Events 1 to 5 | 6 to 10 | 11 to 15 | 21 to 25 | 26 to 30 | 31 to 35 | 36 to 40 | 41 to 45

2006 World Series of Poker
Events 16 to 20

Event #16 July 9 -- Pot-Limit Omaha
Buyin: $10,000.00
Only 218 players entered the Pot Limit Omaha event, resulting in a $2,049,200 prize pool. And because of the large buyin, this event was pretty much left to the professional players. Names that were seen at the tables include Juan Carlos Mortensen, Greg Raymer, Joseph Hachem, Gavin Smith, Michael Mizrachi, Phil Hellmuth Jr., Surinder Sunar, John Gale, Clonie Gowen, David Williams, Scott Fischman, Phil Ivey, Mark Seif, Jennifer Harman and Doyle Brunson with few unknowns. Play went on to the wee hours of the morning (3:30 a.m.) until tournament officials ended the round with only 26 to move on to Day 2.

The second day went pretty fast with the 9 for the final table being reached in only 4 hours. Once this took place, players took a break so that ESPN could prepare to film the final table for future broadcast. When play resumed, Mickey Appleman was busted in the first 20 min. The next 6 players followed until it was only Lee Watkinson and Mike Guttman left.

Lee Watkinson raises and then Guttman reraises to 150,000. Watkinson called and the flop shows 5s 4s 3h. Guttman (Js Jc 10d 8d) moves all in and Watkinson again calls with (Ac Qs 6c 5c). The turn card was a 7d, giving Watkinson the straight and the river card was a K that did nothing for either player. This gives Lee Watkinson his first WSOP gold bracelet and $655,746.

1. Lee Watkinson -- $655,746
2. Mike Guttman -- $360,659
3. Mark Dickstein -- $184,428
4. Rafi Amit -- $143,444
5. Hasan Habib -- $122,952
6. Nick Gibson -- $102,460
7. Jani Vilmunen -- $81,984
8. Thomas Wahlroos -- $61,476
9. Mickey Appleman -- $40,984

Event #17 July 10 -- No Limit Hold'Em
Buyin: $1,000.00
Okay everyone, get ready for a tough tournament event with 2,891 players, each competiting for the largest slice of a $2,630,810 prize pool. Payouts went to 270th position. Action was brutal with a lot of top players going out on the first hand. Phil Hellmuth, Phil Laak, Kenna James, Cyndy Violette, Isabelle Mercier, Annie Duke, Mike Wattel, Ted Forrest and were among the casualties of this first round. After 13 hours and 20 minutes, 139 were left to move on to Day 2.

The eliminations continued on Day 2, but there were outstanding plays that were made by those who ended up at the top. On one hand Tom Hawkingberry pushed all of his chips to the center in front of Carlos Mortensen after the board showed Ad 8c 3c 8h. Mortensen considers the situation and folds, showing pocket Jacks. Hawkingberry shows pocket 10s and rakes in the pot. Corey Chaston when not butting heads with Hawkingberry, earned the respect of many as he built his chip stack. Mike Pomeroy was also one to watch as he collected monster pots from other players. Carlos Mortensen had an excellent performance, just missing a seat at the final table by going out in 10th place.

The story of the final table was Jon Friedburg jumping from 8th position in chips to winning this event. By doubling up through Thang Luu's stack (8th) and busting Kevin O'Donnell (5th), Jon went from 189,000 to over 1,000,000 in his stack giving him a shot at winning the event. By picking up blinds and small pots while others were being sent to the sidelines, eventually it came time for a heads up battle between him and John Phan. In the final hand John Phan (Qs 4s) moves all in preflop and Jon Friedburg (Ah 7h) makes the call. The board shows 10h 9d 3s 2h 7s. And that is how Jon Friedburg won his WSOP bracelet and over a half a million dollars for giving his best effort.

1. Jon Friedberg -- $526,185
2. John Phan -- $289,389
3. Mike Pomeroy -- $157,322
4. Tom Hawkingberry -- $122,596
5. Kevin O'Donnell -- $105,232
6. Corey Chaston -- $88,132
7. Humberto Brenes -- $74,715
8. Mike Halford -- $61,561
9. Thang Luu -- $49,722

Event #18 July 11 -- Pot-Limit Hold'Em
Buyin: $2,000.00
This event had 590 entrants, a $1,073,800 prize pool and payouts going to the top 54 players. Player Victor Ramdin was eliminated on Day 1 after going all in on a hand blind, at his request, and losing the hand. He was followed by Johnny Chan, Young Phan, Chris Ferguson, Hoyt Corkins, John Gale, John Juanda, Andrew Black, Erik Seidel and Clonie Gowan to name a few. But Joseph Hachem who played in excellent fashion on Day 1 has done well. Towards the end of the night when most are worn out, he is sipping water, talking with fans on the rail with his shoes off while playing. He was one of 22 players to continue on to the next round.

Joseph Hachem's luck continued and was good enough to get him to 15th place where he left with $9,664. It was not the final table mind you, but his all around performance during the WSOP has been great so far. (Now if he can just get that 2nd bracelet.) Actually it only took 2 hours to get down to the final table players. When play resumed, players were pretty cautious as the average chip stack 1 1/2 hours into the final table was 131,000 and the big blind was at 12,000. At one point, the pot was raised for 8 or 9 hands one after the other and everyone folded to the raiser each hand. Eliminations came quickly for those who jumped in resulting in players 3, 4, 5 and 6 going out in one hour. But when the heads up started, it was over in 5 minutes. Here is what happened between Eric Kesselman and Hyon Kim on the only hand of their heads up play. Kesselman raised 60,000 and received a re-raise from Kim of 120,000. Then Kesselman re-raises and Kim (As 9c) goes all in of which Kesselman calls (Ad 10s). The flop is Qc Jd 2c, turn card is 8c and the river is a 7d which gave the win and the gold WSOP bracelet to Kesselman.

1. Eric Kesselman -- $311,403
2. Hyon Kim -- $164,291
3. Christopher Viox -- $85,904
4. Kevin Ross -- $75,166
5. Jason Sagle -- $64,428
6. Jim McManus -- $53,690
7. Dustin Holmes -- $42,952
8. Christopher Black -- $32,214
9. Harry Thomas -- $21,476
10. Jeffrey Rothstein -- $11,812

Event #19 July 12 -- Seniors No-Limit Hold'Em (2 day event)
Buyin: $1,000.00
This event was well attended featuring 1182 entrants with payouts going to the top 99 and a nice $1,077,440 prize pool. Highly experienced players showed such as 3 time WSOP bracelet winner Longson O'Neil, WPT champ Ron Rose, Max Stern, Denis Ethier who came in 2nd at the 2006 Borgata Winter Poker Open, Michael Downing, Steve Rassi who has had 3 cashes in the 2006 WSOP so far, Dennis Horton and Robert Miller winner of the 2006 Foxwoods Poker Classic to name a few. The event began at 11:00 a.m. and continued until 1:20 a.m. the next day! 97 happy players were moving on to Day 2, happy because every one of them would be in the money for their efforts.

By 11:00 p.m. the next day the final table had been formed. As a side note, it was a nice change of pace to see two women which were Clare Miller and Judith Carlson, at a WSOP final table. During the action, Clare put an unlit cigarette in her mouth and dubbed herself "Samantha Farha" as she continued to focus on her game. No one could argue that she was the dominate force at the table. Things moved very fast as it took only 2 hours and 15 minutes for players 3 to 10 to become eliminated. Then it was Clare Miller and Mike Nargi in the heads up match. But it was Clare who ended up as champion. She will celebrate 41 years of marriage to her husband this week. Here is how the winning hand went for her. Mike (3 3) went all in from the blind and was called by Clare (Qs 8s). The flop shows 10h 4s 2h 6s and the river card was a 8d, giving Claire the better pair and her WSOP first bracelet. Congratulations to Claire Miller!

1. Clare Miller -- $247,814
2. Mike Nargi -- $129,293
3. Jake Wells -- $74,882
4. Judith Carlson -- $53,872
5. David Claiborne -- $43,098
6. Ron Rose -- $37,710
7. Doug Schuller -- $32,323
8. Stan Schrier -- $26,936
9. John Vorhaus -- $24,242
10. Scott McClellan -- $21,549

Event #20 July 12 -- H.O.R.S.E.
Buyin: $50,000.00
Outside of the Main Event, this was the one to watch. 143 players including some of the biggest stars in the game of poker have entered, and with the BIG entry fee a massive $6,864,000 prize pool was created. Two players will lay claim to over $1,000,000 by the time this is over. Payouts will go to the top 13 places. Now for those who don't know, H.O.R.S.E. is a combination of No-Limit Hold'Em, Omaha, Razz, Stud and Stud Eight or Better. The game is played with different combinations of the above for each level in the tournament. For instance:

• Level 1 game was Limit Hold'Em
• Level 2 game was Omaha 8/OB
• Level 3 game was RAZZ
• Level 4 game was OMAHA 8/OB
• Level 5 game was STUD 8/OB

1. Chip Reese -- $1,716,000
2. Andy Bloch -- $1,029,600
3. Phil Ivey -- $617,760
4. Jim Bechtel -- $549,120
5. T.J. Cloutier -- $480,480
6. David Singer -- $411,840
7. Dewey Tomko -- $343,200
8. Doyle Brunson -- $274,560
9. Patrik Antonius -- $205,920