2008 WSOP Event 12 Limit Hold�em

Individual Event Reports

Event 12 -- Limit Hold�em Day 1

The 880 entrants to this tournament will battle it out for 8 levels in todays round. All players will start with 3,000 in chips with blinds at 25/50 with 50/100 limits. Prize pool for this event went up to $1,205,295, with the winner receiving $257,936 and a gold bracelet. There will be 81 who will see the money. Some eliminations on the floor were Kenna James, Barry Greenstein who looked like he would make up earlier losses to stay in the game, Dutch Boyd who lost a big chunk of chips to Chris Ferguson, Andy Bloch, Dutch Boyd, Jean-Robert Bellande, Humberto Brenes, J.C. Tran and Daniel Negreanu.

Others who made the cut include Erick Lindgren 27,300, Tom Schneider 25,100, Marcel Luske 24,200, Terrence Chan 23,100, Brian Devonshire 9,400, Anna Wroblewski 9,100 and Dewey Tomko 5,200. At the end of Day 1, there were 179 players left to move on for the next round. Here are the top 9 with chip counts:

1. Alexander Schwartz 130,000
2. Eric Pratt 40,700
3. Eric Crain 38,400
4. Jimmy Shultz 38,300
5. Roy Thung 35,800
6. Joseph Sanders 35,800
7. Marco Traniello 34,400
8. Vinny Vinh 30,700
9. Gerald Schaffner 30,600

Event 12 -- Limit Hold�em Day 2

We now have the payout schedule for this event.

1. $257,049
2. $165,165
3. $99,099
4. $82,883
5. $67,868
6. $53,453
7. $41,441
8. $32,432
9. $23,423

1. Vinny Vinh 335,000
2. Erick Lindgren 244,000
3. Brendan Taylor 240,000
4. Ali Eslami 208,000
5. Steven Shkolnik 199,000
6. Joseph Sanders 173,000
7. Christoph Niesert 173,000
8. Zac Fellows 164,000
9. John O'Brien 163,000

Event 12 -- Limit Hold�em Final Table

The final table clocked in at just over seven hours for Event #12. This was highly surprising when you figure that there were 18 players going into the final table. Getting down to the final nine took four of the seven hours, and unfortunately Erick Lindgren was busted out in 10th, missing the opportunity to gain a second bracelet. Chung Law had pocket 10's giving him enough confidence for an all-in move, but met the pocket J's of Jimmy Shultz which left him in a 9th place finish. And Vinny Vihn didn't show up until 9 of the 18 were eliminated. He had enough chips to survive the blinds and when he did sit down he took up true form of being the pest that he is known for at the tables.

Christoph Niesert ended up mucking his cards and claiming the cash for 8th after meeting the paired Kings of Zac Fellows. Then in quick fashion, Ali Eslami busted to the two pair of Shultz (A's/4's) for 7th, Gosler lost to the paired 9's of Shultz for 6th, Monroe mucked his cards after meeting the straight of Shultz for 5th and Brendan Taylor met a full house of Vinny Vihn to leave in 4th place.

By this time Vinny Vihn's behavior at the table is so bad to where tournament officials gave him a warning to cool down or face the director. And fate must have had it with Vinny as well, because the next few hands pared him down to being dangerously low on chips. He could not survive the all-in move with Q 2 after Shultz made a pair of 7's and left in 3rd place.

So after Vinny got the boot, Schultz had 1,610,000 in chips and Fellows had 1,025,000. Blinds were 25/50,000 and 50/100,000 limits. On the final hand, both went all-in preflop with Fellows showing pocket 3's and Schultz having 10h 3h. The board produced Qd 7h 6h 6d Jh to give Schultz the Jack high flush and the championship bracelet for the victory.

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