Championship Material

ALL IN tabs 10 players to watch in the 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event

BY KATIE LINDSAY

PREDICTING WHO WILL WIN the Main Event of the World Series of Poker is as close to impossible as it gets. The fields keep growing, and the number of entries the last couple of years have been 10 times what they were five years earlier. No matter how great of a No-Limit Hold ’Em player you are, your chances of making this final table are outrageously slim.

But there are certain players who can be labeled favorites, and in a game like poker where momentum is so important, there are certain players on hot streaks whom you have to watch for in The Big One. In this article, ALL IN has picked 10 of them we feel have the best chance of making waves in the recognized world championship. Some are superstars you’ve been watching since the poker boom began, and some are newer faces, but all have proven their skill in big-field, big-buy-in No-Limit events—and maybe, just maybe, one of these 10 will be crowned champion when the 2008 WSOP is over.

Michael Binger

The past year has been a great one for Binger, which is no surprise given the intellect of this man with a Ph.D. in physics from Stanford. At last year’s WSOP, he had a record-tying eight cashes, including a final table in the $5,000 No-Limit event. In February ’08, he won the $1,500 No-Limit event at the L.A. Poker Classic, and then a month later, he took second in the $2,000 event at the Foxwoods Poker Classic. Just two weeks after that, Binger won the $5,000 event at the Bellagio Five-Star World Poker Classic. Binger also has experience going deep against the huge fields; in 2006, he took third in the WSOP Main Event that boasted 8,773 entries, the largest field in the history of live tournament poker.

Brandon Cantu

After making a New Year’s promise to himself that he was going to put all of his focus into his game and take it more seriously this year, Cantu hasn’t let himself down. He made a final table at the $2,500 No-Limit event at the L.A. Poker Classic, and then he headed to the $10,000 WPT Bay 101 Shooting Stars tournament in San Jose and dominated the event. Cantu led from wire to wire and won $1-million for finishing first (plus some nice pocket change for collecting bounties). Fresh off of that win, he made a final table at the $5,000 event at the Five-Star World Poker Classic. And he won’t be awed by the magnitude of the World Series; he beat a field of 2,776 to win a bracelet at the Rio in ’06.

Cory Carroll

Carroll has often been called one of the best players you’ve never heard of, but that description doesn’t work anymore, now that he’s been featured on the WPT and has proven himself one of the toughest tournament players around. This Canadian pro got his start online under the name “UGOTPZD.” His online cashes exceed $500,000, and he has already won more than $1.8-million in live events. He won a WSOP Circuit event in May of last year and that same month took second in the WPT Mirage Poker Showdown. At last year’s WSOP Main Event, he lasted several days and eventually cashed in 91st place. He is back in a big way this year, already making another WPT final table at the $25,000 Championship, finishing fourth. Carroll has demonstrated clearly that he is capable of playing long days and going deep in the largest fields around.

Bryan Devonshire

This 26-year-old Minnesotan who got his start as a dealer has made a final table at the WSOP the last two years in a row, finishing second both times, and coming up on this year’s Series, his game is in overdrive. In March, Devonshire took second at the WPT World Poker Challenge in Reno, winning almost $300,000. Less than a month later, he went deep in the $25,000 WPT World Championship, taking 12th out of a stacked field of 545 players for another $130,000. After that, Devonshire headed up to Vancouver for the WPT Canada’s inaugural event and didn’t disappoint, taking first place in a $500 buy-in event, good for more than $50,000. So far, Devonshire has more experience as a runner-up than as the last man standing, but the way he’s been playing lately, that may change in this year’s Main Event.

Gus Hansen

It was generally assumed that Hansen would never have as good a streak as he did from May ’02 to January ’04, when he won three WPT titles. Well, he’s given himself a run for his money over the last 18 months. First he wove his way through 747 entrants to win the Aussie Millions event in January ’07 to the tune of $1.1-million. “The Great Dane” followed that up with a deep run in not only last year’s WSOP Main Event (finishing 61st) but the main event of the WSOP Europe as well (finishing 10th). Only a month later, Gus made the final table at the WPT Spanish Championship in Barcelona, finishing fifth, and so far in ’08, he reached the quarterfinals in the NBC Heads-Up Championship and scored more than $1.7-million for a second-place finish at the WPT $25,000 Championship event. Oh yes, Gus Hansen is back, and believe it or not, he’s better than ever.

Zachary Hyman

Quite a few top poker players have sprung from the San Francisco scene, and the latest to do so is Hyman, who made an immediate impact with his first major cash, a victory in the first-ever $10,000 Wynn Poker Classic in ’07. The final table included Johnny Chan, Mike Matusow, Chau Giang, Michael Mizrachi, Scott Fischman, and Ted Lawson, but it was Hyman who topped them all and won more than $700,000. In ’08, Hyman has been on a tear: At the WPT Borgata Winter Open main event, he finished 28th out of 507 players; he made the final table at the WPT World Poker Challenge, finishing third and collecting a $149,862 payday; at the Five-Star World Poker Classic at the Bellagio, he took seventh in a $3,000 event and then won a $2,000 event. Hyman may not be quite as proven as some of the players on this list, but he could well be the breakout star of this year’s World Series.

Phil Ivey

What can you say about Ivey that hasn’t already been said? He’s long been recognized as the best all-around poker player on the planet, and in the past 14 months, he’s reminded us why. Just prior to last year’s WSOP, Ivey took fifth at the Mirage Poker Showdown. At the Series, he added two more final tables to his resume, finishing second in $5,000 Stud and fourth in $5,000 H.O.R.S.E. While concentrating on the Series, he was also able to pick up a Poker After Dark win across town at the South Point. In February of this year, Ivey took down the L.A. Poker Classic $10,000 main event, good for $1.6-million, and then flew straight to Las Vegas and reached the semifinals of the NBC Heads-Up Championship. What more is there for Ivey to accomplish? Winning the WSOP Main Event is just about all that’s left. And if he’s on his “A” game, his odds of winning are always shorter than anyone else’s.

Mike Sowers

Sowers has only been playing live poker in the U.S. for six months, and the 21-year-old already has a big first-place finish and has the hardcore poker community buzzing. He won the $5,000 event at the 2008 Borgata Winter Open, besting a field filled with unknowns and top professionals. He also took down the $1,000 No-Limit event in Aruba at the UltimateBet Poker Classic. Even though he is a relative newcomer to live poker, he is very well known for his successes online under the names “Sowerss” and “SowersUNCC.” His accomplishments are endless, including double final tables in one day, major first-place wins on FullTilt, PokerStars, and UB, and cashes totaling more than a million dollars. This will, of course, be his first WSOP, and he appears to have the potential for a long and profitable career at the granddaddy of poker tournaments.

Roy Winston

A former plastic surgery medical director and a former lieutenant commander in the Navy, Winston shifted his focus toward poker in the last few years and has met with huge success. He first turned heads by finishing 26th in last year’s WSOP Main Event, earning more than $330,000. Just over a month later, he followed that up with a win at the $10,000 WPT Borgata Open main event in Atlantic City, pocketing more than $1.5-million. In December, he took down the Five Diamond World Poker Classic $2,000 No-Limit event. And so far in 2008, the Californian has reached four final tables—two at Aussie Millions, two in WPT prelims. Interestingly, he also fits the general age profile of the last four Main Event winners (Jerry Yang, Jamie Gold, Joe Hachem, and Greg Raymer), all of whom won The Big One at around 40.

Anna Wroblewski

Known as “The Poker Pixie,” this 100-pound 22-year-old brings fear to the eyes of opponents at the poker table. She has only been playing on the circuit for a little over a year and she already has 19 cashes and 11 final table finishes under her belt, including a first place in a $3,000 event at the Bellagio in April ’07 good for a $337,395 payday. At her first-ever World Series, she made the final table in a No-Limit event with more than 2,000 entries, taking fourth place. So far in 2008, in building toward the WSOP Main Event, she cashed in both the WPT Bay 101 Shooting Stars tournament and the $25,000 WPT Championship. Historically, the Main Event has not been kind to poker’s top female players, but Wroblewski has the kind of relentless style to reverse that trend.