PokerWorks

As the 2009 World Series of Poker began its much-anticipated $10K No-Limit Hold’em Main Event, a successful set of preliminary tournaments was already in the history books. And of the 56 events that had already taken place, eight of those gold bracelet wins were in the hands of Full Tilt Poker Players, two of whom claimed double wins for themselves and their FTP team.

The first event of the WSOP was the employees-only event, but the first open event was the first-time $40K NLHE held in commemoration of the 40th annual WSOP. The hefty buy-in led to an all-star field, and in the end, it was Russian Vitaly Lunkin who came out on top to claim his second ever WSOP bracelet. This one came with nearly $1.8 million in prize money.

With Event 8, the $2,500 Deuce-to-Seven Lowball event, Phil Ivey began his rampage of the WSOP. He won the title, which made for his sixth lifetime bracelet victory, but he wasn’t quite finished. He went on to make other final tables, one of which was in Event 25, where he won the Omaha/Seven-Card Stud Hi-Low title to become one of four players to win double bracelets in 2009 and claim his own personal seventh.

Nick Schulman took his turn to grab a bracelet, his first ever, in the Deuce-to-Seven World Championship (Event 23), and former poker writer-turned-player Roland de Wolfe grabbed his first WSOP title five events later in Event 27, the Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Low tournament. The win for de Wolfe granted him entry into an elite club with only one other member - Gavin Griffin - as the only players to have won the three most prestigious titles in poker - the World Series of Poker, World Poker Tour, and European Poker Tour. It was quite the feat for de Wolfe, who has only been player poker on a professional level for several years.

Greg Mueller came to the Series looking for his first WSOP bracelet and walked away with two of them. He took down Event 33, which was the $10,000 Limit Hold’em World Championship, and then came back to grab a second bracelet in Event 50, the $1.5K Limit Hold’em Shootout. The double win put Mueller in a special group of four players to have won two bracelets at the 2009 WSOP.

And lastly, in the last preliminary event of the Series, Matt Hawrilenko was able to claim victory in the $5K NLHE six-handed tournament, which came along with a first-place prize of over $1 million. His biggest live win to date also garnered him the distinction of being one of the few successful online pros to transition to the live circuit with relative ease.

As the 2009 WSOP Main Event begins, there are chances for the hundreds and hundreds of Full Tilt Poker qualifiers to claim their own victory, one that will likely come with millions of dollars and worldwide notoriety. To join them and begin building your own reputation, download Full Tilt Poker now and use the bonus code “PKRWORKS” to receive a bonus of 100% on any deposit of up to $600. Anyone signing up this way will also be qualified to play in weekly $500 PokerWorks freerolls on Full Tilt.