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2007 World Series of Poker
Events 26 to 30

Event #26 | #27 | #28 | #29 | #30

Event #26 June 15 Friday 5:00 PM
H.O.R.S.E. 3 day event $5,000.00

There were 192 players who signed up for this multi-game extravaganza. A cash pool of $902,400 will be split between the top 24 finishers. The games in this event will change every 30 minutes, but the limits increase every hour during flop games and every hour and a half during stud games. Tournament play will begin with Hold'Em with blinds at $50/$25 and limits of $100/$50. Everyone begins the event with $10,000 in chips. With the big names like Michael Mizrachi, Steve Zolotow, Josh Arieh, John Hennigan, David Plastik, Doyle Brunson, John Juanda, Mimi Tran, Chris Ferguson, Robert Williamson III, Daniel Negreanu, Amir Vahedi and Eric Seidel entered, this can only result in a killer field for this tournament. Day 1 was finished around 3:00 a.m. the next morning with 115 ready to resume action at the tables for day 2.

Day 2 damage control had lots of casualties. Those on the rail include Daniel Negreanu, Jeffrey Lisandro, Annie Duke, David Plastik, Joe Cassidy, Mike Wattel, Men the Master, Cyndy Violette, Erick Lindgren, Bill Edler, Greg Raymer, Chris Reslock, John Juanda, Doyle Brunson and Gavin Smith. The tournament ended at 4:08 a.m. on June 17th with 12 players left on level 17 of Stud. Everyone was dead dog tired. Action will begin at 3:00 p.m. June 17th with players having only have 2 hours to get down to 9, and hopefully the final table will start at 5:00 p.m.

Final table play got off to a start at 3:20 p.m. with the game being Hold'em. The blinds are at $4,000/$8,000 with limits of $8,000/$16,000. Remember the players that had to go in order to proceed with the final table? Well, Jeff King (12th) and Rick Schwartz (11th) were gone in the first 15 min of action. Greg Mascio (10th) and Alex KravChanko (9th) joined them a few minutes later courtesy of Phil Ivey. Game switched to RAZZ and very short stacked Jeff Campbell was eliminated in 8th on the first hand by Ralph Schwartz with a 9-low. With a game change to Stud 8 or Better, Thom Schultz also lost a hand to Ralph Schwartz going out in 7th. While playing Omaha, Alex Jung was bested by a straight from Robert Mizrachi, resulting in a 6th place finish for Jung. But Mizrachi was busted in 5th place by Bill Gazes while playing RAZZ. Phil Ivey went out of the tourney in 4th, when he lost a hand to Yuebin Guo playing Stud. Soon Guo himself left in 3rd after Schwartz ended up with a higher two pair than Guo.

Chip counts for both players looked like Ralph Schwartz with 1,345,000 and Bill Gazes holding onto 550,000 with the game being Omaha/8. It just took 6 hands to determine the winner. The last hand took place when both raised, called and saw the felt showing Qs 6c 3h 4h 2s. Ralph flipped over 2 3 5 8 and Bill had K K 7 6. This gave Ralph a 6 high straight and the title of champion for which he now has a bracelet as proof.

Final table results:

1. Ralph Schwartz -- $275,683
2. Bill Gazes -- $153,408
3. Yuebin Guo -- $99,264
4. Phil Ivey -- $65,424
5. Robert Mizrachi -- $49,632
6. Alexander Jung --$37,901
7. Thomas Schultz -- $28,877
8. Jeff Campbell -- $20,755

Event #27 June 16 Saturday 12 Noon
No-Limit Hold�em 3 day event $1,500.00

This tournament was one of the larger events with 2315 players at the tables. To get an idea, players were actually seated in the main poker room at the RIO and by Buzio's Seafood Restaurant inside the RIO. A huge prize pool of $3,159,975 was created and money will go to the top 198 finishers. Lots of people went to the sidelines very quickly as play went down to 135 remaining entrants. Names like Andy Black, Mark Vos, Jason Strasser, Max Pescatori, Chris "Jesus" Ferguson, David "The Dragon" Pham, Michael Binger, Thomas Wahlroos, Shannon Elizabeth, Andy Bloch after his all-in with A K was beaten by pocket J's, Victor Ramdin, Mark Seif, T.J. Cloutier whos pocket 9's lost to another player's A J when another J came up on the flop. By the time dinner break was over, there were only 420 players left and in the following hour, 121 more players busted out. At 2;15 a.m. the tournament was stopped and those left bagged their chips for Day 2.

The list of eliminations on Day 2 included Lee Watkinson, Clint Schafer, Nam Le, Jason Travis, Arnold Spee, Burt Boutin, Jean Gaspard, David Williams, Sabyl Cohen and John Murphy. By 1:00 a.m. the nine for the final table had been reached. They will return at 2:00 p.m. on June 18th.

When the final table was underway, it really moved! The first bust happened on the first hand with short stacked Thai Ton who moved all-in and was called by Seth Weinger who won the hand with two pair (K's and 7's), leaving Ton in a 9th place finish. Three minutes later, Luis Sanchez goes out in 8th after David Woo produced a set of A's. Tom Dobrilovic ended up in 7th place after losing in a 4 way hand with Young Cho, Seth Weinger, and Michael Ium. Noam Freedman busted out in 6th, losing to the Queen kicker of Seth Weinger. David Woo could go no further than 5th place with his pocket J's after they met the pocket A's of Michael Ium. Michael Ium walked away in 4th losing to the two pair (J's and 8's) of Seth Weinger. At this point Young Cho increased his aggression and began winning lots of pots to become chip leader at one point, but then loses about 1/2 his stack to David Stucke who doubles up. Then Stucke busts Seth Weinger in 3rd picking up over 2 million chips in the process with a Queen high flush.

At this point Stucke has 5,610,000 in chips compared to Cho who has 1,335,000. Table pace quickened when the blind were increased to $60,000/$120,000 with an ante of $15,000. Cho had blinded off 300,000 of his stack in 3 hands before he decided to move all-in with Jd 3h and was called by Stucke with pocket 7's. The cards that came forth were Qs 10d 5d As 8d, making the pocket 7's the winning hand in Event #27. David Stucke picked up over a half a million dollars, a Corum watch and the beautiful gold and diamond WSOP bracelet that only champions wear.

Final table results:

1. David Stucke -- $603,069
2. Young Cho -- $382,357
3. Seth Weinger -- $246,478
4. Michael Ium -- $164,319
5. David Woo -- $115,339
6. Noam Freedman -- $83,739
7. Tom Dobrilovic -- $63,200
8. Luis Sanchez -- $47,400
9. Thai Ton -- $36,340

Event #28 June 17 Sunday 12 Noon
No-Limit Hold�em 3 day event $3,000.00

This No Limit Hold'Em tournament is a new event at the WSOP with no prior champion. Couple that with the reality that the higher the buyin, the smaller the field and the more pros that will be in that field, help to make for exciting tournaments. The field of 827 players goes along these lines as it in no way approaches the number size of 2315 entrants in event 27 which has a 1500 buyin. Cash pool size is $2,282,520 and money will go to the top 81 finishers. Again fatigue is showing wear and tear on the players, as the tournament started with more empty seats than full ones. Table dealers were told to start dealing if there were at least two at the table. Over time, big names took their seats at the tournament. Seen were comedian Norm McDonald, Phil Laak, Joe Hachem, Chris Moneymaker, Erick Lindgren, David "The Dragon" Pham, Joe Awada, Phil Gordon, Clonie Gowan, Jan Von Halle, Darrell "Gigabet" Dicken, Vanessa Rousso, Perry Friedman, J.J. Liu, John Gale, Humberto Brenes, Andy Black, Mark Vos and Evelyn Ng. Inside the Amazon room are a lot of big screen televisions overhead, and lots of players had their eyes glued on the U.S. Open resulting in some dealers reminding them that the action is on them. Eliminations took place left and right, sending big names to the rail. By the time the day's end came up with 81 players remaining, an announcement came out that Phil Hellmuth made his 60th WSOP cash. We will see if this is the road for bracelet number 12 for Phil on Day 2.

Day 2 began with a surprise...Phil Hellmuth was actually on time for the start of the tournament! (3 min early to be more exact.) He gave no reason for his change in style, but Hellmuth was really focused on the cards and not being eliminated to have a chance at a 12th bracelet. Luke Vrabel at this table was being loud and obnoxious, even taking occasional stabs at Phil, and Phil did not blow up or melt down. Hmmmmmmm? Anyway, some of the names who were eliminated on Day 2 include Jeff Cohen, Dan Schmiech, Phil Laak, Greg Mueller, Danny Wong, Steve Dannenmann, Maureen Feduniak, Thomas Wahlroos, Noah Schwartz, Edward Moncada, Dennis Perry, Evelyn Ng and comedian Norm McDonald. Play was halted at 10:40 p.m. with 10 remaining, meaning 1 more will have to go before the final table is declared. And with loudmouth Luke Vrabel and Phil Hellmuth at the same table things will be interesting to say the least.

The last round of this tournament will be televised on ESPN as a 10 handed table, primarily to see if Phil Hellmuth can make the final table. If he can manage to do so, he will tie the record for having made the most WSOP final tables with T.J. Cloutier. Phil showed up 35 minutes late for the start holding up everyone else who was on time. Once seated, play started with blinds at $8,000/$16,000 and a $2,000 ante. First bust occurred when Luke Vrable's pocket 9's met the pocket Q's of Ben Fineman, sending Vrable to the rail in 10th. Daniel Corbin goes out in 9th losing in a 3-way hand involving Shankar Pillai and Beth Shak. Brett Richey laid claim to 8th when he lost a wild 3-way hand involving Beth Shak and Phil Hellmuth. Hellmuth goes in with pocket A's, Richey goes all in with pocket K's and Shak also has pocket A's, unfortunately for Richey he found out what the others had after everyone committed to the pot. Shak and Hellmuth split the pot, Richey goes to the sidelines. Perry Friedman went out in 7th after meeting the 7 high straight of Hellmuth. Then Hellmuth himself busted in 6th when his A 10 was overcome by the paired Queens of Beth Shak. Ben Fineman goes out in 5th losing to Jason Song's pocket 9's, Dustin Holmes claims a 4th place finish defeated by the straight of Shankar Pillai and Jason Song leaves the tourney in 3rd courtesy of the two pair (A's and J's) of Pillai.

Both players Shankar Pillai (2,550,000) and Beth Shak (2,410,000) were very close in chips at the heads up start. In 7 hands, it was over. After a flop of 10c 8h 3h, Shak goes all in with Kh 8s and Pillai called after 4 minutes of thinking with Ad 8d. Remaining cards were 7s 2c, making Shakar Pillai champion and WSOP bracelet holder with a pair of 8's with an Ace kicker.

Final Table results:

1. Shankar Pillai - $527,829
2. Beth Shak - $328,683
3. Jason Song - $212,274
4. Dustin Holmes - $141,516
5. Ben Fineman - $100,431
6. Phil Hellmuth, Jr. - $76,464
7. Perry Friedman - $57,063
8. Brett Richey - $42,227
9. Daniel Corbin - $30,814
10. Luke Vrable - $21,456

Event #29 June 17 Sunday 5:00 PM
Seven Card Razz 2 day event (going to 3 day by player vote) $1,500.00

There were 341 players who signed up for what has become known as the most frustrating game to play period. The goal for RAZZ for those who don't know is to make "the worse hand" while playing limit Stud, not the best hand. After T.J. Cloutier won the title in 2004, he said he had no ambition to retain the title and did not enter in 2005. To make things more confusing, during H.O.R.S.E. the RAZZ game included an extra card for the bring in which is something the players were used to. In this tournament that is not happening with the support of the floor on the decision. So for these determined entrants, a prize pool of $465,465 was created with cash going to the top 32. Day 1 finished with 126 still standing.

The next day got off to a fast start with 30 players busting out on level 9 which took an hour to finish. Names like Jeff Lisandro, James Van Alstyne, Tom McEvoy, Chris Reslock, Mickey Mills, Todd Brunson, Berry Johnston, Humberto Brenes, Chau Giang, Gavin Griffin, Robert Williamson III, Marcel Luske and Barry Greenstein were gone from the tournament. But O'Neil Longson who won the title in 2005 is looking good as a repeat going into the final round as chip leader. He will have quality competition. It will be interesting to see how bad top names like Men "The Master" Nguyen, Paul 'Eskimo' Clark and Mark Vos can play. Day 2 was scheduled to be a wrap up, but with a vote of 6 to 2 from the last remaining players, it looks like it will be stretched out to include a third day.

What happened today was an exciting finish in the WSOP for this final table, so we'll get to it. We start with the players betting at $6,000/$12,000, ante of $1,500, bring-in of $2,000 and a completion of $6,000. The first bustout happened when Katja Thater took out Thomas Daubert (8th) and Men "The Master" Nguyen (7th) in the same hand! Because Daubert had fewer chips than Nguyen, he went out in the lower spot. Eskimo Clark and Thater began winning most of the pots, building their stacks pretty high. Then Eskimo wins a big pot in a 3 way hand involving O'Neil Longson and Mark Vos, which resulted in Vos finishing in 6th. Denny Axel was eliminated next in 5th courtesy of Katja Thater. At this point, fortune stopped smiling on Eskimo and he slowly started losing chips. Then Eskimo Clark was busted out in 4th place, again courtesy of Katja Thater. 2006 RAZZ champion O'Neil Longson who played very well, lost the opportunity for a repeat win after losing to Katja Thater and going away in 3rd.

Details were sketchy for the final hand in the heads up, but in the end Larry St. Jean made a 8 7 low which was not as bad as the 8 5 low made by Katja Thater. So Katja Thater becomes the newest WSOP bracelet holder and champion plus scoring a big one for the ladies!

Final table results:

1. Katja Thater -- $132,653
2. Larry St. Jean -- $73,311
3. O'Neil Longson -- $46,547
4. Paul 'Eskimo' Clark -- $31,186
5. Denny Axel -- $24,204
6. Mark Vos -- $18,836
7. Men Nguyen -- $14,197
8. Thomas Daubert -- $10,473

Event #30 June 18 Monday 12 Noon
No-Limit Hold'em/Six Handed 3 day event $2,500.00

The first day of this tournament had 847 players show up at the tables. Money will go to the top 61 finishers in the event. We look for this tournament to move quickly just as Event #12 did, because of the nature of six handed tables being smaller than the regular tournament tables. And fast it went with Dutch Boyd, Jennifer Tilly, Andrew Black, Chris Ferguson, Michael Binger, Shannon Elizabeth, Jennifer Harman, Huck Seed, Isabelle Mercier, Eric Froehlich and Huck Seed going from player to spectator as they busted out. Action was ended at 2:30 a.m. on June 19th with 42 players coming back for more.

From the 42 survivors, they played down to the six names for the final table. Action began about 2:10 p.m. PDT and the busts kept coming with the first one happening 10 min after start. Names like Vinnie Vinh, Erik Seidel, Jon Friedberg, Erick Lindgren, Mimi Tran, 2007 Event #1 champion Steve Billirakis, Joe Tehan, Yakov Hirsch and Steve Wong went to the rail. For some reason Vinnie Vinh was a no-show and was blinded off, resulting in a 22nd place finish. Now Hoyt Corkins was a monster at the tables for a second day in a row, defeating all he met to become the chip leader going to the final table. But with Alan Sass, Terrance Chan and William Lin it won't be easy to claim the bracelet he is aiming for.

Final table action was underway at 3:30 p.m. with blinds starting at $6,000/$12,000, with a $1,000 ante. About 20 minutes into play, James Pittman was eliminated in 6th place when his A 9 could not stand up to the pocket 8's of William Lin. Hoyt Corkins played carefully but struck with the ferocity of a rattlesnake when needed, slowly building his chips. Then a heads up between Hoyt and Kelly Vande-Mheen took place with Kelly having a pair of 7's that were stopped dead by Hoyt's pocket A's, sending Kelly home in 5th place. Next wild steer to get roped was Alan Sass after his A K was shut down by Hoyt's two pair (A's and 10's), corralling Alan into 4th place. A few hands later William Lin went to the sidelines in 3rd with a A J that lost to Terrence Chan's A 6 after Chan paired his 6 card.

So for the heads up, the chip levels are Terrence Chan with 1,568,000 and Hoyt Corkins having 2,682,000 in his gun belt. A few hands into play, the blinds increase to $15,000/$30,000 with a $4,000 ante. Hoyt put a lot of pressure on Chan bluffing a lot of hands and winning, slowly removing stacks of chips from Chan. Then 45 min after the start, Chan raises preflop and Hoyt goes all-in with Kd 10s and Chan has Ad 4d. Flop showed 9s 8d 8h, turn card was Kc and the river card was a 6s, giving Hoyt two pair (K's and 8's) plus a WSOP gold and diamond bracelet of champions which makes number two for Hoyt! Good reason to saddle up, ride and watch the sunset somewhere.

Final Table results:

1. Hoyt Corkins -- $515,065
2. Terrence Chan -- $287,345
3. William Lin -- -$196,758
4. Alan Sass -- $132,471
5. Kelly Vande-Mheen -- $96,431
6. James Pittman -- $63,118