2008 WSOP Event 14 World Championship Seven Card Stud

Individual Event Reports

Event 14 -- World Championship Seven Card Stud Day 1

A total of 158 players paid $10,000.00 to enter this World Champion event, creating a pool of $1,485,200 of which the top 16 will see money and the newest champion will take home $415,856. Action got underway at 5:00 p.m. with 20,000 in chips per player having a goal of 6 - 60 minute levels played. Blinds began with 50 ante, 50 bring in and 200 completion. Seen were World Champion Cyndi Violette, Daniel Negreanu, Annie Duke, Carlos Mortensen, David Grey, Doyle Brunson, David Chiu, Frank Kassela, Men "The Master" Nguyen, Phil Hellmuth Jr. and David Oppenheim.

By 2:30 a.m. the next day there were a total of 80 players are left for Day 2 that will begin at 2:00 p.m. tomorrow. Come back to see who makes the final table!

1. Alexander Kostritsyn 121,100
2. Barry Mullinax 103,300
3. Michael Fiorito 101,900
4. Chad Brown 89,100
5. Daniel Negreanu 79,700
6. Ralph Perry 76,100
7. Cyndi Violette 70,300
8. Vassilios Lazarou 69,400
9. Thomas Weideman 62,100

Event 14 -- World Championship Seven Card Stud Day 2

Day Two of this event attracted perhaps the largest gallery of the year at this year�s WSOP. Several notable poker superstars including Daniel Negreanu, Phil Ivey, Erik Seidel, and others guaranteed that viewing space would be tight. Poker fans lined the rails and stayed positioned about the dwindling tables until 3 am, when the final eight players had finally been determined. In total, Day 2 lasted about 12 hours.

There was considerable interest in this tournament from many players in the tournament room. Phil Ivey had reportedly wagered millions of dollars on himself that he will win a WSOP gold bracelet this year. (Note: Ivey is said to have settled on a 1:1.8 payout in his favor). Ivey had a big stack when play went to two tables. But he busted out in ninth place, and many poker players breathed a sigh of relief. Another note on the Phil Ivey wager: Seven-Card Stud is perhaps Ivey�s best poker game and with the smaller field, his detractors were most fearful he would win this event (or the Deuce-to-Seven tournament).

1. David Oppenheim 508,000
2. Alexander Kostritsyn 495,000
3. Fu Wong 429,000
4. Minh Ly 424,000
5. Jim Paluszek 413,000
6. Eric Brooks 359,000
7. Erik Seidel 273,000
8. Vassilios Lazarou 259,000

Event 14 -- World Championship Seven Card Stud Final Table

Here is the event summary as given by the WSOP:

In general, Seven-Card Stud has been an �East Coast� game for more than fifty years. While draw poker, lowball, and flop games such as Hold�em and Omaha have all enjoyed popularity in other regions of the United States, the most popular poker game spread in casinos in the Northeast from the early 1990s until quite recently was Seven-Card Stud. In fact, Atlantic City and Foxwoods (Connecticut) � the two epicenters of the Eastern poker boom about 15 years ago � offered more Seven-Card Stud action and higher-limit games than anywhere else in the world. Ten years ago, about 80 percent of the poker games offered in New Jersey and Connecticut were Seven-Card Stud tables. Now, Hold�em is more popular. Artie Cobb holds a WSOP record which may never be broken. Cobb holds four WSOP gold bracelets � all in the game of Seven-Card Stud. He earned his victories between 1983 and 1998. Cobb still plays at the WSOP. But he did not enter this event.

Day Three lasted about five hours. This was the most top-heavy payout list of the year, thus far. Of the 16 players who cashed in this tournament, seven have won WSOP gold bracelets.

Even though Phil Ivey did not make the final table, there was enough top talent there for anyone to forget about relaxing. Ante began with 2,000, a 3,000 bring-in and a 10,000 completion. Vassilios Lazarou who was short stacked, went all-in and lost to David Oppenheim, leaving in 8th place. David Oppenheim pushed his chips to the middle in a battle with Alexander Kostritsyn, but lost ending up in 7th place. Kostritsyn also sent Jim Paluszek to join Oppenheim on the sidelines in 6th. Erik Seidel decided to go all in with Minh Ly, and after a hand of Seidel showing (5d 5s Kh Qd 4c Ad 7s) and Ly having (As 5c Ac 10d Js 7h Qc), Seidel left in 5th place in this tournament. But in a few more hands Ly lost to Alexander Kostritsyn, and laid claim to the 4th place payout. And then Alexander Kostritsyn went to the rail in 3rd after losing to Eric Brooks.

In the heads up, Brooks had 1,345,000 chips and Wong had 1,815,000. After 20 minutes came, the winning hand took place. Unfortunately, we could not see the final hand but we do know that Eric Brooks became the champion AND made the statement that 100% of his winnings will be donated to the Decision Education Foundation. (But he kept 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
9. Phil Ivey $37,130 (Note: He didn't make the final table, but we felt the effort was worthy of mention.)