Click Here to Access Individual WSOP Event Reports

2007 World Series of Poker
Events 46 to 50

Event #46 | #47 | #48 | #49 | #50

Event #46 June 28 Thursday 5:00 PM
Seven Card Stud Hi-Low-8 or Better 3 day event $1,000.00

There were 688 players who came to this event, helping to establish a $607,880 prize pool. The cash goes to top 64 finishers. All entrants will start with $2,000 in chips playing in levels that will be 60 min. in length. Whoever was not at Event #45 were found at the tables here. In a big surprise, Norman Chad who is always commentating for ESPN was seen in the field. Along with him were Sabyl Cohen, "Captain" Tom Franklin, Annie Duke, Doyle Brunson, Chris "The Armenian Express" Grigorian, Davidson Matthew, Thomas Wahlroos, Chad Brown, Barbara Enright, Allen Kessler, Melissa Hayden and Ted Forrest. Action was lively with Norman Chad commenting on his own hands plus staying ready to run back to interview any bustouts for the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. tournament, Doyle Brunson playing like this will be his 11th bracelet and plenty of eliminations happening everywhere. Some who made it to Day 2 were Scotty Nguyen having 12,800 chips, Chris Reslock 10,700, Doyle Brunson 10,700, Jeff Lisandro 9,100, David Plastik 8,700 and Mel Judah 5,800. Play will continue at 2 pm to see who makes the final table.

Action for Day 2 began at 3:15 p.m. and lasted until 4:45 a.m. the next day in order to arrive at the final table. Play continued with eliminations galore, with one notable player Norman Chad who was actually gone on Day 1 but we didn't find out until today. Contenders were leaving the tournament at a quick pace as six tables were busted in the first 45 min of play. The plan was that once the money was reached with 64 players, action would move to the Amazon room from the Pavilion. Instead it went inside with 76 players when the space allowed it. Let's face it, the Pavilion is still a work in progress that won't be perfected this Series. After the money was hit, Scotty Nguyen was on a roll winning pot after pot to make the final table. Miguel De La Cruz also had a hot day, piling up his chips too. When 12 1/2 hours had passed, tourney officials called it a day and said come back at 3:00 p.m. to have a final go round for the bracelet.

Eight players came back to the table with renewed energy to compete for the bracelet. And there was plenty of firepower there with Tom Schneider coming off of an Event #5 bracelet win, Scotty Nguyen a top player and Tony Ma who has also become well known in the tournament circuit. In this melee, Woody Deck with his green switch saying "Spanky, Spanky!" whenever he swung it busted in 8th after Miguel de la Cruz gained a higher two pair (J's and 10's) than Woody. Tom Schneider came another step closer to the bracelet by eliminating Tommy Hang in 7th with a 9 high straight. Tony Ma took a 6th place finish when he was busted by Scotty Nguyen with his full house (4's/2's). Saundra Taylor left in 5th after Hoyt Verner made a wheel on sixth street. Next was Scotty Nguyen in 4th place when his pair of 5's were outdone by Hoyt Verner's pair of A's. Scotty was highly upset with the dealer for making mistakes that affected him during play such as exposing cards while dealing. Following him was Miguel de la Cruz who picked up a paycheck for 3rd once Tom Schneider showed him his set of 7's.

The chip count difference was not that big between the two players with Schneider having 620,000 and Verner stacking 670,000 on his side. For about 45 minutes, it was back and forth chip movement. But around 7:00 p.m., the final hand was dealt with Schneider finishing with two pair (K's and 2's) beating the paired 7's and 4 to an 8 low of Verner to win his 2nd bracelet of this years WSOP!

Final table results:

1. Tom Schneider -- $147,713
2. Hoyt Verner -- $82,064
3. Miguel de la Cruz -- $51,670
4. Scotty Nguyen -- $31,610
5. Saundra Taylor -- $24,619
6. Tony Ma -- $19,270
7. Tommy Hang -- $14,711
8. Woody Deck -- $11,063

Event #47 June 29 Friday 12 Noon
No-Limit Hold�em 3 day event $2,000.00

As with the No Limit Hold'Em tournaments held so far in this year's WSOP, this one had lots of players in it. 2038 players to be exact. They contributed to a $3,709,160 prize pool and the payout schedule goes to 198th place. Lots of busts took place today with names like Erick Lindgren, John Juanda, Victor Ramdim, Vanessa Rousso, Amnon Filippi, Joe Hachem, Andy Black, Johnny Chan, William Thorson, Chau Giang, John Gale, Phil Gordon, Alan Sass, Kathy Liebert and Randy Jensen. Once the smoke cleared, 142 were still standing for Day 2 which will begin at 2:00 p.m. tomorrow.

Day 2 competition was fierce among those still in the field. The closer it got towards the final table players, the higher the intensity in the Amazon room became. You could hear players yelling for a floor person or screaming at someone else about every 2 to 3 minutes. John Esposito busted in 79th place during play today and will receive $7,233 for his efforts. Which is good because he became so frustrated on the elimination hand, that he broke his glasses! Jennifer Tilly left in 30th place after some spectacular play, getting her into the number 2 spot in chips at one point. Unfortunately for Jennifer, she went all-in with A 7 and met A J with no help anywhere on her elimination. But the ladies are still represented by Anna Wroblewski at the final table with over 1 million chips in her stack. And with Joe Pelton, Roland DeWolfe and Blair Rodman, she will have a fight on her hands for the bracelet. They will come back at 2:00 p.m. to see who will become champion.

Final table play began at 3:15 p.m. PDT with blinds at $15,000/$30,000 with a $4,000 ante. Mark McKibben took confidence in his pocket 9's and went all-in with them, only to meet the full house (K's/Q's) of Steve Crawford for a 9th place finish. David Schnettler went out in 8th losing to the two pair (A's and K's) of Blair Rodman. Rodman also busted Joe Pelton's pocket 10's with two pair (K's and 7's) sending Joe to the rail in 7th. Next to leave was Roland DeWolfe in 6th who's A Q was overrun by the Ace high flush of Amato Galasso. Galasso was also responsible for Steve Crawford leaving in 5th winning their bout with an Ace high hand. On the following hand, Anna Wroblewski queen of the table was removed from her throne by the Ace kicker of Klein Kim Bach for a 4th place finish. Moving against the queen always has consequences, as Bach ended up in 3rd with a full house (2's/9's) that lost to the bigger full house (9's/2's) of Rodman.

Rodman began the heads up with 5,550,000 chips and Amato Galasso had 2,600,000. They went at it for 4 hours and 20 minutes before the final hand came. Rodman moved all-in preflop with Ac Jd and Galasso called with Ad Kc. The board showed both players Js 5d 4c 3h Qc, giving a well deserved victory and WSOP bracelet to Blair Rodman.

Final table players results:

1. Blair Rodman -- $707,898
2. Amato Galasso -- $448,808
3. Klein Kim Bach -- $289,314
4. Anna Wroblewski -- $192,876
5. Steve 'Stan' Crawford -- $135,384
6. Roland de Wolfe -- $98,293
7. Joe Pelton -- $74,183
8. David Schnettler -- $55,637
9. Mark McKibben -- $42,655

Event #48 June 29 Friday 5:00 PM
2-7 Triple Draw Lowball (Limit) W/Rebuys 2 day event $1,000.00

In this event, players start with 2,000 chips and rebuys are good for the first 3 levels when they are below 2,000. At the end of level 3 they may have a single (2,000 chips) or double (4,000 chips) add-on for $1,000 or $2,000 respectively. Levels are 60 min in length. At this time payouts or attendance numbers have not been released. When they are, we'll post them. Regarding who came to this event, it was more like who did not come! There was tons of arrogance, double talk and bravado combined with lots of chips flying about. But when the day ended, it did not thin out the talent for the next round. Among the 100 or so players who will return tomorrow are Greg Raymer 24,000, Mimi Tran 21,000, Allen Cunningham 20,000, David Williams 19,600, Hoyt Corkins 19,500, Robert Mizrachi 17,000, Chau Giang 16,000 and Daniel Negreanu 14,000 who authored the pages on this game in Doyle Brunson's Super System 2, and these are just a few of the top names. Day 2 should be incredible as the race to the final table begins.

Officially, there were 209 players that made 546 rebuys during this event. The prize pool reached $721,804 to be split up amongst the top 24 finishers. Reportedly, John Juanda decided that he did not want to play in this event, so when he reached 1800 chips he left allowing himself to be blinded off. He probably wanted rest to be ready for the $10,000 World Championship Pot-Limit Omaha event on Sunday. Andy Bloch was in pot winning mode, taking out players along the way. But in the last hour, lady luck left him and he was receiving nothing but unplayable cards every hand, which anted and blinded down his stack. About 5:00 a.m. he goes in for his last 4,000 and ended up with a K verses a 10 9 low for Rafi Amit and is busted in 7th place. The six finalists will return at 7:00 p.m. to vie for the championship.

A much needed break for these players happened by giving them a 7:00 p.m. start for extra rest. In the first 7 hands, Rafi Amit crippled Mark Bartlog's stack badly and on hand #8, Mark left the table in 6th losing to the J 8 5 4 2 of Lenny Martin. Eugene Ji ended up taking the 5th in this event when Anthony Lellouche sent him to the sidelines with 9 7 6 4 2. Soon afterwards, Lenny became so dominate that others at the table began calling this final table, "The Lenny Martin Show". Lenny's next guest for the rail became Jon Shoreman in 4th which raised Lenny's stack to over 1 million after the win. And 3rd place went to Anthony Lellouche courtesy of Rafi Amit who showed 8 7 6 4 3 as the winning hand.

Heads up is now in play with Lenny Martin having $895,000 in chips and Rafi Amit having $555,000 in chips. They decided to take a break to discuss a deal that lasted 30 minutes and even involved Max Pescatori in the negotiations before they continued in play. There was lots of action including one all-in move between them, and the cards each had were 8 5 4 3 2! Of course it resulted in a chopped pot. In the final hand Rafi Amit became champion with a 7 6 4 3 2 low verses Lenny Martin's 8 7 low. On top of bragging rights, Amit received the beautiful gold and diamond bracelet that all event champions are wearing this WSOP season.

Final table player results:

1. Rafi Amit -- $227,005
2. Lenny Martin -- $128,120
3. Anthony Lellouche -- $84,612
4. Jon Shoreman -- $57,383
5. Eugene Ji -- $41,504
6. Mark Bartlog -- $27,068

Event #49 June 30 Saturday 12 Noon
No-Limit Hold�em 3 day event $1,500.00

Here is another big sell out tournament at the WSOP with 3,151 entrants lining up to get at the tables. Prize pool grew to a massive $4,301,115 to be split up between the top 324 finishers. There was so much activity in the Amazon room due to this tourney, that officials asked spectators to leave more than once just so players could get to reassigned seats from tables that were being broken up. (And yes the Pavilion was full to the brim as well!) Bad beat of the day involved Francisco Lopez who moved his chips to the middle holding K 10, his opponent called with pocket 2's. Flop was A K K, turn card a 2 and river card a K which gave Lopez quads but may have caused the other player to cry like Paris Hilton getting out of jail. At days end there were 218 left for Day 2. Some of the returning pros are Michael Gracz with 80,000 chips, Shannon Shorr 68,000, Jonathon Little 65,000, Arnold Spee 60,000, Quinn Do 56,000, Chad Brown 43,000 and Greg "FBT" Mueller 14,000. The next round will begin at 2:00 p.m. tomorrow.

The fast paced tempo established in Day 1 continued on into Day 2 as 50 players busted in the first 41 minutes alone, by dinner break there were only 32 players left. But if anyone needed a pick me up, they just had to go close to Leandro Pimentel from Brazil as he had a numerous group of singing supporters around him. As Leandro Pimentel grew closer to making the final table, the singing grew to shouting especially when he won a big pot that put him over 1 million chips. Close to 1:50 a.m., two players were eliminated in 11th and 10th place in one hand, sealing the deal for the final table players. All will return for a battle for the bracelet at 2:00 p.m.

The final table began at 3:25 p.m., but as you read along you will see this is a story to tell the grand kids about. On the first hand Chandrasekhar Billavara raked in the pot with pocket A's and from then on the short stacked player had lady luck on his side. Five hands into play, Lewis Titterton was busted in 9th place after his K 10 was defeated by the two pair (A's and 10's) of Leandro Pimentel. Greg Mueller was gone in 8th when his set of 4's were outdone by the set of 4's belonging to Taylor Douglas that had the higher kicker (10 card). On the following hand, Ray Spencer left the tourney in 7th place courtesy of the two pair (A's and 10's) that too belonged to Taylor Douglas. Meanwhile, it seemed that every time Billavara went all-in, the other player folded giving him an ever growing chip stack that hit $1,800,000 after the 6th place finish of Cort Kibler-Melby who lost to the pocket 9's of John Hunt. And Pimintel's stack was dangerously low to around 300K, so he began all-in after all-in to survive. During the series of all-ins, Duane Felix fell in 5th to the Ace high flush of John Hunt. At this point both Pimintel and Billavara had sizable stacks in from of them. But in an all-in hand, Pimintel had A 10 which met the A Q of Billavara. When the hand of neither player improved, Pimintel and his cheering fans saw a 4th place finish for the man from Brazil. Billavara's stack then set it's sights on John Hunt, busting him in 3rd with a Jack high straight.

So as the bracelet and the money are brought to the table, heads up saw Chandrasekhar Billavara with 5,465,000 chips and Taylor Douglas having 4,000,000. Douglas began to win several hands back to back against Billavara, and then on the final hand Douglas moved in with Q 9 and was called by Billavara with A 7. The felt showed Jh 2h 6s Ah (brick) which gave Billavara paired Aces, the big money, the gold and diamond bracelet and the title of champion. So now you can tell the grand kids that it is possible to be short stacked and still win a bracelet at the WSOP.

Final table results:

1. Chandrasekhar Billavara -- $722,914
2. Taylor Douglas -- $467,101
3. John Hunt -- $292,476
4. Leandro Pimentel -- $189,249
5. Duane Felix -- $131,184
6. Cort Kibler-Melby -- $96,775
7. Ray Spencer -- $75,270
8. Greg (FBT) Mueller -- $55,914
9. Lewis Titterton -- $45,162

Event #50 July 1 Sunday 12 Noon
World Championship Pot-Limit Omaha 2 day event $10,000.00

314 entered this event that will compete for a top prize of $768,889. A prize pool of $2,951,600 was created with money going to the top 36 players. Another feature of this event is that all players were given a special chip that could be redeemed for 10,000 more chips on top of the 10,000 they will start with. Of course the big names showed up in the field such as Robert Williamson III, Annie Duke, Erik Seidel, John Gale, Mel Judah, David Colclough, Mark Vos, John D'Agostino, Greg Raymer and Phil Ivey. At 12:15 p.m. Robert Williamson III gave the order to "Shuffle up and deal!" to start the tourney. Most players in the beginning elected to not use the special chip. But as time wore on, even the extra 10,000 chips were not enough to stave off elimination. Some of the busted today were Jeff Madsen, Men "the Master" Nguyen, Josh Areih, Marcel Luske, Gus Hansen, William Thorsson, Amnon Filippi, Howard Lederer, David Williams and Robert Williamson III (oh, no!!!). There were 55 remaining for Day 2 which will start at 2:00 p.m.

Day 2 will have the 55 left from Day 1 play to the money and seats to the final table. It was an interesting day of action with Marco Traniello busting Mickey Appleman and making the final table. Also Doyle Brunson will be there with him to let everyone know who's bracelet this is. Plus, with Robert Mizrachi, Patrik Antonius and others, this will be a great table to watch. David Chiu just missed the final table, going out in 10th place due to the two pair (J's and 8's) of Tommy Ly. Others who went to the sidelines were Chau Giang, Alex Brenes, J.C. Tran, Greg Raymer, Dave Colclough, Mickey Appleman, Jan Boubli, Joe Beevers, Michael Binger, Eric Froehlich, Scotty Nguyen and Andy Bloch. Final table play will begin at 2 pm.

Day 3 final table action started with all eyes on Doyle Brunson to see if this will be his 11th bracelet. Before the start, Phil Hellmuth came by to wish Doyle luck in winning the event. There were so many ESPN cameras around to where it became hard to see the table. Play began with betting levels of blinds at $15,000/$30,000, raises of $60,000/$105,000 or a limp-in of $30,000. On the second hand, Steve Sung had his paired A's and inside straight draw lose to the set of Q's belonging to Marco Tranillo, resulting in a 9th place finish for Steve. Jonas Flug-Entin claimed 8th after his set of 8's lost to the set of 8's with a Ace kicker of Robert Mizrachi. Mizrachi also busted Stephen Ladowsky in 7th with a set of 10's. Doyle Brunson who lost 660,000 chips on the prior hand with Patrick Antonius, ended up going out in 6th after Patrick ended his 11th WSOP bracelet hopes with two pair (7's and 3's). And Marco Traniello busted in 5th losing to Mizrachi's Ace high straight. Marco has really made a name for himself in the tournament scene, no longer being known as "Mr. Jennifer Harman". And it was the two pair (Q's and 8's) of Rene Mouritsen that caused Tommy Ly to walk to the rail in 4th place to pick up a nice $200K+ payout for his efforts. Patrik Antonius went out in 3rd, but not before showing an amazing amount of skill making comeback after comeback when he lost huge piles of chips during this final table. Patrick lost to Mizrachi who made an Ace high flush by the river.

After that win, Mizrachi held 4,685,000 chips to Mouritsen's 1,710,000. Heads up began with blinds at $80,000/$160,000. Mouritsen managed to hold onto his chips until the final hand. With a flop of Qs 9d 3d, Mizrachi goes all-in and is called by Mouritsen. Mouritsen has As Qc 7d 6d and Mizrachi shows 10s 9c 9h 5h. Remaining cards are 5c 6s which gives Mizrachi two pair (9's and 5's) along with the first WSOP gold bracelet to go to one of the Mizrachi brothers!

Final table results:

1. Robert Mizrachi -- $768,889
2. Rene Mouritsen -- $464,877
3. Patrik Antonius -- $311,394
4. Tommy Ly -- $209,564
5. Marco Traniello -- $156,435
6. Doyle Brunson -- $123,967
7. Stephen Ladowsky -- $92,975
8. Jonas Entin -- $69,363
9. Steve Sung -- $50,177