Loading...
Online Bonus
-
Exclusive $1,000 monthly freerolls at PlayersOnly Poker
Read More
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
2008 WSOP Day 20: Phan-ing the tournament flames
Phan gets his first bracelet.
By Sarah Polson
Two more professional poker players won their very first World Series of Poker bracelets on Tuesday as John Phan took down Event 29 and Rob Hollink brought one home for the Netherlands in Event 30.
Event 29
The Razor lived up to his nickname on Tuesday as he sliced through the final table of the $3,000 No-Limit Hold'em event to take home a gold bracelet and a $434,789 top prize.
This was John Phan's first WSOP bracelet win, though he's had several cashes in past events including two runner-up finishes, one in 2006 and one in 2007, and a fourth-place finish in 2005. This time he made his way through 716 entrants to ascend to the very top of the heap.
Plus, he had to get through a final table that included Alex Bolotin and David Singer to get there. Singer won his first WSOP bracelet earlier in the Series and is on a hot streak coming into this final table, with two other cashes in 2008 events already as well.
However, Johnny Neckar, a 22-year-old from Madison, Wis., proved to be Phan's biggest competition. When it came down to the two of them, they ended up playing heads-up for more than six hours before Phan was finally able to take him down.
After six hours of play, the two players started to just go all-in blindly, gambling for a little while before returning to serious play about even in chips. Then a few hands later, Phan finally got his win.
Phan raised from the button and Neckar pushed all-in from the big blind. Phan made the call and flipped up A
9
to Neckar's J
Q. The board came K
874A to give Phan the win.
The final-table results were:
| Place | Name | Prize |
| 1st | John Phan | $434,789 |
| 2nd | Johnny Neckar | $277,452 |
| 3rd | Matt Vengrin | $167,973 |
| 4th | Alex Bolotin | $137,343 |
| 5th | David Singer | $112,641 |
| 6th | Stewart Newman | $88,927 |
| 7th | Thuyen Doan | $69,165 |
| 8th | George Dunst | $54,344 |
| 9th | Sebastian Segovia | $39,523 |
To read more about the action, visit the Event 29 live updates, or check out Phan's post-game interview.
Event 30
Holland's first WSOP bracelet winner was crowned on Tuesday as Rob Hollink took down the $10,000 World Championship Limit Hold'em event.
Rob Hollink is no longer unlucky in the WSOP.
"I've won probably 14 or 15 events in Europe but I could never find the solution here," Hollink said in his post-game interview.
He estimated that he's played in 80 to 85 WSOP tournaments over the years with not much luck, and he wasn't sure why.
"I just told myself I was unlucky and to finally succeed feels very good," Hollink said. "The longer you wait the better it feels."
To get to his win, Hollink took on a 218-person playing field. When it got down to the final table, he was looking at taking on players like Aaron Katz, J.C. Tran and Andy Bloch, who was still looking for that elusive bracelet for himself.
By making the final table, Bloch became the first to do so in two $10,000 World Championship events this year, plus he increases his record of final tables without a win yet in the WSOP to eight.
It wasn't to be this time either for Bloch, who went out in seventh place. Instead it came down to Hollink versus Jerrod Ankenman.
Ankenman is from Connecticut and has one previous final WSOP final table. He's cashed in previous events, but he made the final table of the $3,000 Limit Hold'em event in 2006 where he also finished in second place.
Ankenman's hand of doom came with him pushing all-in pre-flop with T7 to Hollink's A5. With a flop of A54, Hollink was racing ahead and Ankenman couldn't catch up as the 3 and Q fell on the turn and river.
The final table played out as follows:
| Place | Name | Prize |
| 1st | Rob Hollink | $496,931 |
| 2nd | Jerrod Ankenman | $307,380 |
| 3rd | Tommy Hang | $194,674 |
| 4th | Aaron Katz | $158,813 |
| 5th | J.C. Tran | $128,075 |
| 6th | Brock Parker | $102,460 |
| 7th | Andy Bloch | $81,968 |
| 8th | Cyril Jassinowsky | $66,599 |
| 9th | Christopher Vitch | $51,230 |
Watch the latest video report on the action and the winners from Event 29 and Event 30 here.
Event 31
Only one event played down to a final table on Tuesday, the $2,500 Six-Handed No-Limit Hold'em event. Six players will return to determine a winner today, and they are:
| Name | Chip Count |
| Dario Minieri | $1,721,000 |
| Kevin Song | $1,173,000 |
| Justin Filtz | $891,000 |
| John O'Shea | $589,000 |
| Seth Fischer | $508,000 |
| Stuart Marshak | $183,000 |
Dario Minieri first came to the public's attention during the 2007 World Series when he was leading the field in the Main Event for a while before cashing in 96th place. The Italian Harry Potter lookalike starts play today as the chip leader.
The bubble boy to the final table this time around was Scotty Nguyen. He fell in seventh place in this event, and he's followed by pros who also made the money, such as Bruno Fitoussi, Bill Chen, Shannon Shorr, Max Pescatori, Mark Vos, Kenna James, David "Devilfish" Ulliott and Brandon Cantu.
Play resumes today at 2 p.m. with PokerListings' top-notch reporters bringing you all the latest action in the Event 31 live updates.
Event 32
Another $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em event got its start on Tuesday with 2,304 players putting up the money to play. By the end of the day, the field was whittled down to 166 and they were in the money.
Andrew Garcia leads the way when play begins again today. He has about a $20,000 chip lead over his nearest competitor. Some of the pros who are returning to play today as well are Shawn Buchanan, Phil Hellmuth, Beth Shak and more.
When play resumes today, you can find out what's going on in the Event 32 live updates.
Event 33
Also making its way into a second day of play today is the $10,000 World Championship Seven-Card Stud Hi-Lo Split Eight-or-Better event. It started with 261 players on Tuesday and will return to play with 120 today, and only the top 24 will walk away with some cash.
The chip leader to start the day is Matt Grapenthien, and some of the pros returning to play today include Robert Mizrachi, Steve Sung, Allen Cunningham, Marcel Luske, Marco Traniello, David Benyamine, Annie Duke, Barry Greenstein, Michael Mizrachi, Andy Bloch, Mike Sexton and many more.
Play will resume this afternoon and so will the live updates for the event in the PokerListings Live Tournaments section.
Event 34 and Event 35
Two more events will get started today, the first of which is the $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha w/Rebuys starting at noon.
This was Alan Smurfit's event last year as he topped a field of 293 players to collect his gold bracelet and big money. In 2007, the playing field added 880 rebuys to the prize pool, making it a $464,867 payday for Smurfit.
At 5 p.m. today, the $1,500 Seven-Card Stud event will get started. In 2007, 385 players ponied up the $1,500 to play, and Michael Keiner collected the top-prize money after besting them all.
There's plenty of action to take in as PokerListings brings you all the latest video, photos, interviews, reports and more live from the Rio in Las Vegas. Check it all out in the Live Tournaments section.
Related Articles:
More News
- Juanda triumphs in brutal WSOPE battle
- WSOPE Event 3 goes to Theo Jorgensen
- Farnood win at WSOPE good news for Afghanistan
- Dane sets record with WSOPE Event 1 win
- WSOPE 2008 poised for big names, potential upsets
- Betfair offers Phelps chance for WSOP gold
- World Series of Poker Europe settles on venue
- Scott Montgomery favored at Main Event final?