Among them were [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/Chris-Ferguson.html]Chris Ferguson[/url], Tony G, Kathy Liebert, Hoyt Corkins, and Men Nguyen. Joining them were 543 players who spent $1,500 to make the prize pool worth $741,195.

A lot of the top players were able to move on past the first day, but those that didn’t included Kathy Liebert, Kristy Gazes, and David Williams. [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/Phil-Hellmuth.html]Phil Hellmuth[/url], Tony G, David Sklansky, and Annie Duke were among the players who had no trouble surviving this day.

Day 2 would see a number of these players fall by the wayside though as Hellmuth, Duke, and Toney G would all be among the bustouts. Hellmuth did manage to cash though as did the aforementioned Nguyen.

By the time that the final table was set, this is what it resembled:

Seat/Player/Chips
Seat 1: Tim D’Alessandro - 140,000
Seat 2: Jonas Klausen - 338,000
Seat 3: David Sklasnsky - 66,000
Seat 4: Josh Feldman - 200,000
Seat 5: Ryan Hughes - 400,000
Seat 6: Ron Long - 224,000
Seat 7: Alessio Isaia - 220,000
Seat 8: Thomas Hunt - 31,000

No one really stood out at the top of the leaderboard, but there were a couple of players who stood out at the bottom due to their low stacks. David Sklansky happened to be one of them and was eliminated as two players split the pot and his all-in call yielded nothing for him.

Jonas Klausen knocked Josh Feldman out in 7th place when he held aces and kings against Feldman’s jacks and 9’s. Joining him would be Tim D’Alessandro as both him and Thomas Hunt got full houses but Hunt’s was better.

5th place would go to Jonas Klausen when Ron Long scooped the pot against him with the low and high hand. Alessio Isaia wouldn’t be around any longer either as Ryan Hughes eliminated him.

That left Thomas Hunt to be the last player sent to the rail before heads-up play began. Hughes did the honors again when Hunt couldn’t make a low and only had 2’s for high against Hughes 3’s.

This left Hughes and Ron Long with Ryan holding a big 1,317,000 to 315,000 chip lead. Eventually, Long went all-in and Hughes made a full house against Long’s kings.

This gave Hughes the dubious distinction of winning the same event in back-to-back WSOP.

Here’s how everyone else did:

Rank/Player/Money
1. Ryan Hughes $183,368
2. Ronald Long $113,240
3. Thomas Hunt III $68,686
4. Alessio Isaia $50,122
5. Jonas Klausen $39,355
6. Tim D’alessandro $30,444
7. Joshua Feldman $23,019
8. David Sklansky $19,306
9. James Richburg $15,593
10. Margaret Macre $15,593
11. Daniel Nicewander $11,880
12. David Brooker $11,880
13. Mike Hefer $8,168
14. Ta Hoang $8,168
15. Dennis Seagle $6,237
16. Vince Burgio $6,237
17. Men Nguyen $4,752
18. Lawrence Kozlove $4,752
19. Travis Erdman $4,752
20. Morgan Stringham $4,752
21. George Markakis $4,752
22. Chris Bjorin $4,752
23. Constantine Zdanowich $4,752
24. John Bunch $4,752
25. Steven Metzger $3,638

That’s because 148 players paid the mind-boggling $50,000 buy-in to make the prize pool worth $7,104,000. And many of those involved were among the top names in poker since this event, consisting of multiple card games, often defines the champ of champs.

People like [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/Phil-Ivey.html]Phil Ivey[/url], [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/Daniel-Negreanu.html]Daniel Negreanu[/url], [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/Doyle-Brunson.html]Doyle Brunson[/url], [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/Barry-Greenstein.html]Barry Greenstein[/url], Scotty Nguyen, [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/Phil-Hellmuth.html]Phil Hellmuth[/url], [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/Chris-Ferguson.html]Chris Ferguson[/url], and Gus Hanson were all trying to knock off the defending champion Freddy Deeb.

Speaking of getting knocked out of the tournament, [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/Phil-Hellmuth.html]Phil Hellmuth[/url] and David Williams were a couple of the unlucky ones to do so. Here’s how the leaderboards shook out after the first day:

Rank/Player/Chips
1. James Mackey 214,000
2. Pat Pezzin 200,400
3. Joe Cassidy 198,700
4. Ralph Perry 195,300
5. Stephen Wolff 192,700
6. Fu Wong 188,100
7. Douglas Ganger 183,200
8. Bill Chen 182,500

The field finally started getting trimmed down on the second day as Allen Kessler, Annie Duke, [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/Chris-Ferguson.html]Chris Ferguson[/url], Tony G, and defending champ Freddy Deeb were all sent to the rail. In all, just 67 people would be coming back for day 3 and here is how the leaderboard looked after day 2:

1. Lyle Berman 507,000
2. Patrick Bueno 485,500
3. [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/Barry-Greenstein.html]Barry Greenstein[/url] 473,000
4. Minh Ly 451,000
5. Chris Reslock 435,500
6. Joseph Michael 401,000
7. [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/Erick-Lindgren.php]Erick Lindgren[/url] 397,500
8. Justin Bonomo 384,000
9. [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/Daniel-Negreanu.html]Daniel Negreanu[/url] 374,500
10. [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/Doyle-Brunson.html]Doyle Brunson[/url] 366,000

The third day of the H.O.R.S.E. tournament wouldn’t go so well for Tom Dwan, Max Pescatori, Justin Bonomo, and [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/Layne-Flack.php]Layne Flack[/url]. They would all be bounced from the tournament. 24 players were fortunate enough to make it to the last three tables and here’s the most fortunate of the group:

1. Michael DeMichele 1,351,000
2. [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/Barry-Greenstein.html]Barry Greenstein[/url] 1,311,000
3. [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/Daniel-Negreanu.html]Daniel Negreanu[/url] 1,226,000
4. Ralph Perry 1,043,000
5. Scotty Nguyen 1,033,000
6. Lyle Berman 939,000
7. Patrick Bueno 806,000
8. David Bach 801,000
9. [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/Doyle-Brunson.html]Doyle Brunson[/url] 777,000
10. Michael Mizrachi 701,000

Just 16 players needed to bust out for the final table to be complete and among these bust outs were [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/Doyle-Brunson.html]Doyle Brunson[/url], [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/Andy-Bloch.html]Andy Bloch[/url], [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/Daniel-Negreanu.html]Daniel Negreanu[/url], and [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/Phil-Ivey.html]Phil Ivey[/url]. By the time everything was said and done, here’s how the final table looked:

Seat/Player/Chips
Seat 1: Matt Glantz 1,445,000
Seat 2: [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/Huck-Seed.php]Huck Seed[/url] 1,200,000
Seat 3: Patrick Bueno 695,000
Seat 4: Lyle Berman 1,430,000
Seat 5: Scotty Nguyen 3,535,000
Seat 6: [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/Barry-Greenstein.html]Barry Greenstein[/url] 1,955,000
Seat 7: Michael DeMichele 905,000
Seat 8: [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/Erick-Lindgren.php]Erick Lindgren[/url] 3,680,000

Patrick Bueno had the shortest stack coming into the final table and it wouldn’t go very far for him. He was knocked out in Razz by [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/Erick-Lindgren.php]Erick Lindgren[/url]. [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/Huck-Seed.php]Huck Seed[/url]’s diminishing stack doomed him to 7th place after he was eliminated by Michael DeMichele in Stud 8’s or Better.

[url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/Barry-Greenstein.html]Barry Greenstein[/url] tasted defeat when his two-pair was outdone by Scotty Nguyen’s set of 7’s. Lyle Berman would be next to go in 5th place as the World Poker Tour founder made a strong showing at this event.

4th place would go to Matthew Glantz when Nguyen scooped the pot against him in Omaha 8’s or Better. [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/Erick-Lindgren.php]Erick Lindgren[/url]’s up and down final table run came to a screeching halt after he could get nothing against Nguyen’s 9 pair in Stud.

That left Scotty and DeMichele to battle it out for top prize. Nguyen finished Michael off rather quickly in Limit Hold’em with a pair of aces and the game was over.

Nguyen had earned himself a fifth bracelet and nearly $2 million to go along with it. Here’s how the rest of the cashers fared.

Rank/Player/Money
1. Scotty Nguyen $1,989,120
2. Mike DeMichele $1,243,200
3. [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/Erick-Lindgren.php]Erick Lindgren[/url] $781,440
4. Matt Glantz $568,320
5. Lyle Berman $444,000
6. [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/Barry-Greenstein.html]Barry Greenstein[/url] $355,200
7. [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/Huck-Seed.php]Huck Seed[/url] $284,160
8. Patrick Bueno $230,880
9. Ralph Perry $177,600
10. Raymond Davis $177,600
11. David Bach $159,840
12. [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/Phil-Ivey.html]Phil Ivey[/url] $159,840
13. [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/Daniel-Negreanu.html]Daniel Negreanu[/url] $142,080
14. Joseph (Joey) Michael $142,080
15. Andrew Bloch $124,320
16. [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/Doyle-Brunson.html]Doyle Brunson[/url] $124,320

[url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/Chris-Ferguson.html]Chris Ferguson[/url], [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/Barry-Greenstein.html]Barry Greenstein[/url], Lee Watkinson, Tom Schneider, and Joe Hachem all took part in this tourney where around 100 players per hour were eliminated on the first day making things go rather quickly.

Greenstein and Schneider would be a couple of these unfortunate players along with people like [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/Clonie-Gowen.php]Clonie Gowen[/url], Gavin Smith, and Dutch Boyd.

By the end of the day, the leaderboards looked like this:

Rank/Player/Chips
1. Ed Smith 119,500
2. Shannon Shorr 86,900
3. Damon Singer 80,400
4. Martin Klaser 79,800
5. Larry Wright 75,300
6. Sam Khoueis 73,000
7. Gabe Costner 69,200
8. Jeff Bryan 66,900
9. Bryan Jolly 63,300
10. [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/Erik-Seidel.html]Erik Seidel[/url] 58,900

Only 68 people would be back for day 2 which made it so only 59 players had to be knocked out for the last table to be finalized. By the end, hardly any big name players would be left standing for day 3.

[url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/Erik-Seidel.html]Erik Seidel[/url] and Tom Chambers were probably the most recognizable players left and here’s how things looked overall for the final table:

Seat/Player/Chips
Seat 1: Joseph Haddad – 135,000
Seat 2: Tom Chambers - 263,000
Seat 3: Larry Wright - 117,000
Seat 4: Chad Burum - 117,000
Seat 5: Michael Fetter - 288,000
Seat 6: Casey Kastle - 188,000
Seat 7: Jon Maren - 377,000
Seat 8: Martin Klaser - 337,000
Seat 9: [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/Erik-Seidel.html]Erik Seidel[/url] - 340,000

Tom Chambers stay at the final table would be a short one since he was the first one knocked out after Casey Kastle scooped the pot with a flush and nut low.

Larry Wright would take 8th place and Joseph Haddad went out next after Martin Klasser got lucky by flopping a wheel even though his hole cards were way worse than Haddad’s.

Chad Burum put the rest of his puny stack in and Martin Klasser also dealt him an exit card. 5th place would go to Jon Maren when Kastle was lucky enough to squeak by with a pair of 6’s.

[url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/Erik-Seidel.html]Erik Seidel[/url], who brought plenty of experience to the table, wouldn’t be carrying this final table experience on any longer when Kastle got a full house against his all-in call.

Heads-up play would be determined after Michael Fetter went out in 3rd. Fetter was only able to make a pair of 10’s while Klasser hit trips 7’s to win the hand.

Klasser went into play with Kastle holding a sizeable chip advantage and used this to intimidate Kastle with big bets making him fold quite often.

In the end, Kastle had to call with just a little bit of a stack remaining and was beaten by queens when he held jacks. Klasser raked $216,249 for the victory.

Here’s how others fared:

Rank/Player/Chips
1. Martin Klaser $216,249
2. Casey Kastle $137,985
3. Michael Fetter $83,538
4. [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/Erik-Seidel.html]Erik Seidel[/url] $68,304
5. Jon Maren $56,019
6. Chad Burum $44,226
7. Joseph Haddad $34,398
8. Larry Wright $27,027
9. Tom Chambers $19,656
10. Daniel Klein $12,285
11. Derek Kadota $12,285
12. Gary Hutzler $12,285
13. Mark Gallo $9,828
14. Douglas Mandeville $9,828
15. Jim Geary $9,828
16. James Griffith $7,371
17. Mikhail Ustinov $7,371
18. Ian Graham $7,371
19. Daniel Adams $5,601
20. David Manz $5,601
21. Laurent Lefrancq $5,601
22. Brent Carter $5,601
23. Ed Smith $5,601
24. Samir Khoueis $5,601
25. Shannon Shorr $5,601

Even though this was a seniors event, that didn’t mean there was any lack of talent in the field. Johnny Chan, Amarillo “Slim” Preston, Men Nguyen, Mike Caro and Avery Cardoza all participated in this tournament.

Preston, Nguyen, and Cardoza all did well enough to move onto day 2 and joined the 220 person crowd that would be competing for the 198 spots that cashed in the tourney.

Here’s how the top 10 looked:

Rank/Player/Chips
1. Duane Gerleman - 139,800
2. Steve Fager - 101,700
3. Dale Eberle - 86,200
4. Tom Franklin - 84,100
5. Men Nguyen - 81,500
6. Dempster Ross - 75,800
7. Avery Cardoza - 73,100
8. Ralph Wetterhahn - 70,800
9. Gregory Alston - 69,000
10. Lonnie Boeding — 68,500

Day 2 would be a different story for most of the players in the top 10 as other people in the field began making a move towards securing a spot in the top 9.

The bigger names like Preston, Cardoza, and Nguyen were among those whose fortunes would change for the worse on the second day. The people who made the final table are as follows:

Seat/Player/Chips
Seat 1: Marc Fluss – 873,000
Seat 2: Charles Wood – 531,000
Seat 3: Ed Clark – 504,000
Seat 4: Marty Wilson – 454,000
Seat 5: Peter Silverstein – 435,000
Seat 6: Dale Eberle – 1,414,000
Seat 7: Fred Berger – 518,000
Seat 8: Dan Lacourse – 1,364,000
Seat 9: Jerry Yamachika – 558,000

Marty Wilson came in with one of the smaller stacks to start the day and it never really got any bigger for him as Fred Berger flopped a set of queens to beat him. A set would be the reason for another elimination in Ed Clark as it was Marc Fluss hitting it this time.

7th place would belong to Pet Silverstein as he was forced to go all-in with a dwindling stack and it didn’t pay off for him. Marc Fluss knocked Charles Wood out of the tournament next when he simply held a better hole combo in K-10 to K-6.

Fred Berger made a mistake when he went all-in with pocket 2’s only to be eliminated when Dan Lacourse’s pocket jacks turned into a set.

Jerry Yamachika had been doing well earlier but he would take 4th after Lacourse had a pair of queens against nothing. Lacourse narrowed things down to heads-up when he took out Marc Fluss next.

Down to him and Dale Eberle, Lacourse would flop a set of 9’s on the final hand to win the seniors tourney and get $368,832 in the process.

Here’s how the top 25 faired:

Rank/Player/Money
1. Dan Lacourse $368,832
2. Dale Eberle $235,141
3. Marc Fluss $156,424
4. Jerry Yamachika $131,194
5. Fred Berger $106,974
6. Charles Wood $84,771
7. Peter Silverstein $64,588
8. Edward Clark $49,450
9. Martin (Marty) Wilson $34,312
10. Ronald Puelo $22,202
11. Mike Allis $22,202
12. Chris Platt $22,202
13. Edgardo Villareal $17,156
14. Mick Bentrup $17,156
15. James Duke $17,156
16. Henry Hudson $12,110
17. John Bonar $12,110
18. Gary Dishongh $12,110
19. Gregory Alston $9,688
20. Michael Thulson $9,688
21. Bobby Bland $9,688
22. Daniel Spear $9,688
23. Duane Gerleman $9,688
24. Harold Hensley $9,688
25. Theodore Brooks $9,688

But there was still plenty of time for wildrick to make a move on SOXxxxxx with a week and a half left in the month.  Would he be able to do it?

It depends on how one looks at it.  SOXxxxxx was able to keep his lead all week but wildrick has closed some ground on him to the tune of a 164 point deficit.  See this here. 

However, there are only three days left in the month and SOXxxxxx only lost 34 points off his lead in a whole week.  As long as he keeps playing decent, he should repeat as the monthly champion and get the $2,000.

But wildrick was successful in fending off JellyHead30 who was looking to make a run at the second place money of $1,250.  However, JellyHead30 is over 400 points behind now and appears destined for the 3rd place prize of $900.  See the month here.

Here’s how the top 10 stands heading into the final stretch:

Rank/Player/Points
1. SOXxxxxx 1860.00 
2. wildrick 1696.00 
3. JellyHead30 1265.00 
4. cantona2243 1161.00 
5. playmaker666 1083.00 
6. XjimeggX 992.00 
7. drewster33 954.00 
8. dylanist 856.00 
9. geezus 847.00 
10. FILCH 782.00 

The 731 number would be cut all the way down to 98 by the time things wrapped up on day 1.  People like [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/Greg-Raymer.html]Greg Raymer[/url], Tom Schneider, [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/Carlos-Mortensen.php]Carlos Mortensen[/url], [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/Barry-Greenstein.html]Barry Greenstein[/url], [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/Daniel-Negreanu.html]Daniel Negreanu[/url], and Kenny Tran were all hoping to make it past the first day.

Unfortunately for all of them, they were early exits from the tourney and others who would join them later included [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/Chris-Ferguson.html]Chris Ferguson[/url], [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/John-Juanda.php]John Juanda[/url], Joe Hachem, and [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/Andy-Bloch.html]Andy Bloch[/url].

Jonathan Tamayo shot to the top of the leaderboard when all was said and done.  Here was the whole top 10 for day 1:

Rank/Player/Chips
1. Jonathan Tamayo — 98,100
2. Ricky Sanders — 88,000
3. Klein Bach — 65,600
4. Daniel Kraus — 49,975
5. Jose Tavares — 48,900
6. Alexander Borteh —  46,950
7. Peter Rho — 46,000
8. Otto Richard — 45,700
9. Benjamin Landowski — 44,425
10. Heung Yoon — 42,400

Day 2 would see a dramatic turnaround as far as the leaderboards went.  Not really for Jonathan Tamayo who was the only one from the top 10 to score a seat at the final table.  But for the other 9, it would be curtains for this tourney.

But at least the majority of them had the privilege of cashing whereas Bob Lauria made it all the way to 73rd place which was right outside of the money range.

Those that would be competing for big money at the final table included:

Seat/Player/Chips
Seat 1: Chris Rentes - 132,000
Seat 2: Michael Chu - 264,000
Seat 3: Alex Jalali -  204,000
Seat 4: Nick Binger - 339,000
Seat 5: David Machowsky - 147,500
Seat 6: Jonathan Tamayo - 238,500
Seat 7: Mats Gavatin - 405,000
Seat 8: Frank Gary - 332,000
Seat 9: David Sorger - 130,000

The beginning of this final table looked as if it would be all Nick Binger as he quickly busted out David Sorger and Michael Chu right away. 

Then he set his sights on the Swede Mats Gavatin as he hit trip 7’s on the flop and Gavatin couldn’t get his flush draw.  David Machowsky would be the next victim of Binger as he finished in 6th when Binger hit a set of aces on the flop.

5th place would belong to Alex Jalali when he couldn’t pair an ace against - you guessed it - Nick Binger.  Binger would knock out Chris Rentes and his short stack next with a weird winner in 7-high.

But the tide would soon turn as Tamayo took big pot after big pot from Binger.  In the end, things looked good for Binger to make a comeback as he held a straight only to see Frank Gary river a full house.

This left things down to heads-up play between day 1 leader Tamayo and Gary.  Tamayo had lost some of his stack before heads-up play began and it would take long for Gary to win with a pair of aces after Jonathan’s all-in call.

The retired, RV traveling Gary had won his first WSOP bracelet and $219,217 as well.  Here’s how the top 25 looked:

Rank/Player/Money
1. Frank Gary $219,562 
2. Jonathan Tamayo $140,093 
3. Nick Binger $84,814 
4. Chris Rentes $69,348 
5. Alex Jalali $56,875 
6. David Machowsky $44,901 
7. Mats Gavatin $34,923 
8. Michael Chu $27,439 
9. David Sorger $19,956 
10. Todd Witteles $12,472 
11. Justin St. John $12,472 
12. Sam Hiatt $12,472 
13. Elliot Smith $9,978 
14. Hien Tran $9,978 
15. Klein Bach $9,978 
16. Daniel Kraus $7,483 
17. Jeff Norman $7,483 
18. Anh Van Nguyen $7,483 
19. Michael Rosenthal $5,687 
20. Alexander Borteh $5,687 
21. Ricky Sanders $5,687 
22. Peter Rho $5,687 
23. Nicholas Ragot $5,687 
24. Michele Guzzardi $5,687 
25. Jason Ruffinelli $5,687

But there were still some big name players fighting for the $547,400 prize pool.  [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/John-Juanda.php]John Juanda[/url], Mike Caro, [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/Greg-Raymer.html]Greg Raymer[/url], [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/Doyle-Brunson.html]Doyle Brunson[/url], [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/Daniel-Negreanu.html]Daniel Negreanu[/url], [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/Carlos-Mortensen.php]Carlos Mortensen[/url], and lowball master Billy Baxter were just a few of the stars taking part in this tourney.

Many people’s pick to win might’ve been Baxter since he holds 7 WSOP bracelets with 100% of them coming from some type of lowball game.  But the tournament would have to unfold to find out how he faired.

People who would bow out of the tourney early would be [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/Daniel-Negreanu.html]Daniel Negreanu[/url], [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/Chris-Ferguson.html]Chris Ferguson[/url], [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/Phil-Hellmuth.html]Phil Hellmuth[/url], Tom Schneider, and Freddy Deeb.

Others flourished in this strange game and were among the surviving 30 players who would return for day 2.  Here’s 10 of them:

Rank/Player/Chips
1. Shun Uchida 79,200
2. Gioi Luong 72,300
3. Raymond Davis 67,700
4. [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/Greg-Raymer.html]Greg Raymer[/url] 64,600
5. James Copeland 62,700
6. Richard Chase 59,200
7. Mike Wattel 57,200
8. Chris Vitch 54,500
9. Robert Mizrachi 54,200
10. Luis Velador 49,400

One player who wasn’t really mentioned a whole lot on day 1 was John “The Razor” Phan who just barely snuck into the second 2.  Already a winner of his first bracelet in Event #29, Phan began positioning himself for another win in this event by moving up the chip ladder.

And while Phan was doing that, other players were fighting for their tournament lives.  [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/Greg-Raymer.html]Greg Raymer[/url] would get his first WSOP cash after going 23 events without one but he wouldn’t be making the final table.  Notable pro Ralph Perry went out long before Raymer and just barely cashed.

Lowball legend Billy Baxter made it all the way to 7th place but, unfortunately for him, this was right at the cut off for the final table.  Those that did make the last table are as follows:

Rank/Player/Chips
1. John Phan 294,000
2. Gioi Luong 291,000
3. Robert Mizrachi 215,000
4. Shun Uchida 200,000
5. Ben Ponzio 113,000
6. David Sklansky 78,000

Things were pretty tight at the top for the finals and the competition would boil over at one point during play.  But certainly not in the early going.

Well known poker author David Sklansky would go quietly after his drawing hand fell short against Robert “The Grinder” Mizrachi.  Ben Ponzio looked like he was going to chip away at John Phan’s stack with a 7-5-4-2 draw against 8-7-4-3 but Phan escaped after getting a 2 coupled with Ponzio’s 10.

4th place would go to Robert Mizrachi as Phan chipped away at his stack the whole time until Gioi Luong knocked him out.  With Mizrachi gone, Phan started losing his chip stack and his temper along with it.

But he wasn’t the only one as it takes two when Luong and him got into it big-time.  The two had been calling to the floor on each other earlier over things like posting big blinds on accident and supposed angle shooting.

Then Luong accidentally discarded a card he didn’t want to and tried to pull it back before Phan started yelling to the floor about it.  That’s when Luong got in his face and the floor had to separate the two.  The call went Phan’s way and then Phan took a big pot from Luong to add salt to the wound.

Eventually Phan would eliminate Luong and that would make a heads-up card between him and Shun Uchida.  With a number of big bets and raises, Phan was able to knock Shun’s stack down quite a bit until the final hand when got a near nut hand in 7-6-4-3-2 to win the bracelet.

This was his second of the WSOP after he had never won one in his previous tries. 

Here’s how the money settled out for the players:

Rank/Player/Money
1. John “Razor” Phan $151,911 
2. Shunjiro Uchida $95,795 
3. Gioi Luong $61,582 
4. Robert Mizrachi $41,055 
5. Ben Ponzio $28,738 
6. David Sklansky $20,527 
7. Billy Baxter $15,053 
8. Suk Min Sung $15,053 
9. Mike Wattel $12,316 
10. Richard (Rick) Chase $12,316 
11. Greg (Fossil-Man) Raymer $9,579 
12. Dario (Ryu) Alioto $9,579 
13. James Copeland $6,842 
14. David Baker $6,842 
15. Raymond Davis $6,842 
16. Jose-Luis Velador $6,842 
17. Chau Giang $6,842 
18. Claude Cohen $6,842 
19. Christopher Vitch $5,474 
20. Ralph Perry $5,474 
21. Von Altizer $5,474 
22. Alfons Kela $5,474 
23. George Lind $5,474 
24. William Chen $5,474

In fact, over 90% of the field would be knocked out on the first day with just 218 players making it back.  [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/Andy-Bloch.html]Andy Bloch[/url], Antonio Esfandiari, Joe Seebok, [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/Daniel-Negreanu.html]Daniel Negreanu[/url], and Carlos Mortenson wouldn’t be among the players coming back for day 2.

Here are some players that fared much better on the day:

Rank/Player/Chips
1. Michael Polcari — 130,000
2. Jason Yates — 115,200
3. Christian Holt — 113,300
4. Eric Beren — 110,900
5. Mike Zulker — 107,000
6. David Barter — 102,300
7. Michel Leibgorin — 97,100
8. Matthew Wood — 93,700
9. Gordon Hamilton — 92,800
10. Chris Weaver — 90,900

The beginning of day 2 was a fairly quick ordeal as well since it didn’t take extremely long to trim the 218 player field down to a seemingly manageable amount.  But things slowed down before the final table was set.

And as the second day went into the morning hours, it was Paul Kerr becoming the last player to be eliminated before the final table was set.

Here’s how things played out heading into day 3:

Seat/Player/Chips
1. Michael Polcari — 130,000
2. Jason Yates — 115,200
3. Christian Holt — 113,300
4. Eric Beren — 110,900
5. Mike Zulker — 107,000
6. David Barter — 102,300
7. Michel Leibgorin — 97,100
8. Matthew Wood — 93,700
9. Gordon Hamilton — 92,800
10. Chris Weaver — 90,900

James Paras would be the first player tasting defeat as he was all-in against David Woo with suited A-J only to see Woo flop a set of 2’s.  Mike Glasser was the next to go when Matthew Wood rivered an ace against his pocket 9’s.

Thanh Dat Tran would stop giving announcers headaches when he was eliminated in 7th place by Woo.  And David Woo would eliminate two players at once next when Curtis Early and Thom Werthmann went all-in against the straight he flopped.

Habib Khanis would take 4th after the board gave both him and Eric Beren a two pair but with Beren winning out with king-high.  Beren would be the next to go though when Matthew Wood knocked him out.

That staged the Wood and David Woo match-up which was over quick.  Woo held pocket 10’s and Wood went all-in for some reason with 9-6 and paired his 9 but that was it.  Woo was the champ and $631,550 richer.

Here’s the top 25:

Rank/Player/Money
1. David Woo $631,550 
2. Matthew Wood $389,844 
3. Eric Beren $278,460 
4. Habib Khanis $233,906 
5. Thom Werthmann $191,209 
6. Curtis Early $150,368 
7. Thanh dat Tran $113,240 
8. Michael Glasser $85,394 
9. Jim Paras $58,290 
10. Paul Kerr $36,756 
11. Michael Polcari $36,756 
12. Russell Spaid $36,756 
13. Sebastian Segovia $29,331 
14. Edward Salazar $29,331 
15. Mario Delis $29,331 
16. Dan Lu $21,905 
17. Giovanni Nervo $21,905 
18. Kevin O’Leary $21,905 
19. Gary Bain $17,450 
20. Lawrence Martone $17,450 
21. Garrett Beckman $17,450 
22. Michael Carson $17,450 
23. Igor Tiguy $17,450 
24. Minh Nguyen $17,450 
25. Feng Chen $17,450

He was quickly eyeing the top prize out of the $1,101,100 available.  But his day 1 lead wasn’t totally secure as a host of other players challenged for the bracelet as well.

Players such as Lee Watkinson, Marco Traniello, [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/Clonie-Gowen.php]Clonie Gowen[/url], and Vannessa Rousso would all battle their way into the upper echelon of the chip leaders.

Others who would quickly bow out of the tourney included Kathy Liebert, John “The Razor” Phan, Tom Schneider and Marcel Luske.  Here’s how the day 1 leaderboard looked:

Rank/Player/Chips
1. Michael Binger 146,100
2. Davidi Kitai 97,600
3. Ayaz Mahmood 97,600
4. David Chicotsky 94,100
5. Ben  Roberts 81,900
6. Chris Bell 80,200
7. Shane Schleger 79,400
8. George Shahrezay 76,500
9. Lee Watkinson 74,500
10. Eric Lupovich 73,500

The second day started with 63 players left from the original 605.  The day would not go well for certain people such as [url=http://www.flopturnriver.com/Clonie-Gowen.php]Clonie Gowen[/url], Marco Traniello, and Vanessa Rousso who all had quick exits. 

The aforementioned Michael Binger decided to try and make a big move even though he was sitting quite comfortably in the final two tables.  Then he bowed out to Chris Bell’s pocket jacks and left the table visibly angry.

Here’s how the final table looked going into day 3:

Seat/Player/Chips
Seat 1: David Kitai - 274,000
Seat 2: Ben Roberts - 82,000
Seat 3: Ayaz Mahmood - 314,000
Seat 4: Michael Greco - 120,000
Seat 5: Chris Bell - 260,000
Seat 6: Jan Von Halle - 485,000
Seat 7: Robert Cheung - 352,000
Seat 8: Keith Greer - 238,000
Seat 9: Lee Watkinson - 357,000

The eliminations started quickly with Chris Bell’s pocket aces one-upping Michael Greco’s pocket kings on a board that only turned up a 10 pair.

Then Robert Cheung got some help from the board to pair J’s against Ben Roberts’ pocket 7’s putting Roberts out.  Ayaz Mahmood could only show J-9 for his all-in call against Chris Bell who flopped the top pair of queens.

The 6th place finisher would be Robert Cheung as Chris Bell dished out another elimination when he rivered a straight against pocket 9’s.

Lee Watkinson, who’s been doing well in tournament all year, would have his day end next when Chris Bell rivered a flush against him.  Jan Von Halle would take 4th place as he was eliminated by David Kitai.

Chris Bell would knock out the final player before heads-up play in Keith Greer with pocket queens.  This set up the David Kitai and Chris Bell match-up. 

Despite all the people he took all-in chips from, Bell only led by 425,000 chips going in.  And Kitai would chip away at this lead with numerous small victories until he was far ahead of Bell.

The last hand saw Bell go all-in with suited A-J only to be beaten by an A-K kicker combo on a 10-high board.  Kitai won the bracelet and $244,583 for the win.

Here’s some more results:

Rank/Player/Money
1. Davidi Kitai $244,583 
2. Chris Bell $155,805 
3. Keith Greer $94,694 
4. John Von Halle $77,077 
5. Lee Watkinson $63,313 
6. Robert (RCW) Cheung $50,100 
7. Ayaz Mahmood $39,089 
8. Benjamin (Ben) Roberts $30,830 
9. Michael Greco $22,572 
10. Benjamin Zamani $14,314 
11. Michael Binger $14,314 
12. Charles Lehr $14,314 
13. Jeff Sluzinski $11,561 
14. Amato Galasso $11,561 
15. Chris Dombrowski $11,561 
16. Neil Channing $8,808 
17. Davood Mehrmand $8,808 
18. Eugene Todd $8,808 
19. Daniel Quinn $6,606 
20. Robert Perry $6,606 
21. Al Adler $6,606 
22. Philip Lowery $6,606 
23. David Brooker $6,606 
24. Jonathan Tamayo $6,606 
25. Blake Stepp $6,606

Over 90% of the players that started wouldn’t get to see a piece of the $3,340,155 prize pool that awaited on day 3.  And it took only 12 hours to get rid of this many players too.

Those that didn’t get eliminated had a very good chance to cash since 198 players would be making it in the money here.  Some players were almost guaranteed to cash.

Here were a few of them:

Rank/Player/Chips
1. Owen Crowe 170,000
2. Danny Wong 114,500
3. Leonid Yanovski 106,500
4. Jim Mackowiak 103,400
5. R.W. Best 103,200
6. Richard Deeb 99,600
7. Duncan Bell 99,300
8. Chris Klodnicki 99,200

The pace of eliminations was once again quick on day 2 as things wound down towards the last 30 players.  Then the player tightened up as people played conservatively looking towards the final table.

Duncan “Pumper” Bell wouldn’t be earning his second WSOP bracelet this year as he busted out on the second day.  Richard Deeb would join him as well. 

Those that did make the final table are as follows:

Rank/Player/Chips
1. Jesper Hougaard 1,582,000
2. Cody Slaubaugh 1,419,000
3. Danny Wong 1,105,000
4. Rick Solis 900,000
5. Justin Wald 873,000
6. Owen Crowe 674,000
7. Doug Middleton 356,000
8. John Shipley 269,000
9. Aaron Kanter 165,000

Pocket Jacks were enough to knock John Shipley out first and Shipley got nothing from the board with his suited K-Q.  Owen Crowe, who led the tournament after day 1, was the next to go as Danny Wong knocked him out.

Jesse Hougaard flopped a flush and Rick Solis made the mistake of going all-in only to be called.  Solis only had a pair of jacks and was eliminated in 7th place.

Danny Wong was the next player hitting a flush it was good enough to beat Justin Wald and his set of jacks.  Doug Middleton would finish in fifth as his ace got no board help on an all-in call.

Things then tightened up a bit until Danny Wong went all-in with pocket kings.  Aaron Kanter called him with suited A-5 and the suited is the part that got Wong when Kanter got three more hearts on the board.

There was no more flushes waiting for Kanter when he went up against Jesse Hougaard with pocket queens only to see Hougaard find another king on the river. 

With Kanter’s 3rd place elimination, it set up heads-up play between Cody Slaubaugh and Jesse Hougaard.  Slaubaugh would be behind at the beginning but battled to take the lead.

However, the two went to dinner and it was Hougaard gaining the advantage this time.  Eventually, Hougaard went all-in with pocket queens against Slaubaugh’s A-10 and Hougaard hit a set on the flop and won the bracelet. 

Here’s the results of the top 25:

Rank/Player/Money
 1. Jesper Hougaard $610,304 
2. Cody Slaubaugh $389,128 
3. Aaron Kanter $258,862 
4. Danny Wong $217,110 
5. Doug Middleton $177,028 
6. Justin Wald $140,286 
7. Rick Solis $106,884 
8. Owen Crowe $81,833 
9. John Shipley $56,782 
10. Jeremy Schofer $36,741 
11. Bryan Paris $36,741 
12. Tom Braband $36,741 
13. Craig Douglas $28,391 
14. Chance Steed $28,391 
15. Bryan Micon $28,391 
16. John MacDonald $20,040 
17. Christopher Goo $20,040 
18. Daniel Bowman $20,040 
19. Thomas Gabriel $16,032 
20. Duncan Bell $16,032 
21. Christopher Coghlan $16,032 
22. Joseph Grenon $16,032 
23. Anthony Sapio $16,032 
24. Edward Sabat $16,032 
25. Roy Vandersluis $16,032