The story of events 19 to 21 was of big names falling just short in their respective quests to plunder one of that most elusive of prizes - the gold WSOP bracelet. In the $2,500 NLHE event, John Phan, a man with over $3 million in tournament winnings, including multiple WPT and WSOP cashes, but no bracelet, could not defeat Francois Safieddine (right), a nightclub owner from Denver, who had only been playing poker for four years. Also making the final was flamboyant Costa Rican Humberto Brenes, who, whenever I hear his name reminds me of the media event in Monte Carlo when he climbed on the table and implored Snoopy to fold his Ace-x, his theatrics worked that day, but might have misfired here as he could only manage 7th. Elky, (who must been excited about the announcement of a Starcraft 2, a sequel to the game that made him a celebrity in South Korea) finished 9th, while Mike Matusow just missed making yet another final by finishing 11th. The Brits, meanwhile were headed up by Martin Green, finishing in 24th place and JP Kelly in 32nd who suffered a cruel beat when his Kings were outdrawn by Queens with one of the two remaining Queens already having been passed.
The $2,000 Stud Hi/Lo event was noted for its high proportion of bracelet winners making it into the money. The event was won Ryan Hughes (below), another youngster who had given up university to play
poker instead, Greg Raymer, the former Main Event champion managed 4th whilst the legendary Ted Forrest took 10th. Other braclet winners who cashed in this field included John Juanda and Jeff Madsen, perhaps showing that this less popular game is less reliant on luck, or maybe that it tends to be played only by the more skillful players.Another bracelet winner came from nowhere when Donald Baruch took the $1,500 NLHE Shootout title ahead of both Daniel Negreanu and Erik Lindgren, the latter of which is still, incredibly, searching for his 1st bracelet. With 900 entries, you were guaranteed $6,757 just for winning your first table, which people such as Barry Greenstein, Joe Sebok, Andreas Hoivold and Dewey Tomko all managed, though they all failed to win two in a row. Unlike the $2,500 event which was a hotbed of differing nationalities, this final was almost exclusively all-American but for Negreanu's appearance, but the Canadian could not manage to win his fourth bracelet, his last being in 2004.
So will the unknowns continue to appear from errr...nowhere? Will the young guns of online poker come of age in the live game? Or will some of the big names fight back and claim the win?
We'll bring you all the information as we get it.
Images courtesy of Imagemasters Photography