2008 WSOP FINAL RESULTS for Events 29 and 30

2008 World Series of Poker

Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino

Las Vegas, Nevada

 

Official Report

Event # 29

No-Limit Hold’em  

Buy-In:  $ 3,000

Number of Entries:  716

Number of Re-Buys:  NA

Total Net Prize Pool: $ 1,976,160

June 15-17, 2008

 

Final Results:

 

 

1	John Phan	$434,789	Stockton	California
2	Johnny Neckar	$277,452	Madison	Wisconsin
3	Matt Vengrin	$167,973	Red Hook	New York
4	Alex Bolotin	$137,343	Brooklyn	New York
5	David Singer	$112,641	Las Vegas	Nevada
6	Stewart Newman	$88,927	Coral Gables	Florida
7	Thuyen Doan	$69,165	Williamsburg	Virginia
8	George Dunst	$54,344	Melbourne	Australia
9	Sebastian Segovia	$39,523	Guatemala City	Guatemala
10	Aleksander Zaslavsly	$24,702	Fitchburg	Wisconsin
11	Linda Lee	$24,702	Las Vegas	Nevada
12	Lee Childs	$24,702	Alexandria	Virginia
13	Matthew Stout	$19,761	Galloway	New Jersey
14	Dustin Pattinson	$19,761	Edinburg	Texas
15	Vincent Peraino	$19,761	Sterling Heights	Michigan
16	Don Mullis	$14,821	St. Pete Beach	Florida
17	Ryan Young	$14,821	Torrance	California
18	Richard Tatalovich	$14,821	Scottsdale	Arizona
19	Dale Pinchot	$11,264	Yardley	Pennsylvania
20	Carter King	$11,264	Columbia	South Carolina
21	Jon Traver	$11,264	Irving	Texas
22	Douglas Miranda	$11,264	Henderson	Nevada
23	Daniel Obrien	$11,264	Las Vegas	Nevada
24	Hjalti Jacobsen	$11,264	Torshavn Faroe Islands	Denmark
25	Leo Wolpert	$11,264	Fairfax	Virginia
26	Mclean Karr	$11,264	Troy	Michigan
27	Alex Melnikow	$11,264	Las Vegas	Nevada
28	Norman Gautron	$9,287	Winnipeg	Quebec, Canada
29	Christopher Glover	$9,287	La Porte	Texas
30	Kyu Cho	$9,287	Allen	Texas
31	Rem Remington	$9,287	Jacksonville	Florida
32	Steven Vanzadelhoff	$9,287	Geldermalsen	Holland
33	James Fricke	$9,287	Mahomet	Illinois
34	Leonid Yanovski	$9,287	Haifa	Israel
35	Abdol Vahedi	$9,287	Encino	California
36	Betty Carey	$9,287	Juneau	Alaska
37	Byron Kaverman	$7,311	Ft. Jennings	Ohio
38	Erik Jansson	$7,311	Taby	Sweden
39	Kathy Liebert	$7,311	Las Vegas	Nevada
40	Thijs Wessels	$7,311	Eindhoven	Holland
41	Thomas Alcorn	$7,311	Sunrise	Florida
42	Markus Gonsalves	$7,311	San Diego	California
43	Nathan Hoines	$7,311	Great Falls	Montana
44	Derrick Plyler	$7,311	Union Hall	Virginia
45	John Anhalt	$7,311	Huntington Beach	California
46	Eric Lynch	$6,718	Olathe	Kansas
47	Marty Wong	$6,718	Napa	California
48	Julius Colman	$6,718	Melbourne	Australia
49	Jim Sachinidis	$6,718	Victoria	Australia
50	Barny Boatman	$6,718	Hendon	England
51	Nachman Berlin	$6,718	Brooklyn	New York
52	Beth Shak	$6,718	Bryn Mawr	Pennsylvania
53	Maxwell Greenwood	$6,718	Toronto	Ontario, Canada
54	Pier Scatola	$6,718	Vinci Firenze	Italy
55	Kristy Gazes	$6,126	Van Nuys	California
56	Oktay Altinbas	$6,126	Dania	Florida
57	Stuart Patterson	$6,126	Boca Raton	Florida
58	Mark Muchnik	$6,126	Henderson	Nevada
59	Rob Sterken	$6,126	Veghel	Holland
60	Stephen O’Dwyer	$6,126
61	Jason Somerville	$6,126	Stony Brook	New York
62	Nicolas Levi	$6,126	London	England
63	Douglas Mackinnon	$6,126	Clarence	New York
64	Francis Mahiout	$5,533	Paris	France
65	Todd Sisley	$5,533	Toronto	Ontario, Canada
66	Hans Winzeler	$5,533	Miami	Florida
67	Stephen Delvin	$5,533	Omagh Co. Tyrone	Ireland
68	Joseph Grech	$5,533	Wapping	England
69	Justin Newton	$5,533	Tucson	Arizona
70	Daniel Shak	$5,533	Bryn Mawr	Pennsylvania
71	Jeffrey King	$5,533	Colchester	Connecticut
72	Alan Myerson	$5,533	Sherman Oaks	California

Tournament Notes:

· The $3,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em tournament attracted a highly-competitive field of 716 entries, creating a prize pool totaling $1,976,160. The top 72 finishers collected prize money.

· The tournament was played over three consecutive days. The final table was played on Day Three at the same time as the conclusion of the $10,000 buy-in Limit Hold’em World Championship (Event #30). The finale took place at the secondary final table, as the main stage was reserved for the other event.

· The winner was poker pro John Phan. He is 33-years-old and lives in Stockton, CA. Phan was born in Vietnam. He has been playing poker professionally for about 12 years.

· Phan collected $434,789 for first place. He also earned his first WSOP gold bracelet. Prior to this victory, Phan had two runner-up finishes in WSOP events in 2006 and 2007. He also finished fourth in an event in 2005.

· Phan’s heads-up match against Johnny Neckar clocked in at 6 hours and 13 minutes, which certainly ranks as one of the longer matches in WSOP history. However, this did not come close to threatening the all-time record set in 2006 between Chip Reese and Andy Bloch, which lasted over eight hours. The entire final table took slightly over ten hours to complete.

· The Phan-Neckar back and forth heads-up match led to one of the most bizarre occurrences in WSOP history. Just when both players had been playing for six hours and that fact was announced to the crowd, both finalists decided to raise all-in blindly before the flop and let luck takes its course. Phan and Neckar did this for three straight hands. However, some sanity was restored and just as hundreds of screaming fans had ringed around the final table arena hollering out names and cards, both players resumed normal patterns of play – with the duel locked into a dead heat in chips. Half a dozen hands later, Phan finally won the tournament.

· Afterward, Phan was almost dismissive of the significance of his victory. Although he had finally won a WSOP gold bracelet after coming close several times, he stated that he one and only goal in poker remains to win the WSOP Main Event. Oddly enough, while Phan was trying to explain himself, he had a bracelet affixed to his wrist from another poker tournament – which was awarded to him for winning a major tournament at the Jack Binion World Poker Open in 2007.

· Phan later explained his odd decision to “gamble” for the gold bracelet (moving all-in dark on three hands) by saying, “What can I say? I love to gamble. To me, gambling is what it’s all about.”

· A more serious side of Phan’s personality came out later when he revealed that he intends to donate some of his cash prize to charity, and specifically the hometown in Vietnam where he still has relatives.

· The second-place finisher was 22-year-old Johnny Neckar, from Madison, WI. This was his second time to cash at the WSOP.

· David Singer’s bid to win his second WSOP gold bracelet came up short. He took fifth place in this event. Singer won the $1,500 Pot-Limit Hold’em championship (Event #3).

· Sebastian Segovia finished in ninth place. Segovia is from Guatemala. This marked the first time in WSOP history that a player from that Central American nation has made it to the final table.

· Don “Final Table” Mullis took 16th place. Mullis enjoyed a stellar year in 2005, particularly on the WSOP Circuit where he made eight final table appearances within an eight-month span and won two gold rings – at the Tunica Grand and Harvey’s Lake Tahoe.

· Former WSOP gold bracelet winner Ryan Young finished in 17th place.

· This tournament was historic in at least one special way. Betty Carey played in this tournament – and cashed. Carey is a near-legendary figure amongst many of the older poker rounders. She was once called “the best woman player in the world” by “Amarillo Slim” Preston. During poker’s earlier days, she was bankrolled by outlaw Jimmy Chagra and played amongst (and often beat) the best players in the world in high-limit cash games. Carey finished 36th in this event. Her last time to cash at the WSOP was way back in 1986. Therefore, her 22-year-span between WSOP cashes is believed to be an all-time record.

· Former WSOP gold bracelet winner Kathy Liebert finished 39th. This marked her fifth cash at this year’s WSOP.

· Beth Shak finished 52nd. Shak almost won this same event last year. She finished second to winner Shankar Pillai.

· Beth Shak’s husband, Daniel Shak, is building quite a poker resume of his own. Shak was a co-winner of the 2007 “Ante-Up For Africa” tournament for charity and donated his entire $243,893 cash prize to the charity. Sometimes, good things happen to good people. Mr. Shak took 70th place in this tournament.

· Since both Shaks cashed, this marked the first time that a husband and wife have cashed in the same tournament at this year’s World Series. In the past, this has been accomplished by the Sterns (Max and Maria) and the Thomas’ (Harry and Jerri).

· The curse on defending champions continues. Last year’s winner, Shankar Pillai played in this event. But he did not cash. This brings the current streak to 29 straight non-cashes for defending champions in their respective events.

· Through the conclusion of Event #29, the player with the highest percentage of cashes (minimum of six events played) is Kathy Liebert at 62.5 percent. Liebert has entered a total of eight events and cashed in five.

· Through the conclusion of Event #29, only one player has cashed six times – Nikolay Evdakov, from Moscow, Russia. He is best positioned to challenge the record set for “Most WSOP Cashes in a Single Year,” shared by four players — Michael Binger (2007), Chad Brown (2007), Phil Hellmuth, Jr. (2006), and Humberto Brenes (2006), with eight in-the-money strikes.

· The current Milwaukee’s Best Light “Player of the Year” standings shows Erick Lindgren on top of the points list with one gold bracelet win and four cashes. However, Daniel Negreanu is now close in points, along with Vanessa Selbst and Jacobo Fernandez.

· Through the conclusion of Event #29 at this year’s World Series of Poker, the gold bracelet count by nations and states reads as follows:
8 – Nevada
5 – California
4 – New York
2 – Canada
2 – Missouri
1 – Germany
1 – Italy
1 – Maryland
1 – Michigan
1 – Pennsylvania
1 – Russia
1 – South Carolina
1 – Wisconsin

· The Event #29 winner John Phan is to be classified as a professional. Accordingly, through the conclusion of Event #29 at this year’s World Series of Poker, the “Professionals versus Amateurs” gold bracelet scoreboard reads:
Professionals – 22 wins
Amateurs — 4 wins
Semi-Pros — 2 wins

___________________________________________________________________________

Official Report

Event # 30

Limit Hold’em World Championship  

Buy-In:  $ 10,000

Number of Entries:  218

Number of Re-Buys:  NA

Total Net Prize Pool: $ 2,049,200

June 15-17, 2008

 

Final Results:

 

1	Rob Hollink	$496,931	Groningen	Netherlands
2	Jerrod Ankenman	$307,380	Avon	Connecticut
3	Tommy Hang	$194,674	Seattle	Washington
4	Aaron Katz	$158,813	Seattle	Washington
5	J.C. Tran	$128,075	Sacramento	California
6	Brock Parker	$102,460	Silver Spring	Maryland
7	Andy Bloch	$81,968	Las Vegas	Nevada
8	Cyril Jassinowsky	$66,599	Johannesburg	South Africa
9	Christopher Vitch	$51,230	San Diego	California
10	Eric Buchman	$35,861	Valley Stream	New York
11	Richard Chase	$35,861	Malibu	California
12	Eric Froehlich	$35,861	Springfield	Virginia
13	Shunjiro Uchida	$30,738	Las Vegas	Nevada
14	Steve Sung	$30,738	Torrance	California
15	Michael Mizrachi	$30,738	Miramar	Florida
16	Matthew Woodward	$25,615	Waterboro	Maine
17	John Barch	$25,615	McKinney	Texas
18	Kieu Duong	$25,615	Mays Landing	New Jersey
19	Todd Witteles	$20,492	Las Vegas	Nevada
20	Thomas Johnston	$20,492
21	Hoyt Corkins	$20,492	Las Vegas	Nevada
22	Spencer Lawrence	$20,492	Wimbledon	England
23	Dewey Tomko	$20,492	Haines City	Florida
24	Gregory DeBora	$20,492	Toronto	Ontario, Canada
25	Terrence Chan	$20,492	Vancouver	British Columbia, Canada
26	Patrick Bueno	$20,492		France
27	Alex Kravchenko	$20,492	Moscow	Russia

 

 

 

Tournament Notes:

· The $10,000 buy-in Limit Hold’em World Championship attracted a highly-competitive field of 218 entries, creating a prize pool totaling $2,049,200. The top 27 finishers collected prize money.

· While all 55 WSOP tournaments on the 2008 schedule are categorized as “gold bracelet” events, this is also known as a “world championship” event. This means the winner of this event is the Limit Hold’em world champion. Beginning this year, all $10,000+ buy-in tournaments are designated as official world championships. Ten WSOP tournaments qualify under these guidelines — a list which includes eight gold bracelet tournaments with $10,000 buy-ins, the $50,000 buy-in HORSE event, and the Main Event.

· This is the highest buy-in Limit Hold’em tournament in history. Previously, the highest buy-in Limit Hold’em tournament had been $5,000. Last year, the highest buy-in Limit Hold’em event was $3,000.

· Limit Hold’em was the most popular varient of tournament poker for a 15-year period between 1988 and 2003. Limit Hold’em was also the dominant form of poker played in public cardrooms from the mid-1980s (when California law changed to allow flop games) until a few years ago. In fact, during much of the 1980s and 90s finding a No-Limit Hold’em game was next to impossible. For many years at the World Series of Poker, Limit Hold’em events attracted more total entries than No-Limit Hold’em events.

· Limit Hold’em tournaments are now spread less frequently. For instance, there are only three Limit Hold’em events on the 2008 WSOP schedule, versus 25 No-Limit Hold’em events. This was the second of three such events.

· This finale took place at the same time as the conclusion of the $3,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em championship (Event #29), which took place at the secondary final table.

· The winner was Rob Hollink, from Groningen, Holland. He is a 46-year-old professional poker player. He is divorced and has three children.

· Groningen is in the northernmost part of Holland. It is very near the German border.

· Hollink collected $496,931 for first place. He also earned his first WSOP gold bracelet.

· Hollink becomes the first WSOP gold bracelet ever from the nation of Holland. Many great Dutch players have come close to winning. But Hollink goes down in history as the first to achieve a WSOP triumph.

· Hollink stated that he has been coming to the WSOP every year since 2001. He estimated that he has played 80-85 events, without much success. “I have won 15 tournaments in Europe, but every year I come here (to the WSOP) it has been bad luck for me,” Hollink stated afterward. “But I guess this makes up for it now.”

· The champion stated that his favorite poker game is Pot-Limit Omaha. However, he has developed a special fondness for Limit Hold’em as well. He calls it his “second favorite game to play.”

· With a Dutch player winning this event, six different nations have now been represented amongst WSOP winners.

· The second-place finisher was Jerrod Ankenman, from Avon, CT. Ankenman finished as the runner-up on one previous occasion. He was second in the $3,000 buy-in Limit Hold’em event in 2006. Ankenman co-authored a book with two-time WSOP gold bracelet winner Bill Chen called “The Mathematics of Poker.”

· Former WSOP gold bracelet winner Aaron Katz took fourth place.

· Poker pro Andy Bloch finished in seventh place. This was Bloch’s second final table appearance. He was the runner up in the Pot-Limit Hold’em World Championship (Event #1) and now stands as the only player to make it to two official “world championship” events so far this year.

· Bloch also set a dubious record of accomplishment in this event. He became the all-time leader in “most final table appearances” with no WSOP wins. This was his eighth such achievement. Bill Gazes and Don Barton have seven appearances/no wins each. Mark Gregorich has six.

· South Africa picked up its first entry on the cash list at this year’s World Series as Cy Jassinowsky, from Johnannesburg finished in eighth place.

· Two-time WSOP gold bracelet winner Eric Froehlich finished in 12th place. This marked his eighth WSOP cash in three years.

· John “Tex” Barch, who won $2.5 million for his third-place finish in the 2005 Main Event, finished 17th.

· Three-time WSOP gold bracelet winner Dewey Tomko ended up as the 23rd place finisher. This marked Tomko’s 43rd career WSOP cash, which now ties him for 11th place on the all-time list. Tomko was also the runner-up in the 1982 and 2001 WSOP Main Events.

· Other former WSOP gold bracelet winners who cashed in this event included Todd Witteles (19th), Hoyt Corkins (21st), and Alex Kravchenko (27th).

· Through the conclusion of Event #30, the player with the highest percentage of cashes (minimum of six events played) is Kathy Liebert at 62.5 percent. Liebert has entered a total of eight events and cashed in five.

· Through the conclusion of Event #30, only one player has cashed six times – Nikolay Evdakov, from Moscow, Russia. He is best positioned to challenge the record set for “Most WSOP Cashes in a Single Year,” shared by four players — Michael Binger (2007), Chad Brown (2007), Phil Hellmuth, Jr. (2006), and Humberto Brenes (2006), with eight in-the-money strikes.

· The current Milwaukee’s Best Light “Player of the Year” standings shows Erick Lindgren on top of the points list with one gold bracelet win and four cashes. However, Daniel Negreanu is now close in points, along with Vanessa Selbst and Jacobo Fernandez.

· Through the conclusion of Event #30 at this year’s World Series of Poker, the gold bracelet count by nations and states reads as follows:
8 – Nevada
5 – California
4 – New York
2 – Canada
2 – Missouri
1 – Germany
1 – Holland
1 – Italy
1 – Maryland
1 – Michigan
1 – Pennsylvania
1 – Russia
1 – South Carolina
1 – Wisconsin

· The Event #30 winner Rob Hollink is to be classified as a professional. Accordingly, through the conclusion of Event #30 at this year’s World Series of P