It was a small but solid field of 395 players who started this two-day event. The top forty paid, including Bill Chen (36th $3,612), Paul Darden (27th $4,259), Mimi Tran (21st $4,906), and Ted Forrest (14th $6,201).
Day 2 lasted sixteen hours, from 4:00PM until 8:00AM. When they reached the final table of eight players, they reluctantly decided to play on as morning approached. The chip counts of the remaining eight players:
Michael Keiner (318k)
Barry Greenstein (177k)
Steve Sung (167k)
Nesbitt Coburn (163k)
Dale Phillips (137k)
Greg "Fossilman" Raymer (116k)
John Robertson (82k)
Larry Eubanks (21k)
The first four players went out according to play. Keiner knocked out Larry Eubanks (8th $11,053), Sung crippled Raymer while eliminating John Robertson (7th $15,097). Greenstein then finished off Greg Raymer (6th $19,680). After Dale Phillips' exit (5th $26,150), a quartet remained to go for a WSOP crown.
Steve Sung took a big pot to bring Barry Greenstein to the brink of elimination, his jacks and threes better than Greenstein's sixes and sevens. Nesbitt Coburn then got one of the prized possessions in tournament poker, the personalized, autographed "Ace on the River" from Barry Greenstein (4th $33,698).
Coburn and Keiner took their shots at Steve Sung, and he ended up in 3rd ($51,222). Sung is on a nice roll, with cashes of $125k, $118k, $52k, and now this since December '06.
Both players were extremely fatigued, with Keiner checking made flushes twice at the end of hands. Coburn snuck closer but ultimately the cards flew his opponent's way. Nesbitt Coburn had the best of his seven WSOP cashes (2nd $80,876). The Minnesotan has had solid results in the smaller buy-in events, and this bankroll infusion should help him attack the bigger events.
Michael Keiner (1st $146,987) has been a fixture on the European poker circuit for the last decade. The former physician and cosmetic surgeon joins Matthias Rohnacher (1997 $2.5k PLO) and Eddy Scharf (2001 & 2003 $1.5k Omaha) as the only other Germans to take a bracelet. Scharf had Phil Hellmuth at his table, and now Keiner can say he beat a Main Event champion to win his WSOP bracelet.