2008 Event 19 Pot-Limit Omaha

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2008 WSOP Event 19 Pot-Limit Omaha

Individual Event Reports

Event 19 -- Pot-Limit Omaha Day 1

For this event there were 759 players, each paying $1,500 for the right to compete for the bracelet. This created a prize pool of $1,036,035 that will be split between the top 72 finishers.

Here are the payouts for the final table:

  1. $227,965
  2. $145,459
  3. $88,062
  4. $72,004
  5. $59,053
  6. $46,621
  7. $36,261
  8. $28,490
  9. $20,720
Lots of big names were in this one such as Erick Lindgren, Burt Boutin, David Williams, Dewey Tomko, Nenad Medic, Robert Williamson III, David "Devilfish" Ulliott, Greg Raymer, Humberto Brenes, Freddy Deeb, Phil Gordon, Vanessa Rousso, Kathy Liebert, Scotty Nguyen, Hoyt Corkins and Chau Giang. One of the first to bust was Shannon Elizabeth. Unfortunately, she moved all-in with 8 5 that she turned into a full house (8's/5's) by the river and met with a bigger full house to eliminate her (10's/8's). She was followed by Victor Ramdin, Scott Fischman, Lee Watkinson, Paul "Eskimo" Clark, WPT announcer Mike Sexton, Men "The Master" Nguyen, Barry Shulman after meeting the King high straight of Chau Giang.

In a huge turn of events, Vanessa Selbst became the dominate force in the field on Day 1, almost gaining twice as many chips as the second place finisher by the end of the day. Virtually every card she touched turned to gold. If you ever played online, and there was one person who could even play J 2 or 7 5 offsuit and win all the time, this is how the majority of her hands won with ease. (Although she played quality hands and was not seen playing a J 2 or a 7 5 offsuit. She is a far better player than that.) There were 48 players left going into Day 2. Tomorrows round will have competition going to the final table 9, beginning at 2:00 pm.
  1. Vanessa Selbst 203,600
  2. Anthony Phillips 133,100
  3. Carter Gill 114,000
  4. Eugene Todd 103,600
  5. Greg Cox 82,900
  6. Phil Reed 82,000
  7. Craig Natte 80,900
  8. Jesper Hougaard 74,800
  9. Rob Hollink 70,600

Event 19 -- Pot-Limit Omaha Day 2

Welcome to the Vanessa Selbst show, starring Vanessa Selbst! The poker angel that was on her shoulder yesterday, stayed until the end of Day 2. No one seems to even had a chance to catch this woman. In fact most of the players were fighting for the scraps she left behind. She rose to over 450,000 in chips at the end of level 15, and then played in a huge hand by the end of the night that put her over the 1 million mark. In a 4 way pot, Anthony Phillips in what could be described as a "hint" arrogant went all-in preflop in the dark against Selbst and after deliberation Selbst called. Phillips had A A Q 9, Selbst had K J 9 8 and the board showed a flop of 8 5 4 10 9 which gave Selbst two pair and the biggest pot of the night. Phillips stormed off and never came back.

Here is the pecking order of the final table:

  1. Vanessa Selbst 1,047,000
  2. Jamie Pickering 329,000
  3. Stanley "StanDman" Statkiewicz Jr 318,000
  4. Thom Schultz 144,000
  5. Eugene Todd 127,000
  6. Mel Randolph 117,000
  7. Craig Natte 108,000
  8. Jamie Robbins 70,000
  9. Ken Lairson 16,900

Event 19 -- Pot-Limit Omaha Final Table

Here are excerpts from the event summary from the WSOP:

The 2008 $1,500 buy-in Pot-Limit Omaha champion is Vanessa Selbst, a 23-year-old law student and poker professional

While playing at the final table, Selbst had two squeaky rubber ducks stacked on top of her chips, which were used as her lucky charms. The ducks apparently worked their magic.

At one point when play was three-handed, Vanessa Selbst had more than 75 percent of the total chips in play. It appeared she might destroy the field in a record time, en route to her first WSOP gold bracelet win. However, Selbst took two awful beats � losing with a big full house to a better full house, and then losing another huge pot with a made straight against a flush draw (which got there). But she recovered from the beats and gradually whittled down her final two adversaries. It was a magnificent performance by Selbst who was the dominant player throughout the tournament.

The 90-minute heads-up match between champion Selbst and the runner-up, Jamie Pickering was as rowdy as any poker duel in recent memory. A crowd of hundreds of spectators ringed the final table area and cheered on both players in a see-saw match. Incredibly, Pickering often raised the pot blind (without looking at his hole cards). He sometimes played hands to the river without peaking to see his hand. Selbst and her good-natured personality was the perfect foil for Pickering's unconventional antics and the two finalists developed a witty dialogue of jokes between them which made this finale unquestionably the most entertaining sideshow of the 2008 WSOP.

Pickering was as graceful a runner up as has been witnessed at the WSOP. As Selbst was admiring her newly-won gold bracelet, Pickering leaned over and asked if he could hold onto it for just a moment. When Selbst graciously complied, Pickering grabbed the bracelet, turned, and jokingly darted off through the crowd with the looted treasure. Pickering stopped, starting laughing, and returned the bracelet to Selbst with a hug and a hearty handshake.

Selbst became the first woman to win a WSOP open event since Katja Thater last year in the 2007 Razz championship. Selbst collected $227,933 for first place. She also earned her first WSOP gold bracelet.

  1. Vanessa Selbst -- $227,965
  2. Jamison Pickering -- $145,459
  3. Stanley "StanDman" Statkiewicz Jr -- $88,063
  4. Thomas Schultz -- $72,004
  5. Eugene Todd -- $59,054
  6. Craig Natte -- $46,622
  7. Mel Randolph -- $36,261
  8. Jamie Robbins -- $28,491
  9. Kenneth Lairson -- $20,721

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