2008 WSOP
Event 10 Omaha/Seven Card Stud Hi-Low-8 or Better

Individual Event Reports

Event #10 -- Omaha/Seven Card Stud Hi-Low-8 or Better

The buy-in amount of $2,500 was paid by 388 players for this event, an increase in number from the 327 that came last year. Prize pool size came to $892,400 with a nice $232,911 going to the champion. Payouts will go to 40th place. Levels are to be 60 minutes in length with 8 levels in total and the game changed every eight hands! Blinds will start at 75/150. We have not seen Tom Schneider who won the event last year but seated so far are Josh Arieh, Chad Brown, Eli Elezra, Michael Binger, Shannon Elizabeth, Daniel Negreanu, Mike Matusow, Tony Ma, Roland deWolfe, Cliff Josephy, Phil Ivey and Chris Reslock.

The master of Omaha, Robert Williamson III, was eliminated during a round where he was ahead by two Aces over the paired 4's by another player. But another 4 came up on seventh street and it was the final curtain call for Robert Williamson in this tournament. He was followed by Chau Giang, Jennifer Harman, Max Pescatori, Davidson Matthew, Norman Chad, Paul Darden, Chris Ferguson, Josh Arieh and Alexander Kravchenko. There are 110 players still at the tables that will compete again for the right to be at the final table tomorrow.

1. Jordan Rich 45,800
2. Daniel Mowczan 45,200
3. Farzad Rouhani 44,500
4. Robert Sherer 41,800
5. Ming Reslock 40,400
6. Gary Benson 39,900
7. Greg Pappas 36,400
8. Michael Mizrachi 35,600
9. James Van Alstyne 35,100

Event #10 -- Omaha/Seven Card Stud Hi-Low-8 or Better Day 2

Another count showed that there will be 108 players at the tables today, not 110 as stated yesterday. Action should be good at the top 40 players will get paid, and the bubble will be popped today. Chris Reslock got off to a good start hitting an Ace high flush to double up his chips to 12,000 early on. Men "The Master" Nguyen was trying a new luck charm by wearing a red visor with spikey hair attached to it. (I guess he did not want other players to take him seriously.) Greg Raymer was also moving up in chips but then ended up being eliminated during a round of Omaha 8. Todd Brunson, son of Doyle Brunson, also met the poker reaper, losing to his opponent's Ace high flush during Stud 8. Scott Clements lost to Michael Mizrachi after Michael hit a 5 high straight and the nut low during Omaha 8. At that point Michael had about 90K in chips, and went on to make the final table.

Action continued until 5:30 am on June 7th. The 8 final table players will return at 4:00 pm later on today to decide who will be the next champion.

1. Farzah Rouhadi -- 513,000
2. Greg Pappas -- 304,000
3. John Cernuto -- 285,000
4. Tom Chambers -- 235,000
5. Michael Mizrachi -- 231,000
6. John Racener -- 180,000
7. Daniel Mowzcan -- 122,000
8. Yueqi Zhu -- 87,000

Event #10 -- Omaha/Seven Card Stud Hi-Low-8 or Better Final Table

Here are the final table activities as given by the WSOP:

When the final table began, Farzad Rouhani was the chip leader. He earned what amounted to a wire-to-wire victory. Given that high-low split games tend to be somewhat monotonous, the final table was expected to run long. However, the finale concluded in about 6 hours, due largely to Rouhani�s dominant stack size throughout, making it the quickest of ten final tables thus far at the 2008 WSOP.

Last year�s champion was Tom Schneider, who went on to win the 2007 WSOP "Player of the Year" race. Schneider was unable to defend his crown in this event as he was still alive in another tournament at the time, the Mixed Games championship, which played its Day Two when this tournament began.

The final hand came at 9:10 pm PST. Rouhani was dealt 9-8-3-2. The final board showed 7-3-3-A-3, giving the new champion quad-threes with an eight-low. After exposing his four-of-a-kind, the often demonstrative poker pro jokingly remarked, "If I knew they would show my hand to the audience, I would play better cards than (9-8-3-2)".

Winning a WSOP gold bracelet obviously meant something special to the new champion. While playing, Rouhani wore another bracelet on his left wrist � which was presented to him for winning a tournament at the Jack Binion World Poker Open back in 2003. "I must admit that I really do need the money," Rouhani said. "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."

1. Farzad Rouhani $232,911
2. Tom Chambers $142,784
3. John Cernuto $86,117
4. Yueqi Zhu $63,807
5. Greg Pappas $48,190
6. John Racener $37,481
7. Daniel Mowczan $28,557
8. Michael Mizrachi $24,095