What I really like about the World Series of Poker is that anyone can win. It’s kind of like the National Football League in that regard. In any given tournament, each and every person playing has a shot at winning. Take Event 33 of the 2008 WSOP for example. It attracted a field of 261 of the world’s brightest poker minds. The final table reads like a “who’s who” of some of the best poker talent on the planet. Yet, at the end of the day, Sebastian Ruthenberg took down the Seven-Card Stud High-Low Split World Championship. Who, your might ask? German poker player Sebastian Ruthenberg, who has only been playing professionally for two years. He beat out a star-studded field to take home $328,762.
Event 33 was the first ever Seven-Card Stud High-Low Split tournament to surpass one million dollars in the prize pool. It was the latest superlative reached during the 2008 World Series of Poker, which has broken record after record as the days go by. Ruthenberg defeated someone you may have heard of heads up. His name: Chris “Jesus” Ferguson. The 24 year-old Ruthenberg commented after the final cards have been dealt, “He really is a better player than me. I have only been playing this game for six months and he has played so much more than me.”
Ferguson is a Full Tilt Poker pro (you can actually play against him by checking out the Mac downloadable version of Full Tilt Poker). He won the Main Event in 2000 WSOP for $1.5 million and currently has five bracelets to his name. It was his 54th all-time World Series of Poker cash. He took third in Event #2, which stands as the largest non-Main Event field ever. That cash was worth nearly $400,000. His lifetime WSOP take is nearly $4 million.
Marcel Luske finished fourth, cashing for $95,069. Although he has yet to win a WSOP bracelet, he stands at over one million dollars in lifetime WSOP and Circuit Event winnings. Luske has now made two final tables at the 2008 World Series of Poker, raking in over $200,000 in combined winnings.
UltimateBet pro Annie Duke finished fifth for her first cash of this year’s World Series. She logged her first (and so far only) bracelet in the 2004 WSOP, winning an Omaha High-Low 8/OB tournament. Her $73,602 cash in Event 33 pushed her over the one million dollar mark lifetime at the WSOP. She’s currently been promoting the new tournament schedule at UltimateBet while playing in the World Series. Duke’s brother, Howard Lederer, finished ninth in Event 33, cashing for $30,667.
Other notable names who cashed include David Benyamine, Chau Giang, Allen Cunningham, PokerStars pro Barry Greenstein, Cyndy Violette, and Hasan Habib. Past winners of this event have included Johnny Moss, Doyle Brunson, Chip Reese, Mickey Appleman, Phil Ivey, John Juanda, Max Stern, Men “the Master” Nguyen, and World Poker Tour host Mike Sexton. Winning this tournament places a person up there with some of the storied names from the poker world.
The 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event is two weeks away, kicking off on July 3rd. The tournament is being held in the Amazon Room in the Rio in Las Vegas. Television coverage starts on July 22nd on ESPN.