If you’re a fan of poker, you absolutely love the World Series of Poker. In the United States, the 2007 WSOP Main Event has been on every night this week at 1:00am and 2:00am ET, making it a staple of my late-night television watching. As I write this, Jerry Yang is standing up from the table every time he makes a bet yelling “One Million” or “Four Million” depending upon his bet. I remember Daniel Negreanu doing nearly the same thing on the World Poker Tour when he first experienced success. I can’t get enough of it. My point is not that you should act cocky while at the poker table. Instead, I wanted to tell you how excited I am for the 2008 WSOP to start airing on ESPN on July 22nd. In the meantime, let’s take a look at the action from the Day Twos.
Day 2A marked the end of the road for a number of bracelet winners. After all, it’s hard enough to win one bracelet, let alone come back to try to win several more. Scotty Nguyen, Robert Varkonyi, David Grey, Susie Issacs, Barry Shulman, Scotty Nguyen, Perry Friedman, Svetlana Gromenkova, Bill Edler, PokerStars pro Barry Greenstein, Erick Lindgren, Billy Baxter, John Hennigan, and Dan Schmiech were all booking reservations on the Grey Line Airport Shuttle on Tuesday. Also checking his bags in at the Southwest Airlines ticket counter was Hal Lubarsky, who had a deep run in the 2007 Main Event. Though legally blind, he’s succeeded at poker through the help of a caller and has become one of the top feel-good stories in WSOP history. Even Ray Romano of Everybody Loves Raymond fame was seen paying $25 for his checked bag on American Airlines.
Who survived Day 2A, you ask? Full Tilt Poker pro Erik Seidel, Robert Mizrachi, online poker pro Tim West, Tony Hachem, Jason Gray, European poker pro Hasan Habib, Mickey Appleman, Steve Zolotow, Bill Gazes (nothing fazes him), and Patrik Antonius. There are a little over 1,200 people who survived both Days 2A and 2B.
Surviving Day 2B were names you’ll know: Johnny Chan, Phil Hellmuth, and Chris Moneymaker. Yeah, those guys. Phil Hellmuth is the face of poker site UltimateBet and even showed up in full Army attire on Day 1 to help promote the UB Army. Moneymaker sparked the poker boom by winning a satellite on PokerStars and then taking down the 2003 Main Event. He’d be followed by two more pros that would sign with PokerStars, Joe Hachem and Greg Raymer. Chan helped mentor 2006 WSOP Main Event champion Jamie Gold.
Also headed to Day 3 are Victor Ramdin, Nenad Medic, Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy, Jean-Robert Bellande, Thomas “Thunder” Keller, Chip Jett, Phil Gordon, Jeff Madsen, Sean Sheikhan, John D’Agostino, Hevad Khan, Men “the Master” Nguyen, Gus Hansen, Jon “pokertrip” Friedberg, Bret “Gank” Jungblut, Mike Matusow, and Omaha sensation Scott Clements. I’d imagine that the Full Tilt Poker break room was celebrating in style with so many of its brand name pros making Day 3 of the Main Event.
Those who busted out on Day 2B included 2007 Main Event winner Jerry Yang, Carlos Mortensen, America Pie actress and face of DoylesRoom Shannon Elizabeth, and 95 year-old Jack Ury, who is the oldest player ever to compete in a World Series of Poker event.
The top 666 finishers will take home money. Here’s a look at the payouts:
$9,119,517
1st
$5,790,024
2nd
$4,503,352
3rd
$3,763,515
4th
$3,088,012
5th
$2,412,510
6th
$1,769,174
7th
$1,286,672
8th
$900,670
9th
$591,869
10th-12th
$463,201
13-15
$334,534
16-18
$257,334
19-27
$193,000
28-36
$154,400
37-45
$135,100
46-54
$115,800
55-63
$96,500
64-72
$77,200
73-81
$64,333
82-90
$51,466
91-99
$41,816
100-162
$38,600
163-225
$35,383
226-288
$32,166
289-351
$28,950
352-414
$27,020
415-477
$25,090
478-540
$23,160
541-603
$21,230
604-666