PokerWorks

The 2008 WSOP has quite the mix of poker games in the line-up, but Day 18 was one predominantly filled with hold’em. With the sole exception of a PLO final table that will be covered in a separate recap article, everything on this day consisted of hold’em.

For the first hour of the day, the focus wasn’t even on poker but golf. Evidently, a big tournament was taking place and a good portion of the Amazon Room was interested in it. Some of the tournament clocks had been switched to the TV network covering the golf, and a great amount of the players’ focus was on that rather than their cards. However, once Tiger Woods took it down, the room quieted and went back to the intended game of poker.

An overview of the starting day of only one tournament and two Day 2’s follows here:

12noon – Event #31 - $2,500 Six-Handed No-Limit Hold’em (Day 1)

As the only event that began on this day and many of the pros preferring the short-handed action, a large crowd was expected for the tournament. Last year’s event brought 837 players out, while this year topped it with 1,013.

The mix of amateurs and pros looked to be fairly even, and among the recognizable faces in the maze of tables were Nam Le, David Pham, Scott Clements, Andy Black, Max Pescatori, Toto Leonidas, Kevin Saul, Lee Watkinson, Jordan Morgan, and Chad Brown. Coming in fashionably late were Phil Ivey and Tony G. Among the first eliminated from the tournament were Rolf Slotboom, Mimi Tran, Men Nguyen, Alan Sass, Humberto Brenes, and Noah Boeken.

At the end of the day, the players had made the money and 73 would return for Day 2 play action. The chip leader was Alon Shahar, and Dario Minieri was in second chip position.

2pm – Event #29 - $3,000 No-Limit Hold’em (Day 2)

When 716 players sat down on Day 1 to play a little NLHE, not many would have predicted that only 81 would survive the day. The chip leader at the end of the day was Alex Zaslavsky, and no other players were very close to his stack. The most notable player in that top ten was John Phan, but it was early in the game and it belonged to anybody who could navigate through Day 2.

Though they were still a few players outside the money and did require a little hand-for-hand action when Day 2 began, but it was done quickly as Roberto Romanelo cordially accepted the position of bubble boy. Players then let it go quickly, and some of the names eliminated soon after the money bubble were Dan Shak, Jeff King, Kristy Gazes, Beth Shak, and Barney Boatman.

Eventually, the final nine were determined, and the following players would return to play for a WSOP bracelet:

Matt Vengrin 1,007,500
Johnny Neckar 796,000
David Singer 534,000
Stewart Newman 398,000
John Phan 396,500
Thuy Doan 369,500
David Singer 334,000
Tony Dunst 333,000
Sebastian Segovia 128,500

3pm – Event #30 - $10,000 World Championship Limit Hold’em (Day 2)

Considering this was a $10,000 buy-in, it was understandable that despite the public’s love of LHE, there were only 218 players signed up for this event. And through the course of Day 1, more than half went down and out, while 97 survived. There were some big names in the top ten alone – J.C. Tran (chip leader), Terrence Chan, Justin Bonomo, David Oppenheim, and Alex Kravchenko – not to mention the rest of the field.

Day 2 began with eliminations like Liz Lieu and Mike Wattel, but it took some time to actually get to the money bubble when the top 27 would be paid. As the night progressed, it was Tim Kasparoff who became the bubble player, and then players like Alex Kravchenko, Terrence Chan, Hoyt Corkins, Dewey Tomko, Michael Mizrachi, Todd Witteles, Tex Barch, Steve Sung, Eric Froehlich, and Eric Buchman left with a little extra cash in their pockets.

In the end, the final nine players of this world championship event were:

Aaron Katz 1,232,000
Rob Hollink 893,000
Tommy Hang 578,000
Jerrod Ankenman 441,000
Andy Bloch 370,000
J.C. Tran 247,000
Cy Jassinowsky 231,000
Chris Vitch 201,000
Brock Parker 166,000