The theme of some of the recent events at the 2008 World Series of Poker has been “think big.” Just like the old adage “Everything’s bigger in Texas,” everything is indeed bigger at the WSOP. Recent tournaments have boasted rich prize pools and wins by poker novices. Two $1,500 buy-in no limit hold’em tournaments have attracted fields of well over 2,000 players each. The $10,000 buy-in Omaha High-Low Split World Championship dished out over half a million dollars to its victor. With the Main Event, which is the 55th tournament of the WSOP, looming next week, let’s take a look at some of the recent news out of Las Vegas.
In the $1,500 buy-in Seven Card Stud tournament (Event #35), Michael Rocco took home first place and a $135,753 payday. He defeated Al Barbieri heads up. The event drew 381 players and the final table was composed entirely of North American combatants, two from Canada and the rest from the United States. Rocco has been playing poker professionally for over 10 years and commented on his supporters cheering him on at the final table: “I got more phone calls from my friends in the last two days than the last two months – and I don’t even owe them money!” The top 40 players finished in the money.
A field of 2,447 players turned out for Event #36, a $1,500 buy-in no limit tournament. There are seven $1,500 buy-in tournaments on the slate for the 2008 WSOP and each has attracted quite a crowd. In the end, 24 year-old Danish poker player Jesper Hougaard captured his first WSOP bracelet. He became just the second Dane ever to win a gold bracelet. The other was Jan Sorensen, the proud owner of a pair of WSOP bracelets. The Danish poker movement really took off following the success of Gus Hansen, who has experienced success on the World Poker Tour, but has never finished higher than 10th at a WSOP event. Other names you’ll recognize who cashed included Aaron Kanter, Freddy Deeb, Can Hua, Bryan Micon, Isaac Haxton, and PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker winner J.C. Tran. You’ll remember that Tran took down the 2006 WCOOP Main Event.
The $10,000 buy-in Omaha High-Low Split World Championship (Event #37) attracted a decorated field of poker players. The prize pool (well over $2 million) was the largest ever for an Omaha High-Low Split tournament. High stakes poker pro David Benyamine took full advantage of the large field, winning his first WSOP bracelet and pocketing $535,687. You’ll know many of the names of those who cashed: Toto Leonidas, Full Tilt Poker pro Mike Matusow, Ram Vaswani, Chau Giang, and James Van Alstyne. Benyamine commented after his win: “Winning is always important to me. But I never thought I had anything to prove.”
Event #38 was a $2,000 Pot Limit Hold’em tournament that sported a field of 605 entrants. Past winners have included T.J. Cloutier, Phil Hellmuth, David “Devilfish” Ulliott, Daniel Negreanu, Layne Flack, and Johnny Chan. Hellmuth and Chan alone own 22 WSOP bracelets. In 2008, Davidi Kitai became the first player from Belgium ever to take home a bracelet from the World Series of Poker. Eight other countries have been home to 2008 WSOP bracelet winners: Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Russia, and the United States. Kitai took home $244,583 for his efforts. Also cashing were Lee Watkinson, Clonie Gowen, Shane Schleger, Marco Traniello, and PokerStars pro Vanessa Rousso.
In Event #39, which just wrapped up, David Woo battled Matt Wood heads up, eventually emerging victorious in the $1,500 buy-in no limit tournament. The event attracted the second largest field of the 2008 WSOP at 2,720 entrants. Woo is a professional poker player who resides in Atlanta, Georgia. He’s dubbed “The Magnificent” and has been playing professionally for five years. A total of 270 players finished in the money.
The 2008 WSOP Main Event starts on July 3rd. Keep checking back to MacPoker.net for all of the action from the Rio in Las Vegas.