2008 WSOP Main Event, End of Day 3

2008 World Series of Poker
Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino
Las Vegas, Nevada

Official Report
Event #54
World Championship
No-Limit Hold’em
Buy-In: $ 10,000
Number of Entries: 6,844
Total Net Prize Pool: $64,333,600
Number of Places Paid: 666
First Place Prize: $9,119,517
Total Players Remaining: 474
July 3 - November 10, 2008

WSOP Trivia Question: How many decks of cards are used at the 2008 World Series of Poker, which includes all tournaments, satellites, and side action? (Note: See answer at end of this report)

Tournament Notes from Day Three:

· At the start of Day Three, the 2008 WSOP Main Event was consolidated into one room for the first time. On previous days, the field was split into multiple flights – necessitated by a larger number of entries than could be accommodated at the Rio in a single day.

· Five days ago, the World Series of Poker Main Event began on Thursday, July 3rd, 2008. Day Three was played on Thursday, July 10th.

· This is the 42nd of 47 total days which comprises the vast majority of the 2008 WSOP schedule (not counting WSOP-Europe, which takes place September 19th through October 2nd and the Main Event final table to be played November 9-10).

· Day Three started at 12:05 pm PST.

· The number of players who started Day Three was 1,308.

· There were at least 118 different nations and territories represented by all players who entered the 2008 Main Event. By contrast, there were 87 different countries present last year. This represents a 36 percent increase in international participation.

· The 2008 WSOP Main Event winner will collect $9,119,517 in prize money. The minimum payout is $21,230.

· ESPN designated two “feature” tables. The table on the main stage included 1987/1988 world champion Johnny Chan. The secondary feature table was located off to the side and included tournament pro Jean-Robert Bellande.

· All seat assignments and re-draws at the WSOP are completely random. However, ESPN selects “feature” tables each day, which are presumably tables with the greatest public interest. Those two tables are then transferred to the main and secondary stages.

· The average stack at the start of the day was 104,648 (this number does not reflect the players who failed to report their chip counts).

· Former WSOP Main Event champions who continued play on Day Three included — Johnny Chan, Phil Hellmuth, and Chris Moneymaker.

· 2003 world champion Chris Moneymaker made a fast exit. Just six minutes into play on Day Three, the former accountant from Tennessee moved all-win with A-J and was called by a bigger stack with 10-9. A ten flopped, knocking Moneymaker out of the Main Event.

· 1987 and 1988 world champion Johnny Chan currently ranks in 221st place.

· 1989 world champion Phil Hellmuth currently ranks in 75th place.

· This was a rough WSOP for the most of the recent world champions. The last six Main Event winners (2002-2007) – Varkonyi, Moneymaker, Raymer, Hachem, Gold, and Yang – combined for just three total cashes at this year’s World Series (Hachem with 2 and Raymer with 1).

· Two former Main Event runner-ups played on this day – John Strzemp (1997 – second to Stu Ungar) and Glen Cozen (1993 – second to Jim Bechtel). Strzemp busted out in 538th place. Cozen remains still alive in the tournament.

· The number of players remaining out of the initial 1,308 players who continued play on Day Three is 474. This means only 36 percent of the field survived. Only 6.9 percent of the field remains among those who started this tournament.

· The End of Day Three chip leader is Jeremy Joseph, from Buffalo, New York.

· The chip leader coming into the start of Day Three was Brian Schaedlich, from Cleveland, Ohio, with 801,000 chips. Perhaps no player suffered a worse reversal of fortune in this tournament as the would-be champion ended the day with just 22,000 in his stack.

· As Day Three begins, the number of female players remaining in the Main Event is estimated at 11. It is estimated that 209 female players participated in the 2008 WSOP Main Event.

· Former WSOP gold bracelet winners who were eliminated on this day include – Chris Moneymaker, Paul McKinney, Scott Clements, Jennifer Harman, Erik Seidel, Anthony Rivera, Alex Kravchenko, Thor Hansen, Men “the Master” Nguyen, Mickey Appleman, Minh Nguyen, Toto Leonidas, Steve Zolotow, Nenad Medic, Chau Giang, and Farzad Rhouhani.

· Australian Shane Warne, who is perhaps the most famous cricket player in history, was still alive when Day Three began. However, he did not make it into the money and busted out in mid-afternoon.

· Prize money was reached at 11:29 pm, as Level 14 expired.

· Once play became nine spots out of the money (675 players remaining) the tournament was dealt hand-for-hand. This means each table dealt out one hand at a time. This procedure is in place to prevent players from intentionally stalling or slowing down play in an effort to coast into the money. The hand-for-hand period lasted 1:15, during which only nine hands were dealt out (per table).

· The “bubble finisher” refers to the unfortunate player who lands exactly one spot out of the prize money – in this case the 667th-place finisher. Steve Chung, from Hong Kong, became the official “bubble finisher” of the 2008 WSOP. He qualified to play in the World Series by winning a seat at a satellite held at a casino in Macau. In fact, this was his first time to ever play at the WSOP. Just as Chung was about to exit from the room amidst a cheering throng of players who were guaranteed at least $21,230 in prize money, he was stopped and asked to appear onstage alongside WSOP Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack and WSOP Tournament Director Jack Effel. Next, it was announced that the official WSOP sponsor Milwaukee’s Best Light had donated a $10,000 entry for Mr. Chung into next year’s Main Event. So, Mr. Chung becomes entry Number 1 into the 2009 WSOP.

· Four-time WSOP gold bracelet winner Mickey Appleman was the unfortunate 668th-place finisher.

· With his guaranteed in-the-money finish in this event, 11-time gold bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth extended his record for the most all-time cashes in WSOP history – with 68.

· With his 651st-place finish in this event, 6-time gold bracelet winner Men “the Master” Nguyen extended his record for the second most all-time cashes in WSOP history – with 62.

· With his 518th -place finish in this event, 3-time gold bracelet winner Chau Giang extended his record for the eighth most all-time cashes in WSOP history – with 46.

· With his 600th -place finish in this event, 2-time gold bracelet winner Thor Hansen extended his record for the fourteenth (tied with Dewey Tomko) most all-time cashes in WSOP history – with 41.

· Nikolay Evdakov’s (Moscow, Russia) elimination short of making the prize money in this tournament etches his record at ten, as the player with the “Most WSOP Cashes in a Single Year.”

· Coming into this year’s WSOP, the current longest streak of cashes in the Main Event was held by Theodore Park – with four. Remarkably, he is guaranteed to be in-the-money again, as he now ranks in 122nd place according to the current chip count. Park now has five consecutive cashes in the Main Event – the longest streak of anyone.

· Only five players — Andrew Brokos, Pat Dattilo, Marc Friedman, Vinod Jadav, and Stefan Mattsson — cashed in both the 2006 and 2007 Main Events. All were going for their third consecutive cash this year. However, only one player survived (and is guaranteed to cash). He is Stefan Mattsson, from Stockholm, Sweden – currently in 308th place).

· It should be noted that Bo Sehlstedt cashed four consecutive years (2004-2007). He was going for his fifth consecutive cash this year, but was eliminated earlier in the tournament.

· It should be noted that James McManus remains alive in the tournament. However, this is the James McManus from Dublin, Ireland (not the author of Positively Fifth Street).

· Andy Griggs opened the Main Event with a rousing a cappella version of the national anthem. The country star has recorded more than a dozen country hits. Griggs went on to play in this tournament and lasted until mid-afternoon on Day Three. To his credit, Griggs had never played in a poker tournament before. Perhaps some last-minute coaching by poker legend and friend Doyle Brunson had something to do with the star finishing in the top 20 percent of the field.

· At least three father-son duos started the day. Art Young and his son Bret “Gank” Jungblut (former WSOP gold bracelet winner) came into the day as survivors. Also, Tommy Grimes and James Grimes, from Houston, Texas started the day with chips. Another father-son combo was Josef Bachar and his son Ziv Bachar, from Israel. James Grimes cashed (507th place). Meanwhile, Ziv Bachar remains in contention (265th place). The other players were eliminated.

· There was least one very special player in this tournament who demonstrated uncanny physical abilities. Michael Wilson played in this tournament using nothing but his poker skills and the use of one limb. He was able to peak at his hole cards and maneuver his poker chips with this use of a single foot. Wilson lasted nearly three full days. But he did not make it into the money. Nonetheless, Wilson serves as an inspiration to many people that the World Series is accessible to everyone.

· There is something called “the law of large numbers.” This essentially means that given an increasingly larger sample, a wider variety of consequences are possible. Unfortunately, this sometimes means distress. Following Day 2-A, one poker player had nearly 200,000 in chips. Sadly, he had a family emergency and was force to return home to the East Coast. The player was not able make it back for the start of Day Three. According to tournament rules, he was slowly blinded away. Nevertheless, the player managed to make it all the way into the money, by not playing a single hand on Day Three.

· WSOP Academy instructor Alex Outhred began the day in the top ten percent of the field. He is now in the middle of the pack (164th) with 326,000 in chips.

· The most common last name among the 474 survivors is Nguyen, with five such players. There are four players named Smith and four named Kim.

· There are 33 different nations represented among the Day Three survivors. The most players from any nation aside from the United States come from England – with 25 still in the tournament.

· Play ended after five levels of competition, which means after Level 15. Each level is two hours long. Day Three concluded at 2:20 am PST.

· Day Four begins Friday, July 11th at 1:00 pm.

· When play resumes on Day Four, all surviving players will be consolidated into the Rio’s Amazon Ballroom, which should encompass about half of the tables and seats on the tournament floor.

· When play resumes on Day Four, Level 16 will begin with blinds set at 2,500-5,000 and antes at 500.

· Day Four will include five levels of play. Therefore, play will end following completion of Level 20.

· This is the largest World Series of Poker in history. A grand total of 58,720 players entered into 55 gold bracelet events surpassed last year’s number of entries, which was 54,288. These figures represent an 8 percent increase over 2007.

· This was the richest World Series of Poker in history. A grand total of $180,676,248 in prize money awarded in 2008 makes this the richest event in all of sports. Note: This figure does not include the upcoming four events to be played at WSOP-Europe. These figures represent an increase of 13 percent over 2007.

· This ranks as the second-largest live poker tournament in history. This year’s turnout surpassed 2007 attendance (6,358) by 7.4 percent. Only the 2006 WSOP Main Event was larger than this tournament — with 8,773 entrants.

· This is the second-largest tournament prize pool in history. The total prize pool amounts to $64,333,600. The top 666 finishers will collect prize money.

· The full payout list for the Main Event (all places) is as follows:

$9,119,517 1st
$5,790,024 2nd
$4,503,352 3rd
$3,763,515 4th
$3,088,012 5th
$2,412,510 6th
$1,769,174 7th
$1,286,672 8th
$900,670 9th
$591,869 10th-12th
$463,201 13-15
$334,534 16-18
$257,334 19-27
$193,000 28-36
$154,400 37-45
$135,100 46-54
$115,800 55-63
$96,500 64-72
$77,200 73-81
$64,333 82-90
$51,466 91-99
$41,816 100-162
$38,600 163-225
$35,383 226-288
$32,166 289-351
$28,950 352-414
$27,020 415-477
$25,090 478-540
$23,160 541-603
$21,230 604-666

Trivia Answer: Approximately 33,000 decks of traditional Kem playing cards, all using the bicycle logo (on the ace) and manufactured by the U.S. Playing Card Company, will be used at the 2008 World Series of Poker.