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2007 World Series of Poker
Events 51 to 55

Event #51 | #52 | #53 | #54 | #55

Event #51 July 1 Sunday 5:00 PM
S.H.O.E 2 day event $1,000.00

For those who don't know, SHOE is another multi-game tournament which combines Stud, Hold'em, Omaha and Stud 8 all played as limit games. The SHOE event will also maintain the four game spread structure through the final table. Everyone starts with $2,000 in chips and will play on levels lasting 60 min each. Games will change every 30. There were 730 players at the tables for this new tournament at the World Series of Poker. The prize pool reached $664,300 with money going to the top 72 finishers. With the first game being Stud and the low betting structure (the limits alone were 10/15), things started off very slowly but picked up later on. Once the bustouts began they rolled fast, sending players to the rail like John Esposito, Craig Crivello, Michael Gracz, Erik Seidel, Alex Kravchenko, Martin Corpuz Jr., Mitch Maples and Rolf Slotboom. There will be 145 players coming back for more tomorrow.

Day 2 began with Seven Card Stud with a $100 ante, bring-in of $200 and levels of $600/$1,200. The pace moved quickly with only 88 remaining after two hours of play. Raymond Davis busted Matt Matros and Lucky Liu on the same hand while playing Seven Card Stud with a top kicker combination of A K. Juliano Maesano was the Brazilian poker player of choice as his fans cheered loudly for every hand he won, unfortunately he busted out in 10th place in the tournament and will take $8,171 back home with him. So at 4:00 a.m. the final table players were named and they will come back at 3:00 p.m. later on today July 3rd to see who takes home one of the last bracelets available this 2007 WSOP season.

Day 3 final table play began at 3:00 p.m. with the game of Limit Hold'Em. The first elimination was a bad beat for Pat Poels who left in 8th. After a flop of Q 3 K, both Pat and Dao Bac went all-in with Pat having pocket A's and Dao with pocket 3's. Remaining cards did not help either player and Mr. Poels was sent to the sidelines. During Omaha, Michael Craig left in 7th place courtesy of Vladimir Schelev after losing to the two pair (Q's and 6's) of Vladimir. But Vladimir's joy was not for long as he was next to leave in 6th place after meeting the set of 7's belonging to Chip Jett. The game changed to Stud Hi/Lo when Irme Leibold was eliminated in 5th. Irme had a set of Queens that was stopped by the Broadway straight (A thru 10) of Adam Geyer. Raymond Davis was under the gun after losing a substantial portion of his stack to Adam Geyer, and when the dinner break was over, he lost it all to the 9 high straight of Dao Bac then went to collect his winnings for 4th place. During Seven Card Stud 8/OB, Chip's stack was hit hard twice and was weakened to where Adam Geyer busted Chip Jett in 3rd with two pair (A's and 10's).

This heads up is what the World Series of Poker is all about. Unknowns like Dao Bac and Adam Geyer begin able to go up against the best players in the world and beat them. Both players did step aside to discuss a deal, but it obviously was a no-go so they set back down to hammer it out. The final hand came during Limit Hold'Em with blinds of $15,000/$30,000 and limits of $30,000/$60,000. After a flop of 5h 7d 10s, both raised and called. The turn card was a 3c at which Adam went all-in after a check-raise by Dao. Adam revealed As 7h and Dao had 4s 7s. The river card was a 4 and by the time all cards were dealt, Adam had a pair of 7's and Dao came up with two pair (4's and 7's) which gave him a World Series of Poker gold and diamond bracelet along with the title of champion.

Final table results:

1. Dao Bac -- $157,975
2. Adam Geyer -- $86,691
3. Chip Jett -- -$55,801
4. Raymond Davis -- $34,012
5. Irme Leibold -- $26,572
6. Vladimir Schelev -- -$20,793
7. Michael Craig -- $15,943
8. Pat Poels -- $11,957

Event #52 July 2 Monday 12 Noon
No-Limit Hold�em w/Re-Buys 3 day event $1,000.00

Day 1 for Event 52 saw 1048 players that will start with 2000 chips each and may rebuy in both levels 1 and 2, but the weird part is that cash is no good here! Any rebuys done can only happen with Casino Chips or Tournament Buy-In Chips. Don't ask us why, we don't make the rules. After 14+ hours of play, there are 112 survivors left for Day 2. Among those returning are J.C. Tran, 18,000 chips, Alan Sass 21,500, Michael Binger 22,000, Phil Hellmuth Jr. 31,000, Jon Friedberg 36,000, Jamie Gold 40,000, Haralabos Voulgaris 28,000, Sabyl Cohen 38,000, Beth Shak 45,000, Thomas Wahlroos 60,000 and Barney Boatman with 70,000. 99 players will take home money from this event.

Day 2 came out with staggering stats of 2,336 rebuys in this event, especially when you consider you could not use cash here for the rebuys. Prize pool got up to $3,226,609. During play today, Phil Hellmuth did bust but not before receiving his 63rd WSOP cash, breaking the record that he holds. Others who were added to the list of the eliminated were Joe Hachem, Jamie Gold, Joe Pelton, Thomas Wahlroos, Lee Watkinson, Quinn Do, Brandon Lee, Michael Binger, Sean McCabe, Berry Johnston, J.C. Tran, Alan Sass, Barny Boatman, Steve Billirakis, Amnon Filppi and David Williams. Theo Tran had an incredible day, simply rolling over players and taking their chips left and right. Issac Haxton did the same cracking pocket Aces of a few players in the process. But from the names at the final table, neither of these players can rest period. The battle for the bracelet will start tomorrow at 2:00 p.m.

The words, "Shuffle up and deal!", were heard at 2:15 p.m. to begin the final table. Within 15 min of play, the first bust was Thierry Cazals in 9th when his pocket 10's were not enough to stave off the two pair (J's and 4's) of Theo Tran. Arnold Spee had the same misfortune with pocket 10's as Isaac Haxton stonewalled them with his two pair (K's and 4's), leaving Arnold an 8th place finisher. Then Isaac Haxton went to the rail in 7th when his all-in move with 10 8 after being crippled on a previous hand, met with defeat by the two pair (A's and Q's) of Chad Batista. Five minutes later, Kris Tate was gone in 6th, after his J 10 lost to the pocket Q's of Theo Tran. In another 30 minutes, it was Chad Batista's turn to leave the tourney in 5th when his pocket Q's were made to submit to the set of Aces belonging to Michael Graves. Soon, Shawn Hattem went all-in with A 9 but left in 4th when Shawn Luman with two pair (Q's and 9's) pointed the direction to the sidelines. And 3rd place went to Shawn Luman who unfortunately had his stack beat down badly, eventually decided to go in with A 9 only to lose to the 8 high straight of Michael Graves.

Heads up began with the chip counts at Michael Graves with 4,200,000 and Theo Tran with 2,500,000. Blinds were at $40,000/$80,000 with a $10,000 ante. Tran picked up pots but still could not muster enough to survive an all-in with Graves. On their last hand, after seeing a flop of 4 5 7 Tran went all-in with 9 8 and Graves called with 5 6. Turn card was Kd with a river card of 10d, and that gave Michael Graves the pair of 5's needed to win a WSOP gold and diamond bracelet which is worn by those designated as champion.

Final table results:

1. Michael Graves -- $742,121
2. Theo Tran -- $387,193
3. Shawn Luman -- $224,249
4. Shawn Hattem -- $161,330
5. Chad Batista -- $129,064
6. Kris Tate -- $112,931
7. Issac Haxton -- $96,798
8. Arnold Spee -- $80,665
9. Thierry Cazals -- $72,599

Event #53 July 3 Tuesday 12 Noon
Limit Hold�em Shootout 2 day event $1,500.00

Not many details have come out yet, so we will post them tomorrow. (Time for fireworks and barbeque!) Bustouts were heavy with names like Max Pescatori, Marcel Luske, Phil Hellmuth Sr. who is the father of you know who, Shannon Shorr, Erik Seidel, Kathy Liebert, Mel Judah, Tony Ma, Cyndy Violette, Anna Wroblewski and Paul Darden Jr. Tony Cousineau with 50,000 chips had a good day as did Victor Ramdin with 45,000 who will both move on to Day 2. Other who will come back tomorrow are Isabelle Mercier with 41,500 chips, Noah Boeken 41,200, Shawn Buchanan 41,000, Terrence Chan 32,000, Alan Smurfit 27,500, Ram Vaswani 27,400 and William Chen 19,300. Enjoy the Fourth of July everyone!!!

Day 2 which was the final table for this tournament was long as the 47 players who survived Day 1 played down to the winner. Things started at 2:00 p.m. and ended at 4:30 a.m. the next day July 5th. 720 in total entered this tournament, competiting for a prize pool of $982,800. More information will be posted when it comes in, but the final table results are below.

Final table results:

1. Ram Vaswani -- $217,438
2. Andrew Ward -- $124,816
3. Anh Van Nguyen -- $83,538
4. David Mosca -- $58,968
5. Ishak Noyan -- $31,450
6. Sondre Sagstuen -- $19,656
7. David Baker -- $12,776
8. Rayvenia Puckett -- $9,582

Event #54 July 4 Wednesday 12 Noon
World Championship No-Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball w/Re-Buys 2 day event $5,000.00

Day 1 of Event 54 had those tables full with top pros...eventually because again fatigue caught up even with the 20-somethings in the field. Outside of the fact that Jennifer Harman was seen, this one was completely devoid of women. Lots of them were coming late, so tournament official invoked a standing rule that says that late players would incur a chip penalty of 1 round of play per 15 minutes, to a maximum of 3 rounds. Problem was some had their stacks blinded off more than others. It seemed those who were late and registered late had different penalties applied to those who were late and pre-registered. Phil Hellmuth was 2 1/2 hours late and found a stack of 1,150 instead of the original 10,000. It was sorted out, not to the liking of many and play continued. 14 hours later only a few were left in the tourney for Day 2. Some of the 17 names returning for Day 2 are Chip Reese 184,000, Allen Cunningham 176,000, Chris Fergusen 120,500, Farzad Bonyadi 112,500, Barry Greenstein 50,500, Thor Hansen 92,000 and Tom Schneider 59,000. On the next round of play, action will go to the championship so come back to see who gets the last bracelet before the Main Event begins!.

Day 2 will start with the stats. There were 78 players who came to the tables, 226 rebuys resulting in a prize pool of $1,476,260. This number was whittled down to 17 who came back today. Action began at 2:10 p.m. and players were notified that they could not limp into any hand, they must enter the pot with a raise. And with the small number of players, the final table will only be host to the top 7 finishers who will be the only ones in the money as well. During this tournament, Jeff Lisandro was busted in 14th place making Tom Schneider who has won 2 gold bracelets to date this WSOP, the 2007 World Series of Poker Player of the Year. Congratulations to Tom Schneider! There were some hot top matchups to be seen such as Chip Reese vs. Freddy Deeb, Chad Brown vs. Thor Hansen, Shawn Sheikhan vs. Allen Cunningham and Barry Greenstein vs. Erik Seidel.

When we got down to the final table, Todd Brunson was the first to leave in 7th losing to the 9 8 low of Lamar Wilkinson. Freddy Deeb cashed in at 6th place when his all-in move failed against the 8 7 6 4 2 low of Shawn Sheikhan. Next to go was Andrew Black in 5th after Erik Seidel laid a 9 8 6 3 2 on the felt. Lamar Wilkinson finished 4th courtesy of Shawn Sheikhan's 9 low, allowing Lamar to pick up a 6 figure payout for his efforts. Then Shawn's all-in move was defeated by Chad Brown who happened to make a better low, ending Shawn's dream of a gold bracelet in the last tournament of the 2007 WSOP before the Main Event.

The headsup was a fantastic battle between two top players, Erik Seidel with 895,000 chips and Chad Brown with 2,170,000. Blinds were at $40,000/80,000 with a $20,000 ante. It took about 1 1/2 hours of careful play by both players, but in a critical hand Erik doubled up to over 2 million chips, placing a hurting on Chad's stack. In three more hands it was all over. What happened is that Chad moved all-in preflop and Erik called it. Chad showed 9 7 5 3 2 and Erik had 8 7 6 5 3 which gave him the better low and the win. Erik Seidel now has his 8th WSOP gold bracelet for his efforts!

Final table results:

1. Erik Seidel -- $538,835
2. Chad Brown -- $324,777
3. Shawn Sheikhan -- $206,676
4. Lamar Wilkinson -- $162,389
5. Andrew Black -- $118,101
6. Freddy Deeb -- $73,813
7. Todd Brunson -- $51,669

World Championship No-Limit Texas Hold'em Main Event

Event #55 July 6 Friday 12 Noon
World Championship No-Limit Texas Hold'em $10,000.00

1. Main Event Day 1A
2. Main Event Day 1B
3. Main Event Day 1C
4. Main Event Day 1D
5. Main Event Day 2A
6. Main Event Day 2B
7. Main Event Day 3
8. Main Event Day 4
9. Main Event Day 5
10. Main Event Day 6
11. Main Event Day 7
12. Main Event Final Table