[OLD HEAD]

World Series Of Poker 2008
Tournament Updates And Results
06/01/2008

For anyone interested in the World Series Of Poker, I will keep this post going until it is over.

EVENT #1 World Championship Pot- Limit Hold'em.

352 Entrants @ $10,000

Prize Pool $3,308,800

1st-$794,112
2nd-$488,048
3rd-$306,064
4th-$248,160
5th-$198,528
6th-$157,168
7th-$124,080
8th-$99,264
9th-$74,448
10th-12th$49,632
13th-15th$41,360
16th-18th$33,088
19th-27th$26,470
28th-36th$23,162

At this time four players remain.

Andy Bloch
Nenad Medic
Mike Sexton
Kathy Liebert

Back Later

Good Luck In All Your Poker Games!

[OLD HEAD]

Final Seats Going Fast for Sunday’s Noon Start

Las Vegas, NV (May 31, 2008) – Just two days into the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Presented by Milwaukee’s Best Light a new record has been set – the most ever players entered into any tournament – outside of a WSOP Main Event.

Event #2, the $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em tournament thus far has attracted more than 3,500 poker enthusiasts for the two-day starting tournament. Today, a capacity crowd of 2,048 participants flooded the Amazon Room at the Rio to try and turn their $1,500 entry fee into an estimated $750,000 first place prize.

“This is a great start,” said WSOP Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack. “The sound of chips chirping throughout the Rio is a welcome return for all of us who love poker.”

An additional 1,550 entrants are pre-registered for the second day of Event #2 which starts tomorrow. For those players seeking to be a part of history – there is still room for approximately 500 more entrants to register for this event – but procrastinators must act fast, because seats are filling up rapidly.

The tournament closes officially when 2,050 slots are filled for Sunday. The final entrant number and prize pool statistics will be official and made available around 3:00 PM Sunday – but the possibility this event will reach 4,000 entrants remains strong.

The tournament is expected to last four days.

The record number (still to be determined) has already shattered the old high mark of 3,151 set during the final week of last year’s WSOP. The previous record was set in Event #49 – also a $1,500 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em tournament.

While Main Events have attracted as many as 8,773 players (in 2006), no other tournament has ever attracted as large a field as today’s event. Today’s event ranks at the fourth-largest poker tournament of all-time.

After a smooth start with the University of Nevada-Las Vegas Marching Band trumpeting “Viva Las Vegas” on Friday, a star-studded field of 352 players turned out to play in the first World Championship event, a $10,000 Pot Limit Hold’em tournament that began with legendary 10-time WSOP bracelet winner Doyle Brunson initiating the proceedings with the traditional “Shuffle Up and Deal” announcement.

All 55 bracelets are still up for grabs, with the first one set to be awarded on Monday.

UPDATE 3,929 are in this $1,500 No- Limit Hold'em Poker Tournament. Not quite 4,000 but Strong!
__________________________________

[OLD HEAD]

Nenad Medic wins the World Championship Pot-Limit Hold'em Event 1.
Takes home a cool $794,112 and his first bracelet. Andy Bolch comes in
second. Event 1 now in the books for the 2008 World Series Of Poker.

[OLD HEAD]

EVENT 2

No-Limit Hold'em

$1,500 Buy-In
Total Prize Pool $5,363,085
First Prize $831,462
Total Entrants 3929

Welcome to Day 2 of Event #2, $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em.06/02/2008.
After two action-packed opening sessions that saw a new attendance record established for a WSOP event other than the Main Event itself, the survivors will readjourn on Monday to play into the money and well toward the final table.
447 survivors of the record 3,929-player field will return for play beginning at 2pm, all working toward a first-place winner's check of $831,462. First, though, comes the bursting of the money bubble, which will occur when the 379th-place finisher is sent to the rail, guaranteeing the 378 survivors a minimum payday of $2,949 each.
The money bubble should burst within the first couple hours of play. The Day 2 field will be topped by David Bach. Bach tallied 115,400 in chips to top both sessions, though several other players remain close on his heels.
The overall top ten as Day 2 begins is as follows: David Bach 115,400 Alan Puzantyan 111,400 David Robertson 109,100 Ryan D'Angelo 105,800 Frank Sinopoli 103,900 Pat White 92,300 Shane Schleger 89,000 Henry Tran 80,300 John Carlson 80,200 Grant Hinkle 77,800

[OLD HEAD]

Nenad Medic: Bracelet Winner
Event 1 World Championship Pot-Limit Hold'em
World Series Of Poker 2008

When you look at Nenad Medic, you’re not going to think ‘poker player’. At a broad, built 6’3”, the man looks more like a mixed martial artist than a poker player, but beneath the thick exterior lies the lethal combination of competitive will and advanced comprehension of the nuances of the game. That’s what’s made him one of the best players in the world.

David Williams was one of a dozen professionals in attendance cheering Medic on during the final table of Sunday’s $10,000 pot limit world championship. “It’s tough to say anyone’s the best no limit cash game player in the world, but he’s definitely in the discussion. He’s one of the best cash game players there is.”

Born in Serbia, but raised in Canada from the age of five, “Big Serb” hasn’t been too shabby in tournament play either. In 2006, he won the World Poker Tour’s World Poker Finals at Foxwoods, taking home $1,717,194. In ’07, his big score was a third place finish in the same event. Now, he adds a bracelet to his trophy case, leaving little doubt he’s one of poker’s true stars. After the $794,112 he won in Event #1, his career winnings total $3,654,183. Not bad for a cash game player.

To take the title, Medic had to overcome a star-laden final table featuring a remarkable final foursome. After Phil Laak, Mike Sowers, Patrik Antonius, Chris Bell and Amit Makhija went out in order, the field was down to a remarkable collection of four players; Medic, Andy Bloch, Kathy Liebert and Mike Sexton. The four battled for hours before Sexton finally went down.

Liebert would be the next to go. In a remarkable hand, she moved all-in on the short stack on the strength of pocket sixes only to be raised by Bloch’s pocket nines. When the action the action went back to Medic on the button and he couldn't fold his pocket queens, moved all-in himself, then after Bloch called, hit a queen on the flop.

“Most of the players were excellent. There were only one or two guys I didn’t know and they were internet geniuses. Obviously it was a very tough final table,” said Liebert after her elimination. “I mean, you always want to get first but to come in to the day eighth in chips and move up and get third is pretty good. I knew I had a shot to win it, so it’s bittersweet, but I feel good about the performance.”

With Liebert gone, Medic held a better-than 2:1 advantage in chips and never relinquished it. For Bloch, the second-place finish has to be bittersweet, as he remains one of the world’s best-established tournament players to have never won a WSOP bracelet. Bloch had come into the day as a massive chip leader and held the advantage through the entirety of final table play until the three-way pot eliminating Liebert left him behind the eight ball. Despite the heads-up prowess demonstrated by his NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship runner-up finish, Bloch was unable to reverse the tide, once again leaving him the bridesmaid. The $488,048 he got for second should ease his pain.

In the end, this night was about Medic. Whilst basking in the glow of his victory, Medic was still thoughtful and collected in his thoughts. “There are a lot of great players who don’t have a bracelet like my man Grinder (Michael Mizrachi, who was in attendance for moral support). It means a lot, but the bracelet doesn’t make the player. The Foxwoods win was a lot of money, but this was probably a tougher field, I don’t know. They’re both great honors.”

Asked afterwards about the money, Medic said something about a new car, but was hardly ready to sit on his laurels. “I'm coming back tomorrow (to play in event #4, $5,000 - Mixed Hold'em (Limit/No-Limit). Hopefully, I will get gold bracelet number two. I'm not going to be satisfied until I get gold bracelet number three, but of course, I have to be realistic. I'm joking of course…just to make it to a final table is tough enough."

Gary Wise blog at WSOP Blog

Good Luck!

[OLD HEAD]

Nenad Medic
Event 1 Winner
Profile

Bluff-ESPN Power Ranking:
Total WSOP & Circuit Earnings: $849,069

WSOP Bracelets: 1
WSOP Cashes: 4
WSOP Earnings: $836,987

Circuit Cashes: 1
Circuit Earnings: $12,082

Birthplace: Serbia
Resides: Niagara Falls, Ontario

• Played basketball at University of Waterloo and played poker with teammates.

• During Event 1 of the 2008 World Series of Poker, play was still four-handed and during a break, final table rival Mike Sexton (who was still alive in the tournament) remarked that he thought Medic is “one of the toughest No-Limit Hold’em players (he) has ever seen.”

• Full Tilt Professional

Play At Full Tilt
Use Promo Code Easy Money

[OLD HEAD]

World Series Of Poker 2008

Championship Pot-Limit Hold'em (Event 1)

Winners List

1.Nenad Medic $794,112
2.Andrew Bloch $488,048
3.Kathy Liebert $306,064
4.Mike Sexton $248,160
5.Amit Makhija $198,528
6.Chris Bell $157,168
7.Patrik Antonius $124,080
8.Mike Sowers $99,264
9.Phil Laak $74,448
10.John Kabbaj $49,632
11.Ryan Young $49,632
12.Nikolay Evdakov $49,632
13.David Benefield $41,360
14.Chris Gildone $41,360
15.Justin Newton $41,360
16.Andreas Krause $33,088
17.Alexander Kostritsyn $33,088
18.Michael Pesek $33,088
19.Eli (Mr. Vegas) Elezra $26,470
20.Rolf Slotboom $26,470
21.Anthony Licastro $26,470
22.Dustin (Neverwin) Woolf $26,470
23.David Stroj $26,470
24.Vivek Rajkumar $26,470
25.Ted (Edward) Lawson $26,470
26.Joseph Sanders $26,470
27.Jerri Thomas $26,470
28.Ben Sprengers $23,162
29.Raphael Zimmerman $23,162
30.Mark Newhouse $23,162
31.Matthew Graham $23,162
32.Charles (Chuck) Pacheco $23,162
33.David Bach 23,162
34.Marco Johnson $23,162
35.Thomas Vinas $23,162
36.Kanzuki Ikeuchi $23,162

[OLD HEAD]

2008 39th Annual World Series of Poker
No-Limit Hold'em (Event 2)

EVENT #2 No Limit Hold'em

Entrants 3929 @ $1,500

Prize Pool $5,363,085

1st $831,279
2nd $520,219
3rd $388,287
4th $327,148
5th $268,154
6th $211,842
7th $158,211
8th $117,988
9th $83,128
10th-12th $52,022
13th-15th $41,296
16th-18th $30,570
19th-27th $24,134
28th-36th $18,771
37th-45th $14,480
46th-54th $12,871
55th-63rd $11,262
64th-72nd $9,654
73rd-81st $8,045
82nd-90th $6,972
91st-99th $5,899
100th-126th $4,827
127th-162nd $4,559
163rd-198th $4,290
199th-234th $4,022
235th-270th $3,754
271st-306th $3,486
307th-342nd $3,218
343rd-378th $2,950

[OLD HEAD]

2008 39th Annual World Series of Poker
Pot-Limit Hold'em (Event 3)

EVENT #3 Pot-Limit Hold'em

Entrants 713 @ $1,500

Prize Pool

1st $214,131
2nd $136,643
3rd $82,725
4th $67,640
5th $55,474
6th $43,796
7th $34,063
8th $26,764
9th $19,464
10th-12th $12,165
13th-15th $9,732
16th-18th $7,299
19th-27th $5,547
28th-36th $4,574
37th-45th $3,601
46th-54th $3,309
55th-63rd$3,017
64th-72nd$2,725

[OLD HEAD]

Prop Bet City: Las Vegas

World Series Of Poker 2008

Last year Eli Elezra bet that certain players would not win a bracelet.
He won a reported $750,000.
This year, at it once again, his main target Phil Ivey says bring it on.
Phil Ivey put up $500,000 to Elezra's $900,000 saying yes I will!
According to Gary Wise at wisehand poker.net there are a few other takers as well as Eli.
Gary Raymer put up $18,000 to win $10,000 saying Phil will not win that bracelet.
Ted Forrest says "Phil is stealing... as usual. Phil is probably 6-5 or 7-5 true price on winning a bracelet".
Knowing Phil I would have to say he has a good shot in any of the shorter field tournaments.
Look for him to do well, if not win, in H.O.R.S.E.


Good Luck Phil!

[OLD HEAD]

2008 39th Annual World Series of Poker
Mixed Hold'em (Limit/No-Limit) (Event 4)

EVENT #4 Mixed Hold'em

Entrants 332 @ $5,000

Prize Pool $1,560,400


1st $374,505
2nd $230,159
3rd $144,337
4th $117,030
5th $93,624
6th $74,119
7th $58,515
8th $46,812
9th $35,109
10th-12th $23,406
13th-15th $19,505
16th-18th $15,604
19th-27th $12,483
28th-36th $10,922

[OLD HEAD]

EVENT #2

3929 -Players Down To Ten

Here are the remaining players updated chip counts:

James Akenhead - 1,995,000
Aaron Coulthard - 1,510,000
Theo Tran - 1,420,000
Mike Ngo - 1,375,000
Melvin Jones - 1,280,000
Chris Ferguson - 1,235,000
Jeff Wiedenhoeft - 880,000
Joe Rutledge - 785,000
Grant Hinkle - 680,000
David Bach - 675,000

[OLD HEAD]

Congratulations to Grant Hinkle, Champion of Event #2
($ 831,462)

We have our champion -Grant Hinkle has won Event #2. "So Grant, is the ten-four suited your new favorite hand?" Norman Chad asked him after the tournament ended. "Quad tens is," said Hinkle. In his interview, Hinkle mentioned he had to reschedule his flight home fives times due to his consistent success in the tournament.
"I"m supposed to be on a flight at 6:45 this morning, so I'm gonna have to reschedule that one too," he said. His mother, Lynn Hinkle, learned of his son's success this morning at 10:30. She says she was on a Southwest Airlines flight by 11:30. "I'm coming out...I'm his mom...he can't stop me," she proudly declared.
Hinkle bested the largest field ever in non main event by outlasting 3,928 other competitors to take home the title. When asked about his decision to quit his job he said that was a decision he won't rush into. "I don't know yet...I need to talk it over with my wife and my family...we'll see," he said. Whether Hinkle decides to turn pro or not, he has what many would do anything for - a coveted gold bracelet, and his very own place in the history books...oh and $831,462 to go with it.

[OLD HEAD]

2008 39th Annual World Series of Poker

No-Limit Hold'em (Event 2)

378 Players finished in the money.Here are the top twelve.
The prize pool was over $5,000,000

1.Grant Hinkle $831,462
2.James Akenhead $520,219
3.Chris (Jesus) Ferguson $388,287
4.Theo Tran $327,148
5.Mike Ngo $268,154
6.Aaron Coulthard $211,841
7.Melvin Jones $158,211
8.David Bach $117,987
9.Joe Rutledge $83,127
10.Jeff Wiedenhoeft $52,021
11.Perry Friedman $52,021
12.Minh Nguyen $52,021

[OLD HEAD]

2008 39th Annual World Series of Poker
No-Limit Hold'em w/ReBuys (Event 5)


EVENT #5 No-Limit Hold'em w/ReBuys

Tuesday, June 03, 2008 to Thursday, June 05, 2008

Buy-in: $1,000

Prizepool: $2,894,094

Entries: 766 Rebuys & Add-ons: 2,258

1st $636,736
2nd $406,330
3rd $245,997
4th $201,139
5th $164,963
6th $130,234
7th $130,234
8th $79,587
9th $57,881
10th-12th $36,176
13th-15th $28,940
16th-18th $21,705
19th-27th $16,496
28th-36th $13,602
37th-45th $10,708
46th-54th $9,839
55th-63rd $8,971
64th-72nd $8,103

[OLD HEAD]

2008 39th Annual World Series of Poker
Pot-Limit Hold'em (Event 3)

EVENT #3 Pot Limit Hold'em

Buy-in: $1,500

Prizepool: $973,245

Entries: 713

TOP 12

1.David Singer $214,122
2.Jacobo Fernandez-Hernandez $136,644
3.Gregory Alston $82,726
4.Robert Lipkin $67,641
5.Russel Harriman $55,475
6.Joe Tehan $43,796
7.Zachary King $34,064
8.Al Barbieri $26,764
9.Glen Bean $19,465
10.Ryan Fair $12,166
11.Brandon Schaefer $12,166
12.Doug (Rico) Carli $12,166

[OLD HEAD]

EVENT #4

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 01:27:39
Congratulations to Erick Lindgren, Champion of Event No. 4 ($374,505)
No more "best without a bracelet" for E-Dog! After numerous WSOP cashes and final table near misses, Erick Lindgren has finally claimed his first WSOP bracelet, outlasting 331 others to win this year's Event No. 4, the $5,000 Mixed Limit/No Limit Hold'em event.

The night started on the right foot for Lindgren when he knocked out ninth-place finisher Isaac Haxton on the second hand of the final table. Lindgren continued to build his stack from there, and entered heads up with about a 3-to-2 chip advantage over Justin "ZeeJustin" Bonomo. After holding steady through the initial no-limit round of play, Lindgren began taking sizable pots off of Bonomo in the limit round. Then, in the 40th hand of heads up, Lindgren finally claimed the last of Bonomo's chips and the bracelet was his.

This was an ESPN televised final table, so Norman Chad has just conducted an interview with Lindgren from behind the enormous stack of cash collected on the table. Chad asked Lindgren if he was worried about perhaps never winning a bracelet. "It was really on my mind," answered Lindgren. "Until the final card turned, I was worried that he would come back." Lindgren added some complimentary words about Bonomo. They chatted a bit about young phenoms like the 22-year-old second-place finisher. Then Chad, pointing out that Lindgren was past age 30, asked him if perhaps he thought his best years of poker were behind him. "Are you kidding me?" answered Lindgren incredulously. "Doyle thinks his best years are ahead of him!" They are shooting photos of Lindgren and his winning hand. That's one genuine smile he's got going there. All in all a very memorable night from the Rio.

[OLD HEAD]

JUNE 5, 2008 - 3:29:19 AM PST

A Healthier, Wealthier "Mouth"


Where did you go Mike Matusow? Walking around the Amazon Room Thursday, he appeared to be a really thin shell of his former self. There was no screaming. There was no attacking of lovable man-sized peanut characters. There were no fumes rising from the ears. There was only a cool, calm, collected, slim, focused man in his place who seems ready to kick ass at this year’s World Series of Poker.

One year ago, Matusow and Ted Forrest made a monumental wager. With “The Mouth” weighing in at a robust 241lbs, they bet on whether Matusow could lose a whopping 60 lbs over one year’s time. The conditions stated he had to weigh in at midnight on Wednesday, June 3rd. He did.

“The weigh in was at 12:01 this morning” Matusow said. “I weighed in at 179lbs and I won the bet. I was 241lbs a year ago today and had to be at 181lbs today.” Asked how much he weighed on January 1st, he smiled and said “235.”

“The hard push really started the last eight or nine days and it seemed that no matter how hard I ran, nothing fell off. I started running eight miles a day instead of four, only lost 2-3 pounds. The last four days I went on the lemonade diet – lemonade, cayenne pepper and maple syrup. I didn’t eat for 98 hours straight and that and running eight miles the first day, eight miles the second day and four on the third…I couldn’t run after that, my body was dead. Pretty much the toughest day was yesterday, I had to not eat or drink to dehydrate myself but I made it. I don’t want to ever do it again.”

This is hardly the first time Forrest has made headlines with his prop betting. Forrest is known to have engaged in each of the following wagers:
1.He won a $10,000 bet that he could do a standing back fli
2.He won a bet against John Hennigan in which he had to drink 10 beers in 30 minutes.
3.He lost a bet with David Oppenheim that he could do 50 - 225lb. bench presses in a single day, tearing a tendon midway through .
4.He bet high stakes backgammon professional Mike Svobodny that he could run a marathon on the hottest day of the year in Vegas, winning $7,000.
5.He bet Hennigan $10,000 that Huck Seed's brother Leif could not run to L.A. from Las Vegas while only sleeping twice. He lost when Leif injured his Achilles' tendon midway.
6.He won a $30,000 bet with Howard Lederer over a tennis match in which Lederer was given the doubles alley in order to handicap Forrest.

Forrest has confirmed Matusow’s victory and the payments been settled. The two aren’t done with the weight bets yet. “We’re working on another bet,” said Matusow. “If I weigh in over 185lbs on the first of the month on any month I’ll have to pay $10,000. I’ll never be heavy again. I let myself go because I was just laying on my bed eating pizzas every day so, when you play internet poker you can get fat quick. I know now that I’ll always run every day. I love running. Instead of forty minutes twice a day I’ll just run 30 minutes once a day, but I’ll keep doing it.”


The WSOP seems to bring out the biggest and best in proposition betting. This year, Phil Ivey is rumored to have bet as much as $2,000,000 on himself winning a bracelet at odds ranging from 1.8-1 to 2.3-1. his biggest bet was for $500,000 against Eli Elezra, who made over $750,000 a year ago by betting assorted professionals they couldn’t win a bracelet. Ivey was one of them.

Now healthy, now fit, Matusow is ready for a stellar WSOP. “It’s going to be a good World Series for me, you’ll see.” Now in better shape to handle the grind of a tournament, only two big issues stand in the way of his success here; 1) Will his body, weakened by crash dieting, be able to withstand the wear of the WSOP and 2) Whether now, with $100,000 in his pocket, a man who has generally thrived on the desperation poverty provides can find the competitive streak needed to triumph here. Time will tell.

by Gary Wise blog @wisehandpoker .net

[OLD HEAD]

2008 39th Annual World Series of Poker
Mixed Hold'em (Limit/No-Limit) (Event 4)

EVENT #4

Buy-in: $5,000

Prizepool: $1,560,400

Entries: 332

Top 12 in the money.

1.Erick Lindgren $374,505
2.Justin Bonomo $230,159
3.Andrew Robl $144,337
4.Roland De Wolfe $117,030
5.David (Chino) Rheem $93,624
6.Howard Lederer $74,119
7.David Williams $58,515
8.Pat Pezzin $46,812
9.Isaac Haxton $35,109
10.Ron Haeri $23,406
11.Chau Giang $23,406
12.Benjamin Zamani $23,406

[OLD HEAD]

2008 39th Annual World Series of Poker
No-Limit Hold'em w/ReBuys (Event 5)

EVENT #5

Buy-in: $1,000

Prizepool: $2,894,094

Entries: 766 Rebuys & Add-ons: 2,258

Top 12 In The Money

1.Michael Banducci $636,736
2.Jeff Williams $406,330
3.Peter Gould $245,997
4.Lyric Duveyoung $201,139
5.Alan Jaffray $164,963
6.Jonathan Aguiar $130,234
7.Michael Binger $101,293
8.Steven Gross $79,587
9.Jamie Rosen $57,881
10.Phi Nguyen $36,176
11.Randy Haddox $36,176
12.Adam Levy $36,176