It's been a busy week at the Rio over the last few days as more than half a dozen new bracelets were handed out in the 2008 WSOP. The opening of these was handed out in the popular 6-max $1,500 event as many people, mostly press, went into a frenzy writing puns about Rep Porter's win. His win came over Nathan Templeton, with Devin Porter (no relation) picking up third in an event that had over 1,200 runners. Neil Channing and Ian Frazer both managed to cash in this event to keep the Brit scorecard ticking.
1 Rep Porter -- $372,843
2 Nathan Templeton -- $231,982
3 Devin Porter -- $151,843
4 John Conkright -- $101,228
5 Anatoly Shilyuk -- $70,860
6 Michiel Brummelhuis -- $53,314
Event 13's final table also hit headlines due to the re-emergence of the notorious Vinny Vinh. A player who last year, famously disappeared on multiple Day 2's whilst his empty chair was blinded down but still managed to make it into the money. This led to much speculation over Vinh's whereabouts, while some poker sites 'interviewed' his chair for its continual cashing of events. Here, though, Vinh started as chip leader but could only manage third as the event was won by Jimmy Shultz.
1 Jimmy Shultz -- $257,049
2 Zac Fellows -- $165,165
3 Vinny Vinh -- $99,099
4 Teddy Monroe -- $82,883
5 Brendan Taylor -- $67,868
6 Markus Golser -- $53,453
7 Ali Eslami -- $41,441
8 Christoph Niesert -- $32,432
9 Chung Law -- $23,423
The first ever 7-card Stud event that had a $10,000 buy-in saw a completely star-studded line-up, as the who's who of poker took each other on for this title. During the event, it became more apparent that Phil Ivey was more interested in watching the Lakers vs Celtics game than actually playing the event. This is due to the rumoured $2 million dollars he had riding on the Lakers winning the best of seven series, and with them being 2-1 at the moment, even the usually stoic Ivey was getting excited and aggravated by the game. In the event itself, Ivey was almost down and out before catching a number of good cards, including one hand making a royal flush! It was not enough though and he eventually bubbled the final table. The event was was won by Eric Brooks who immediately announced he was giving all the money to charity, though you would suspect he would probably keep hold of the bracelet.
1 Eric Brooks -- $415,856
2 Fu Wong -- $259,910
3 Alexander Kostritsyn -- $163,372
4 Minh Ly -- $118,816
5 Erik Seidel -- $92,825
6 Jim Paluszek -- $74,260
7 David Oppenheim -- $59,408
8 Vassilios Lazarou -- $48,269
In the Omaha Hi/Lo event, Ted Forrest almost captured his 6th bracelet but despite being railed by Anna Wrobeleski and Cyndy Violette amongst others, he couldn't defeat newcomer Andrew Brown to the title. In one crucial pot, Forrest rivered a wheel and check-raised, only for Brown to show the same wheel but crucially he also had made a 6-high straight, Crippled, Forrest lost the rest of his chips soon after when Brown's unlikely holding of J-2-4-5 was good enough for a total scoop. The final was notable also for being the first one that Jimmy 'Gobboboy' Fricke made, while Omaha specialist Scott Clements also finalled. After his victory, Brown was magnanimous and called Forrest, along with Barry Greenstein and Phil Ivey, 'the three best players in the world.'
1 Andrew Brown -- $226,483.00
2 Ted Forrest -- $143,420.00
3 Jim Pechac -- $88,065.00
4 Soheil Shamseddin -- $71,961.00
5 Kia Hooshmand -- $58,877.00
6 Ralph Perry -- $46,297.00
7 Scott Clements -- $36,232.00
8 Allan Enciso -- $28,684.00
9 Jimmy Fricke -- $21,135.00
Elsewhere Farid Rouhani took down the mixed Stud Eight or Better/Omaha Eight or Better from a final table that included Michael 'The Grinder' Mizrachi and 'Miami' John Cernuto, while Philip Tom, father of Scott Tom, one of the guys in charge of Absolute Poker, beat Greg 'FBT' Mueller for the bracelet in the $5,000 no-limit hold'em shoot out. Duncan 'Pumper' Bell from Vancouver took down the $2,500 event, a doubly sweet moment for him as his good friend Shawn Buchanan also managed to take 4th. Finally, Svetlana Gromenkova took the women's title, ahead of Anh Lee, the latter who also finished second to Jennifer Tilly a couple of years ago.