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Reese honoured by Scotty Nguyen’s victory in Vegas

The first $50,000 H.O.R.S.E event to be played at the World Series of Poker since the death of Chip Reese was won in typically flamboyant fashion by another poker legend: Scotty Nguyen.

Reese, who passed away in December last year, was the winner of the inaugural event when it was first introduced to the World Series of Poker schedule back in 2006 and was seen by many of his peers as the best player to have ever played the game.

It was because of Reese’s high standing in the game that the WSOP decided to award the winner of this year’s H.O.R.S.E event with a special trophy named in the legend’s honor. It was a decision that raised the standing of the tournament even higher and ultimately brought the best out of all those who found themselves sat around the final table.

The last eight players were an elite group indeed. Nguyen was joined by Barry Greenstein, Erick Lindgren and another Main Event champion, Huck Seed. to battle it out for the bracelet.

By his own high standards, Nguyen had been having a difficult time lately. Having been performing poorly in tournaments, he found himself leading the Main Event with only 12 players left before crashing out dramatically in eleventh place.

This time round though there was to be no such collapse.

By the time Scotty found himself in a heads up position Michael DeMichele, he had built up an impressive chip of almost 6:1 and it wasn’t long before he put his large stack to good use.

After around a dozen hands of hold-em heads up play, DeMichele raised preflop with A 3. Nguyen kept quite for a little moment before telling his opponent “It’s gonna be all over baby” and moving all in with A 10.

DeMichele called the raise, but couldn’t get any help from the flop and found himself eliminated in second place ($1,423,200)

Scotty Nguyen walked away with a cheque for $1,989,120 making him the only player to have won both the H.O.R.S.E championship and the World Championship.  More importantly though, it gave him the belief that he still had what it takes to win a big one.

“The $50K H.O.R.S.E. event is the best all around player - number 1 in the world” he told his supporters after the victory. “Nobody can walk up to me and say, Scotty, you’re second, baby”

Typical Scotty. It’s good to have him back …

Matusow wins third WSOP bracelet

You’d be forgiven for thinking that a marathon 12 hour final-table session may have been enough to leave even Mike Matusow short of breath. That wasn’t the case though as “The Mouth” won the 2-7 Draw Lowball event at the World Series of Poker.

With 85 players contributing 272 re-buys, the prize pool was an impressive $1,735,020 meaning that on average each player had contributed $20,000 to the overall prize pool.

The Full Tilt Poker professional had to work hard for the $537,862 first prize though, overcoming some of the world’s top poker players who refused to lie down. Erick Lindgren, Tony G and 2007 WSOP Player of the Year, Tom “DonkeyBomber” Schneider were amongst those players involved in what turned out to be a see-saw battle royale.

However it was Tony G and fellow pro David Benyamine who crashed out early finishing in sixth and seventh place respectively. They were followed to the rail by Schneider and poker legend Barry Greenstein who finished in third place and added $225,552 to his already impressive career earnings.

The heads-up play was between Matusow and Jeff Lisandro and lasted almost two hours. It must have been a frustrating time for Matusow who was continually making Lisandro walk the wire only to see him scoop a huge pot and stay alive. Just before 3 o’clock in the morning though “The Mouth” broke into a huge smile as he picked up his third WSOP bracelet.

“I don’t know a lot about this game,” Matusow admitted afterwards. “I kept my patience, and I never gave up. I played against 84 of the best players in the world. I played real good, and I never say that about myself. I’m proud of myself.”

Lisandro was left to contemplate missing out on a second career bracelet, but will have found consolation in his runners up cheque for $347,004

Brooks shows charitable side at WSOP

In a week of poker which has seen well over a dozen bracelets handed out largely to some of the world’s best professional players, it’s refreshing that an amateur has made his mark on the World Series of Poker for more than just the usual reasons.

Eric Brooks, a 48 year old unknown from Pennsylvania, was just one of 158 players who entered event number 14, the Seven-Card Stud World Championship in Vegas. He had never cashed in any poker tour but found himself beating the entire field which consisted of Erik Seidel, Alexander Kostritsyn and Minh Ly.

He then donated his first prize of $415,856 to the Decision Education Foundation of which he is a board member.

“We’ve had a lot of success with it so far,” Brooks said after his stunning victory. “Being able to add another $400,000 to it and what they’re doing is going to be pretty big.”

“Essentially what we do is we take the science of decision making, which is something that’s university level, college course work, and (teach the basic principles to grades) K-12 around the country” he explained. “It’s an organization that I really believe in,”

Brooks had initially sat down at the final table in sixth place and didn’t particularly like his chances of success:

“I guess all of us went home last night and thought about winning,” he admiited. “But realistically, these are all really good players. You have to get lucky three days in the row, for sure, to win.”

Call it luck or call it ability, but Brooks was able to build his stack as more and more of his illustrious opponents went to the rail.

He ended up facing Fu Wong in the heads up play with a slight chip lead but managed to wipe him out when his flush rolled over Wong’s two pair in what proved to be the final hand of the tournament. Wong finished in second place and took home a cheque for $259,910.

While Brooks was happy to give up his cheque for charity, he was more than glad to get his hands on the first gold bracelet of his career.

Phil Tom wins WSOP shootout

The eleventh event at this years WSOP saw financial advisor Phillip Tom win the $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em Shootout and pick up his first ever bracelet.

Shootout tournaments mean that players have to negotiate their way through three consecutive Sit and Go tournaments before the winner can be crowned and Tom admitted it was a format that he liked:

“I really think it (the shootout format) fits my playing style. I have to eliminate players as I go along, and the seats are not re-filled. So, you can concentrate on the task at hand, which is to focus on your opponents who are actually at the table.”

Exactly 360 players started the event spread across 36 tables, with the winner of each table progressing to a second round of six tables. The final table consisted of the six winners from the second round all sitting down with 1,000,000 in chips.

Before his victory last night, Phil Tom had never finished higher than 22nd in a major tournament but the Las Vegas resident played what was described as “absolutely ideal poker” to throw that monkey off his back and pick up the winners cheque for $1,692,000.

Tom faced Canadian Greg Mueller in the heads up play and slowly wore him down. In what turned out to be the final hand of the tournament, Mueller threw all his chips into the on the turn with the board reading Jc 9h 3s 5c. After a long think, Tom made the call.

Mueller showed Jh 8c for top pair while Tom turned over Ad Js for top pair and top kicker.

The river was a K which helped no-one and Mueller had to accept 2nd place ($298,638) while Phil Tom was given a cheque for $477,990 and crowned Vegas’ latest champion.

“It’s a great feeling,” Tom said with a huge grin on his face. “This is what it’s all about – to win at the World Series.”

Rouhani claims his first bracelet at WSOP

It took barely four hours at the final table for Farzad “Freddy” Rouhani to claim the first bracelet of his career by winning the WSOP $2,500 Omaha/Stud Hi-Low championship in Vegas.

The 42 year old from Germantown had come close to picking up a bracelet a couple of years back when he finished second in a No-Limit Hold’em event, but he took confidence in the fact that he started the final table as the clear chip leader and went one better this time around. In fact, he never lost the chip lead on his way to picking up the winner’s cheque for $232,911.

388 players had entered what was the tenth event of this year’s World Series of Poker and once the dust had settled it was the pros who once again dominated the event. Former gold bracelet winners such as Hoyt Corkins, Allen Cunnigham and Berry Johnston all cashed, whereas Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi and “Miami” John Cernuto both provided Rouhani with stern opposition at the final table.

In fact it was Mizrachi who crashed out first, closely followed by Michigan native Daniel Mowczan who found himself short stacked. John Racener soon followed when he went all in against Rouhani who tabled a nut flush. Racener’s could only show two pair and he ended up going to the rail in sixth place with a cheque for $37,781.

Greg Pappas ($48,190) soon followed him when Tom Chambers bested him in a heads up duel by tabling a flush.

Poker pro Yequi Zhu had sat down at the final table as the short stack, and will take some consolation that he managed to work his way up to fourth place ($63,807), but he too eventually fell to Rouhani who was starting to steam roller the field by this point.

His next victim was the last pro at the table, “Miami” John Cernuto who was looking to add a fourth WSOP bracelet to his collection. Instead he had to be content with third place and a cheque for $86,117 when Ks on the river made Broadway for Rouhani, giving him a huge chip lead going into the heads-up play.

With such a difference between the two players’ stacks, it was always going to be difficult for Tom Chambers. Despite his best efforts the heads up play only lasted 15 minutes before Rouhani’s quads crushed Chambers’ low draw.

“I must admit that I really do need the money,” Rouhani said after his victory.

“Everyone needs the money. But this gold bracelet to me means a whole lot more. It is the thing that everyone in poker dreams of.”

Tom Chambers received $142,784 for finishing as the runner up.

WSOP 2008 is up and running

After all the buildup, the 2008 World Series of Poker finally got underway at the Rio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas with the $10,000 Pot-Limit Hold’em Championship.

After three grueling days and a star-studded final table, it was former basketball player Nenad Medic who walked away with the first of the summer’s bracelets.

“It was a tough field,” he admitted. “The whole tournament, all the way to the final table. I always had a decent stack. The ace-king versus kings - I didn’t feel too good about that - but it worked out.”

Three hundred and fifty two players had originally entered the tournament which had made for a huge prize pool of $3,308,800 - a world record for a pot-limit hold’em event.

So it was fitting that when the dust had settled, the final table contained some of the biggest names in pot-limit poker. Andy Bloch, Kathy Liebert, Amit Makhika and Mike Sexton joined Chris Bell, Mike Sowers, Patrik Antonius and Phil ‘The Unabomber’ Phil Laak to contest the WSOP’s first event.

It was Medic who was to pick up his first WSOP bracelet though and a cheque for $794,112, beating fellow Full Tilt Professional Andy Bloch into second place.

Did he feel bad about that at all?

“Not at all” he said with a wry grin on his face.

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