2008 WSOP Day 14: Matusow straps on more gold

Three bracelets and counting for Matusow.

Mike Matusow was the big winner on Wednesday, and today the 2008 World Series of Poker gets back to its normal two-final-tables-per-day format with Events 19 and 20 finishing.

Event 18

About a year ago, Ted Forrest made a bet with Mike "The Mouth" Matusow. If he could lose 60 pounds in a year, Forrest would pay him $100,000.

Matusow weighed in at midnight on June 3 62 pounds lighter and fattened his wallet with the $100,000. But the biggest benefit for Matusow was that he now has a more positive outlook on life, and came into the 2008 WSOP feeling like this was going to be a good year for him.

"The bottom line is I don't walk out and blame the whole world and say how unlucky I am," Matusow said in a PokerListings interview.

"You know if you get unlucky and lose, you just come back the next day because it's just poker. That's what I'm trying to say; it's not the end of the world."

That attitude has paid off big-time, as Matusow picked up his third bracelet win Wednesday against one of the toughest fields the series has seen so far this year.

Matusow topped a field of 85 players in the $5,000 No-Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball w/Rebuys event to take home more than $500,000 and another WSOP gold bracelet.

In the end it came down to Matusow versus Jeffrey Lisandro. Lisandro had taken out Barry Greenstein in third place and had a good chip lead over Matusow to start heads-up.

Matusow said, "One double-up is all I need," and he was right. He battled back to take the chip lead. Then on the final hand, he turned up a Q-8 low to Lisandro's Q-9 low for the win.

The final-table results were:

Event 19

Vanessa Selbst had a monster second day of play in the $1,500 Pot-Limit Hold'em event on Wednesday. She walks into the final table today with more than $1 million in chips with her nearest competitor sitting with about $329,000.

The final table today will include:

Some of the familiar names who made the money but missed out on the final table are Jordan Morgan, Nam Le, Chau Giang, Tony Cousineau, Dave "Devilfish" Ulliott and Kathy Liebert.

Play resumes at 2 p.m., and PokerListings will be there with live updates direct from the Rio.

Event 20

The $2,000 Limit Hold'em event also played down to a final table on Wednesday. David Baker has the chip lead when the nine finalists return today, but it's likely that most poker fans will be more interested in seeing how Daniel Negreanu fares at the table.

Negreanu is only about $100,000 behind the chip leader, and he'll be looking for his fourth bracelet win in this event.

The players in the final table are:

Hein Tran will be another player to keep an eye on. He's coming into the table with a pretty short stack, but if genes have anything to do with poker talent, this brother to J.C. Tran could have what it takes to make a comeback today.

Stay tuned for Event 20 live updates from the final table as they begin play again this afternoon.

Event 21

The $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em event got under way on Wednesday with 731 runners. After a day of play, the field is down to 121, who will return to the felt today until the final nine are found.

Some of the players who will return today hoping to at least make the money if not win the entire thing include Michael Mizrachi, Humberto Brenes, Luca Pagano, Noah Boeken, Howard Lederer, Ralph Perry, Eli Elezra, Kathy Liebert, Greg Mueller, Sarah Bilney, Gavin Smith, David Singer, Huck Seed and more.

The cards will be in the air again for this event starting at 2 p.m. Stay tuned to the Event 21 live updates for all the latest action.

Event 22

The second event to get its start on Wednesday was the $3,000 H.O.R.S.E. event. More than 400 players sat down to play, and by the end of the day 133 were still left playing.

This tournament will pay out to the top 40 players, with the winner earning nearly $300,000. One player returning today who is showing how improved her play has become is Shannon Elizabeth. After Day 1, Elizabeth is sitting third in the chip counts with a healthy $44,200 in chips.

Right at the top with her are James Mackey, Todd Brunson and Marc Goodwin, and the rest of the field is peppered with pros as well.

Play is scheduled to resume at 3 p.m. today and that means PokerListings will also be there to bring you live coverage.

Event 23 and Event 24

Event 23 $2,000 No-Limit Hold'em is set to go off at noon today. Last year 1,619 players turned out for the event, with Ben Ponzio taking it down for nearly $600,000. Even more players are expected to sign up this year.

The second event starting today is Event 24, $2,500 Pot-Limit Hold'em/Omaha. This is a brand-new event this year that will have players alternating between Pot-Limit Hold'em and Omaha every 30 minutes. The action kicks off at 5 p.m. for this event.

For all your major tournament cravings, PokerListings has the sweetest live updates, photos, interviews, videos and more in the Live Tournaments section.

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