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2007 World Series of Poker
Events 31 to 35

Event #31 | #32 | #33 | #34 | #35

Event #31 June 19 Tuesday 12 Noon
World Championship Heads Up No-Limit Hold'em 3 day event $ 5,000.00

This should be one of the heavily watched tournaments of the WSOP. The structure is set up to where each player gets 10,000 in chips to start in 256 match ups, with the blinds to increase every 20 minutes starting at $50/$100. After 10 levels, a reduction to 128 will take place. Two dealers will be assigned to each table at opposite ends. When things got started 2 hours late due to the matchups that had to be set up, 120 players received a first round bye. (Not many were happy with that decision.) Also, there was 1 dealer per table, (change in plans), with players at the 5 and 9 seats. Some of the hot matchups were:

• Max Pescatori verses Patrick Antonious(w)
• Freddy Deeb(w) verses Daniel Negreanu
• Fabrice Soulier(w) verses Michael Gracz
• Howard Lederer verses Dan Harrington(w)
• Eric Froehlich(w) verses Mike Sexton

1. Dan Schreiber -- $425,594
2. Mark Muchnik -- $230,300
3. Keith Block -- $128,968
4. Vanessa Selbst -- $128,968
5. Steve Sarrafzadeh -- $46,060
6. Jared Davis -- $46,060
7. Shannon Shorr -- $46,060
8. Toto Leonidas -- $46,060

Event #32 June 19 Tuesday 5:00 PM
Seven Card Stud 2 day event (extended to 3 days) $2,000.00

A total number of 213 players sat down to play in Event #32 in the Pavilion which was a not so great place to play in, but the air conditioning is fixed and there are no winds to buffet the sides of the structure. Seen at the tables were Barbara Enright, Cindy Violette, Mel Judah, David Chiu, Darrell Dicken, Greg Raymer, Daniel Negreanu, Howard Lederer, Chip Reese and Marcel Luske. Eveyone got 4,000 chips to start with. Not a lot of quick bustouts in the early stage of play due to the structure starting at $5 ante, $10 low card, $25 completion and $25/$50 limits. After dinner break, there were still 194 players left. But at that point, the betting structure was raised to level 6 and the number of eliminations increased. Bustouts include Humberto Brenes who went after he ran into another player's set of Jacks, Tony Guoga busted by the Ace high flush of Mel Judah, Barbara Enright, Carolyn Gardner, David Sklansky and Jim McManus. Play was ended at 3:00 a.m. and there were 88 contenders left for the next round which will begin at 3:00 p.m. PST June 20th.

Day 2 began with players at level 8 which has an ante of $100, bring-in of $100, completion of $400 and betting levels of $400/$800. With lots of short stacks, bustout happened quickly. The elimination brigade included Alex Kravchenko, Allen Kessler, Chip Reese, Darrell "Gigabet" Dicken, Cyndy Violette, David Chiu after an amazing comeback from a low of 400 chips to over 50,000 at one point, Mel Judah and Howard Lederer who just missed the final table busting out in 9th place. Action will resume at 1:00 p.m. pdt tomorrow.

The final table being filmed by ESPN got underway at 1:00 p.m. and everyone was watching Daniel Negreanu as the buzz was out that the side bets on whether he would win a bracelet this year would give him a six figure payout. Thirty minutes into play, Farshad Cohen went out in 8th after his two Queens were stopped by the Queen high straight of Negreanu. Ten minutes later, David Brody left in 7th losing to the straight of Greg Pappas. Greg Pappas was eliminated in 6th when he met the King high straight of Nesbitt Coburn. Next to go to the sidelines was none other than Daniel Negreanu in 5th when Severin Walser produced a set of 2's. Severin Walser bowed out in 4th once he saw the full house (A's/9's) of Nick Frangos. Nick also busted Nesbitt Coburn in 3rd place with two pair (8's and 3's). For the heads up Jeffrey Lisandro had 449,000 in chips and Nick Frangos had 408,000. Both played carefully and things were pretty even until Lisandro hit a straight and clipped Frangos's stack for 250,000! Frangos fought back, but on the final hand Lisandro produced a set of A's which made him the tournament champion and gave him his first WSOP bracelet for his efforts!

Final table results:

1. Jeffrey Lisandro -- $118,426
2. Nick Frangos -- $65,902
3. Nesbitt Coburn -- $42,643
4. Severin Walser -- $28,105
5. Daniel Negreanu -- $21,321
6. Greg Pappas -- $16,282
7. David Brody -- $12,405
8. Farshad "Ben" Cohen -- $8,916

Event #33 June 20 Wednesday 12 Noon
Pot Limit Omaha W/Re-Buys 2 day event $1,500.00

There were 293 players at the tables for event 33. There were three levels of rebuys available to the players. Once the good times were over, some players were flush with chips with some close to poverty. Thus the eliminations began with names like John Phan, Greg Raymer, Phil Ivey, Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi, John D'Agostino, Barry Greenstein, Andy Bloch, Lee Watkinson, Andrew Black, Eric Froehlich, Juha Helppi and Mike Wattel. When the dust settled, there were 51 to return for Day 2. Money will go to the top 27 to split a prize pool of $1,684,305 which featured 880 rebuys.

Bustouts for Day 2 include Jeff Madsen, Dewey Tomko, Padraig Parkinson, Humberto Brenes, master of the game Robert Williamson III, Dave Colclough, Johhny Chan, Ram Vaswani, Padraig Parkinson, Devilfish Ulliott, Mike Sexton, David Williams, Allen Cunningham, Ralph Perry and Erick Lindgren who just missed the final table coming in 10th. Play for the final nine will begin at level 8 which has blinds of $10,000/$20,000, call of $20,000 and a make it of $40,000 to $70,000. Action starts at 2:00 p.m.

The final table started at 2:23 p.m. and 7 minutes later, Hilbert Shirey was eliminated in 9th after his two Aces lost to Qushqar Morad's set of Kings. Morad then sent Sunny Nijran to the rail in 8th with a six high straight. Next in 7th place is Robert Fellner who fell to the Ace high straight of Chau Giang. Seizing opportunity, Morad again drove an elimination train this time into Brandon Adams's chip stack with a full house to give Brandon a 6th place finish for this tournament. Not slowing down for anyone, Morad then set his sights on Chau Giang with an Ace straight, allowing Giang to walk away in 5th. Chris Bjorin picked up the paycheck for 4th after Van Marcus produces a Queen high flush for the winning hand. At this point Alan Smurfit has quietly squirreled away chips, opposite of the monster mode of Morad. After Smurfit busted Van Marcus in 3rd with a full house (7s/Qs), it was time for the heads up. Chip counts are as follows, Qushqar Morad - 2,215,000 and Alan Smurfit - 1,300,000.

It is too bad this one won't be on ESPN, because it was a battle that raged over 5 hours and 167 hands until the final hand. (When hand 135 came, Morad almost won but a paired 5 card gave Smurfit an answer to a prayer.) In the last hand after a flop of Jd 8h 6c, Morad goes all in and Smurfit calls. Morad has 10c 9h 9s 6s and Smurfit shows Qc Jc 8d 2d. Turn card is a 6d giving Morad a full house (6's/9's), but the river card is an 8c. So Alan Smurfit has made a bigger full house (8's/J's) and is now a bracelet wearing WSOP champion!

Final table results:

1. Alan Smurfit -- $464,867
2. Qushqar Morad -- $279,595
3. Van Marcus -- $190,326
4. Chris Bjorin -- $129,691
5. Chau Giang -- $96,005
6. Brandon Adams -- $75,794
7. Robert Fellner -- $57,266
8. Birinder Nijran -- $42,108
9. Hilbert Shirey -- $30,317

Event #34 June 20 Wednesday 5:00 PM
Limit Hold�em 3 day event $3,000.00

The 296 players for this event was less than the 415 that signed up in 2006. But everyone was given $6,000 in chips to start the tournament playing levels that lasted 60 minutes each. Seen at the tables were last year's champion William Chen, Thomas "Thunder" Keller, Amir Vahedi, Eric Seidel, Ted Lawson and Dutch Boyd. A prize pool of $816,960 was established and will be divided between the top 27. By the time things ended at 3:00 a.m., the field changed drastically for the next round of play. Greg Mueller had a good day ending up with over 50,000 in chips and will be part of the 110 who come back tomorrow. Other players who made the cut and will continue on to Day 2 are Phil Hellmuth, Max Pescatori, Marco Traniello, Ted Forrest, Annie Duke, J.J. Liu, David "The Dragon" Pham, Chad Brown, Kenna James, Alex Kravchenko, Thor Hansen and Barry Greenstein. Unfortunately William Chen's quest to hold onto his title another year ended when he lost to another player's paired 5's.

The second day began late due to the fact that there are five events taking place today, making space a valued premium. When it did begin, the names on the list of the busted grew to include Matt Matros, Barry Greenstein, Annie Duke, David Plastik, Marco Traniello, Kenna James, Thor Hansen, David Levi, Ted Forrest, J.C. Tran and Phil Hellmuth. But the resulting final table will be tough with David Pham, Brandon Wong, Shawn Keller and others who will come back at 2:00 p.m. on June 22nd.

Final table play began at 4:20 p.m. and Petri Pollanen became the first statistic in 9th place on the first hand, losing to the paired 5's of Vivek Rajkumar. Soon (as in 4 minutes later) Marco Johnson was gone in 8th falling to the 10 high flush of Mike Byrne. Michael Byrne went out in 7th after his pocket 7's lost in a 3-way hand with Vivek Rajkumar and Shawn Keller. Keller produced a pair of Kings to take a huge pot on that hand. Vivek Rajkumar who is barely 21 years old, busted in 6th place losing to the set of 8's belonging to Brandon Wong. Matthew Kelly had to accept 5th place after Alex Borteh's two pair (Q's and 10's) trounced the pocket 7's of Kelly. David Pham was eliminated in 4th after his K Q lost to the two pair (9's and 8's) of Shawn Keller. Then Shawn Keller busted out in 3rd losing to the two pair (K's and 8's) of Alex Borteh. Total chip amounts for the heads up were Alex Borteh with 1,200,000 and Brandon Wong having 570,000. Betting limits are up to $15,000/$30,000 with betting limits of $30,000/$60,000.

Heads up play was highly expensive due to the level being played. Although hands were going back and forth, one slip allowed Borteh to cripple Wong. Wong was all-in preflop on the next hand with Qh 8h and Borteh called with Kc 6d. The board showed 9d 9s 6c Ks (brick) giving Borteh two pair for the win. This is Borteh's first WSOP bracelet so you know he is happy about being champion.

Final table results:

1. Alexander Borteh -- $225,483
2. Brandon Wong -- $135,615
3. Shawn Keller -- $92,316
4. David "The Dragon" Pham -- $62,906
5. Matthew Kelly -- $46,567
6. Vivek Rajkumar -- $36,763
7. Mike Byrne -- $27,777
8. Marco Johnson -- $20,424
9. Petri Pollanen -- $14,705

Event #35 June 21 Thursday 12 Noon
No-Limit Hold�em 3 day event $1,500.00

Another large turnout for a No-Limit Hold'Em tourney has taken place with 2,541 players at the tables. Size of the prize pool reached an amazing $3,468,465 with payouts going to 270th position! Players were placed in the Pavilion, at tables outside of Buzio's seafood restaurant AND the Amazon room. Table action began at 12:00 noon and so did the eliminations. Jennifer Tilly went out after her Kings were stopped by Aces, followed by T.J. Cloutier, Lee Watkinson, Michael Gracz, James Van Alstyne, J.J. Liu, Phil Laak, Gavin Smith, Roland de Wolfe, Vanessa Rousso and many, many more. It is interesting to see how the field can be narrowed after 14 hours as the day was finished at 2:00 a.m. on June 22nd. When the dust settled, chip leader Sean Chen had a great day with 118,000 chips as did J.C. Alvarado with 110,000. Others who made the cut for Day 2 play are Phil Gordon with 58,000 chips, Kathy Liebert 55,000, Joe Sebok 52,000, Antonio Esfandiari 45,000, Aaron Kanter 42,000, Dutch Boyd 29,000 and John Juanda 44,000. In all, 147 players will return on June 22nd to take another step closer to the bracelet and the title of World Series of Poker champion.

When Day 2 started, bustouts were happening faster than anyone could keep up with. In the first 60 minutes there were 42 eliminations. Some of the players turned into spectators were Kathy Liebert, Joe Sebok, Robert Cheung, Clonie Gowen, Joe Tehan, Antonio Esfandiari, John Juanda, Dutch Boyd, J.C. Alvarado, Phil Gordon and Aaron Kanter. By 1:00 a.m. the next day, all 9 for the final table had been established and will return at 2:00 to play for the championship.

Payout Schedule for final table:

1. $616,154
2. $381,531
3. $239,324
4. $156,081
5. $109,257
6. $79,775
7. $62,432
8. $46,824
9. $36,766

1. Ryan Young 2,501,000
2. Dustin Dirksen 1,680,000
3. John Esposito 890,000
4. Raj Jain 813,000
5. Michael Trimby 656,000
6. Paul Cheung 552,000
7. Nam Le 446,000
8. Joe Holmes 413,000
9. Darren Glenn 317,000