Rob Hollink, who has probably not had a major result since he took down the first EPT Grand Final, managed to hit the big one when he won the $10,000 limit hold'em championship event. He won ahead of a tough final table which included JC Tran and Andy Bloch, before defeating Jerrod Ankenman heads-up to become the very first (surprisingly) Dutch bracelet winner ever.
1 Rob Hollink -- $496,931
2 Jerrod Ankenman -- $307,380
3 Tommy Hang -- $194,674
4 Aaron Katz -- $158,813
5 J.C. Tran -- $128,075
6 Brock Parker -- $102,460
7 Andy Bloch -- $81,968
8 Cyril Jassinowsky -- $66,599
9 Christopher Vitch -- $51,230
History was made this past week at the WSOP as Blair Hinkle followed in his brother's footsteps by winning event 23, the $2,000 no-limit hold'em event. Unlike his brother, who really had to battle to defeat James Akenhead, Blair blasted his way through the final table, eventually defeating Mark Brockington heads-up with sixes against ace king. The two brothers therefore become the first ever siblings to win bracelets in the same year which will no doubt be the source of much elation for their mother who afterwards stated that maybe she should come and try and win a bracelet next year!
1 Blair Hinkle -- $507,613
2 Mark Brockington -- $326,551
3 Daniel O'Brien -- $198,132
4 David Steicke -- $166,333
5 Dustin Dirksen -- $135,757
6 Chris Bjorin -- $106,404
7 Dominik Kulicki -- $81,943
8 Andrew Jeffreys -- $63,598
9 Stephane Tayar -- $45,252
And the pros were seemingly taking down virtually every event, Barry Greenstein won the $1,500 Razz event, hardly pausing for breath so he could go back down and sit in the Stud event which had already bought in for. In this event, the final table featured the legendary gambler Archie Karas, who was well known for building a bankroll of some $40 million dollars, before losing it all. At the time, he was considered the finest Razz player ever and once beat Stu Ungar and Chip Reese in the same day playing $40,0000/$80,000 stakes. Sadly, no fairy tale ending here though, but don't be surprised if a big spin up recommences.
1 Barry Greenstein -- $157,643
2 Chris Klodnicki -- $97,389
3 Chris Viox -- $58,742
4 Mark Tenner -- $43,284
5 Brandon Leeds -- $33,081
6 Joseph Michael -- $25,661
7 Archie Karas -- $19,477
8 Mike Wattel -- $16,386
Daniel Negreanu also won another bracelet, this time in the limit hold'em event, making it four for Kid Poker, who seemed more delighted that he had inched ahead of Mike Matusow once more after Matusow picked up his third bracelet in the 2-7 no-limit event the night before. Negreanu also featured in the super heavyweight final table of the $5,000 buy a bracelet Pot-limit Omaha rebuy event, having spent around $85,000 on rebuys. This event was won by Phil 'OMGClayAitken' Galfond, who is regularly seen playing the $200/$400 PLO game against Durrr, Benyamine and Antonius.
1 Phil Galfond -- $817,781
2 Adam Hourani -- $493,748
3 David Benyamine -- $316,307
4 Johnny Chan -- $246,874
5 Kirill Gerasimov -- $192,870
6 John Juanda -- $154,296
7 Daniel Negreanu -- $123,437
8 Phil Hellmuth -- $100,292
9 Brian Rast -- $84,863
Meanwhile, Kenny Tran won the $10,000 no-limit heads-up event, while John Phan won the $3,000 no-limit event, all but confirming that this truly is the year of the Pro, while Vanessa Selbst, Vitaly Lunkin and Scott Seiver all also became first time bracelet winners.
The Brits have still to get a bracelet though, JJ Hazan and Paul Zimbler went deep in the $3,000 HORSE event, Zimbler bubbling the final table, that was eventually won by German Jens Voertmann. In the $2,500 mixed Pot-limit Hold'em/Pot-limit Omaha, Max Pescatori picked up the spoils, despite for the fact that much of the event, Allen Cunningham looked like he would add to his bracelet haul. JP Kelly managed to make the final table albeit short, while Dave 'RiverDave' Penly was unfortunate to be the final table bubble boy after being chip leader for much of Day two.
1 Max Pescatori -- $246,509
2 Kyle Kloeckner -- $152,409
3 Greg Hurst -- $94,599
4 Allen Cunningham -- $76,204
5 Kyle Hegeman -- $62,014
6 Jonathan Depa -- $48,876
7 Lennart Holtkamp -- $38,365
8 Minh Ly -- $30,481
9 John-Paul Kelly -- $22,598