSOP gold. He had three cashes during the 2007 WSOP, including a 24th place in the $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha World Championship for $15,900. Mouritsen recorded his third runner up finish of his WSOP career. He also finished second in $1,500 Mixed Hold’em and $10,000 World Championship Pot-Limit Omaha tournaments. The latter was worth well over $460,000. All told, he has raked in over $1.1 million from WSOP tournaments from seven in the money finishes.
There were a host of familiar online poker pros who cashed in this event, including Full Tilt Poker pro Eric Froehlich, who finished 13th. He won bracelets in the 2005 WSOP and 2006 WSOP in limit hold’em and Pot Limit Omaha, respectively. His lifetime World Series winnings exceed $800,000. It’s also hard to ignore Peter Feldman, who finished 12th. Feldman has cashed in two straight Main Events, most recently posting a deep run with a 133rd place finish last year for $58,570. He’s at nearly one million dollars in lifetime earnings. 2006 PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker winner J.C. Tran finished 24th.
Two-time bracelet winner Mark Seif finished 23rd. He took home a pair of bracelets during the 2005 World Series of Poker, one in a limit hold’em shootout events and one in no limit play. He’s pocketed nearly $900,000 in his WSOP and Circuit Event careers. Men “The Master” Nguyen finished 57th. He’s the owner of six WSOP bracelets, the first of which came in 1992. His first WSOP cash came 20 years ago during the 1988 World Series. He’s finished in the money four times already in 2008.
The co-creator of The Simpsons, Sam Simon, finished 53rd. He had a pair of $35,000+ cashes during the 2007 World Series, including a 329th place finish in the Main Event. Finally, PokerStars pro Humberto Brenes recorded his 52nd WSOP career cash, which moves him into sixth on the all-time list. Brenes has taken home just over $2 million lifetime from the WSOP. He had back-to-back bracelet wins during the 1993 World Series of Poker in Pot Limit Omaha and Limit Hold’em.
The $50,000 HORSE event’s final table will be the centerpiece of Sunday’s tournament play at the WSOP. Stay tuned to MacPoker.net for all of the latest news.