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The $5,000 buy-in Six-Handed No-Limit Hold’em championship, Event #46, was held June 26th-28th and attracted 805 entries. The top 78 finishers shared the largest prize pool in history for this event which totaled $3,783,500. Entries in this event showed an increase of 11 percent over 2007, when there were 728 entries. The Six-Handed No-Limit Hold’em tournament was first added to the WSOP schedule in 2005 and saw Doyle Brunson collecting his tenth WSOP gold bracelet in that inaugural event.

Six-Handed Hold’em emphasizes short-handed poker skills, which requires a different style of play than the play at a full table with nine players. Each table is played six-handed or less when players bust out, requiring players to play hands they may not usually play. This shorthanded format also makes post-flop skill much more important to achieve victory.  Six-Handed Hold’em was included on the WSOP schedule in an effort to measure as diverse a range of poker skills as possible. 

The defending champion for this event was Bill Edler, who did not enter this tournament.  This brings the current streak to 45 straight non-cashes for defending champions in their respective events.

The tournament was played over three consecutive days, with Day Two running much longer than expected at close to 15 hours.  On Day Three, the final table was played on the ESPN main stage and was broadcast live by Bluff Media on ESPN360.

The 2008 Six-Handed No-Limit Hold’em champion is Joe Commisso, a 28-year-old poker pro from Las Vegas, NV.   This was Commisso’s his first time ever to cash at the WSOP and what great timing he had. Not only did he gain a gold bracelet, but he also won $911,830, which was the highest first place prize money of any completed event to this day.  Before deciding to play poker for a living, Commisso was involved in what many consider another form of gambling, he was a stocks day trader online.

Originally from New Jersey, this was only the fifth live tournament Commisso had ever played in.  He cashed previously at only one major tournament; a WSOP Circuit event held in Atlantic City back in 2005, which paid $3,048. Commisso is a cash game player and does not even like playing in poker tournaments.  Despite his big victory, Commisso admitted he plans to enter very few tournaments in the future.  Commisso stated that he slept only a few hours in the off-time between Days Two and Three.  “I got home at 6 a.m. and slept only a few hours,” he said.  “Then, Miles woke me up.”  Miles is Commisso’s pug dog that was named for jazz great Miles Davis.
The final table began at 2 p.m. and ended at 11:30 p.m., which totaled 9.5 hours of play after which Rich Lyndaker, from Chaumont, NY was the second place finisher, winning $570,551.
The heads-up match between Commisso and Lyndaker was epic in both length and drama as the two finalists played over 200 hands together heads up.  By contrast, it took only about 70 hands to eliminate the first four players from the finale. The heads-up match was quite exciting when Lyndaker managed to double-up an astounding 12 consecutive times against Commisso.  On 10 of those 12 hands, the worst starting hand ended up winning the pot.

Finally, with Commisso holding onto a precarious 2 to 1 advantage, he managed to finally bust his worthy adversary.
Sam Trickett, from Nottingham, England was the fourth-place finisher. Prior to embarking on his poker career, Trickett played professional soccer in England, until he suffered a knee injury and was forced to quit the game. Davidi Kitai, who won the Pot-Limit Omaha championship just days earlier, made it to his second final table, this time finishing in sixth place.

Former WSOP gold bracelet winners who cashed in this event were:

•    Eddy Scharf - 22nd
•    Peter Alana Smurfit -75th

With his 38th place finish in this event, Nikolay Evdakov, from Moscow, Russia tied the record set for “Most WSOP Cashes in a Single Year,” shared by five players -- Michael Binger (2007), Chad Brown (2007), Phil Hellmuth (2006), Richard Tatalovich (2006), and Humberto Brenes (2006), with eight.  
The four players who cashed six times so far at this year’s WSOP were:

•    Chau Giang
•    Rolf Slotboom
•    Alex Jacob
•    Roland Isra.

Through the conclusion of Event #46 at this year’s World Series of Poker, the gold bracelet count by nations and states read:

11 – Nevada
7 – California
4 – New York
3—Canada
3 – Germany
2 – Italy
2 – Missouri
1 – Belgium
1 – Denmark
1 – Florida
1 – France
1 – Georgia
1 – Holland
1 – Maryland
1 – Michigan
1 – Ohio
1 – Pennsylvania
1 – Russia
1 – South Carolina
1 – Wisconsin

Nine different nations have produced a gold bracelet winner at this year’s WSOP including; Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Russia, and the United States.

The “Pro-Am” gold bracelet scoreboard tally read: 

Professionals – 33 wins
Amateurs -- 10 wins
Semi-Pros --    2 wins

The Milwaukee’s Best Light “Player of the Year” standings showed:

1. Jacobo Fernandez – 227 points  
2. David Benyamine – 220 points
3. John Phan – 215 points
4. Barry Greenstein – 190 points
5. Erick Lindgren – 185 points

At the end of event #48, David Benyamine was the leader on the 2008 prize money list, having won the most money at the WSOP, to date with accrued winnings of $941,651. 

Final Results for Event #46:

1    Joe Commisso    $911,855    Las Vegas    Nevada
2    Richard Lyndaker    $570,551    Chaumont    New York
3    Edward Ochana    $368,891    Elgin    Illinois
4    Sam Trickett    $245,927    Nottingham    England
5    Tom Lutz    $174,041    Dayton    Ohio
6    Davidi Kitai    $120,693    Belgium    Brussels
7    Will Failla    $82,858    Commack    New York
8    Jimmy Wong    $82,858        
9    Steven Ware    $63,941    North Caldwell    New Jersey
10    Bryan Pope    $63,941        
11    Alex Jacob    $45,023    Tulsa    Oklahoma
12    Leo Kam    $45,023    Ottawa    Ontario, Canada
13    Jesper Petersen    $31,781    Aarhus    Denmark
14    Jason Gray    $31,781    Troutdale    Ontario, Canada
15    Paul Foltyn    $31,781    Doncaster    England
16    Bertrand Grospellier    $31,781    London    England
17    Karl Wiklund    $31,781    Norrkoping    Sweden
18    Joanne Liu    $31,781    Las Vegas    Nevada
19    Robert Forsman    $26,106    Norrkoping    Sweden
20    Gabriellson Ferit    $26,106        
21    Riku Koivurinne    $26,106    Hameenkyro    Finland
22    Eddy Scharf    $26,106    Cologne    Germany
23    Magnus Persson    $26,106    Gothenburg    Sweden
24    Keith Hawkins    $26,106    Darlington    England
25    Christopher Kline    $20,430    Columbus    Ohio
26    Maurizio Biasini    $20,430    Florence    Italy
27    Andrey Zaichenko    $20,430    Moscow    Russia
28    Shannon Shorr    $20,430    Binmingham    Alabama
29    Raymond Henson    $20,430    Spring    Texas
30    Elliot Smith    $20,430    Richmond    British Columbia, Canada
31    Ryan Daut    $16,647    Basking Ridge    New Jersey
32    Steven Weusten    $16,647    Leeuwarden    Netherlands
33    David Farber    $16,647    Heathrow    Florida
34    Christopher Dombrowski    $16,647    Dade City    Florida
35    Bryn Kenney    $16,647    Long Beach    New York
36    Christo Vlassis    $16,647    Corfu    Greece
37    Phillip Sparta    $14,377    Fairfax    Virginia
38    Nikolay Evdakov    $14,377    Moscow    Russia
39    Tony Hachem    $14,377    Victoria    Australia
40    Yuri Bokkel    $14,377    Tillburg    Netherlands
41    Keith Tilston    $14,377    Austin    Texas
42    Richard Murnick    $14,377    U. Montclair    New Jersey
43    Craig Duffy    $12,107        Australia
44    Greg Pierson    $12,107    Woodland    Washington
45    Patryk Hildebranski    $12,107    Kitchener    Ontario, Canada
46    Edward Martin    $12,107    New York    New York
47    Darrel Dicken    $12,107    Waterloo    Iowa
48    Mikael Hogbom    $12,107    Gaule    Sweden
49    Jonathan Aguiar    $10,972    Las Vegas    Nevada
50    Eugene Todd    $10,972    Brooklyn    New York
51    Jason Mercier    $10,972    Davie    Florida
52    Benjamin Hamnett    $10,972    Holbrook    Pennsylvania
53    Michael Mcclain    $10,972    Davis    California
54    James Burgoine    $10,972         
55    Adam Elpayaa    $9,837    Forest Park    Illinois
56    Cliff Pappas    $9,837    Scottsdale    Arizona
57    Michael Goldberg    $9,837    Salt Lake City    Utah
58    William Elliot    $9,837    St  Catharines    Ontario, Canada
59    Aaron Wilt    $9,837    Kansas City    Missouri
60    Eric Mutrie    $9,837    Kitchener    Ontario, Canada
61    Jens Klaning    $9,080    Aarhus    Denmark
62    Nathan Sumrall    $9,080    Dallas    Georgia
63    Ken Einiger    $9,080    Las Vegas    Nevada
64    Nicholas Binger    $9,080    Las Vegas    Nevada
65    Daniel Shak    $9,080    Bryn Mawr    Pennsylvania
66    Michael Glasser    $9,080    Boca Raton    Florida
67    Alexander Millar    $8,323    Northants    England
68    Jonathan Heath    $8,323    Stafford    England
69    Glen Chorny    $8,323    Waterloo    Ontario, Canada
70    Devin Lake    $8,323    Calgary    Alberta, Canada
71    Robert Eckstut    $8,323    Somerville    Massachusetts
72    Richard Ashby    $8,323    Watford    England
73    Philip Yeh    $8,323    Stenungsund    Sweden
74    Chris McCormack    $8,323    Las Vegas    Nevada
75    Peter Alan Smurfit    $8,323    Aventura    Florida
76    Frederick Halling    $8,323    Vasteras    Sweden
77    Alan Adler    $8,323    Bakersfield    California
78    Steven Goosen    $8,323    Abbotsford    British Columbia, Canada