Friday, June 27, 2008

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2008 WSOP Day 29: German ingenuity

By Sarah Polson

A 21-year-old student and aspiring professional poker player took down the $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo Split Eight-or-Better event on Thursday to become the third German national to win a 2008 World Series of Poker event.

Along with the final table for the Omaha event, Event 44 played down to a final table, the H.O.R.S.E. World Championship played its second of five days and two more events got started.

Event 43

Before the final table began on Thursday, Erik Seidel commented that he thought Martin Klaser was one of the players to watch. While he probably would have preferred to have won the event, Seidel can take consolation from knowing that he's a pretty good judge of poker talent.

Klaser, from Rheinbach, Germany, came out on top of the 720-person field after three days of play in the $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo Split Eight-or-Better event to win a gold bracelet and take home more than $216,000.

Seidel ended up going out in fourth place while Klaser battled through Michael Fetter and finally took out Casey Kastle for the win.

On the final hand, Klaser bet the pot pre-flop and Kastle called. The flop came 9 9 J, and Kastle moved all-in for his last $120,000.

Klaser called, showing A 3 Q Q for an overpair, and Kastle had J T 3 2 for a pair and a straight draw. A queen fell on the turn to give Klaser the full house and leave Kastle drawing dead.

Place	Name	Prize
1st	Martin Klaser	$216,249
2nd	Casey Kastle	$137,985
3rd	Michael Fetter	$83,538
4th	Erik Seidel	$68,304
5th	Jon Maren	$56,019
6th	Chad Burum	$44,226
7th	Joseph Haddad	$34,398
8th	Larry Wright	$27,027
9th	Tom Chambers	$19,656

Read what Klaser had to say after his win in his post-game interview, or head to the Event 43 live updates to read about how the entire event played out.

Event 44

There will be one event playing down to a winner today, and that's the $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em w/Rebuys event.

Jesse Chinni is leading the way with more than $2 million in chips. His nearest competitor is Rene Mouritsen with just over $1 million in chips.

Alex Bolotin may be a player to watch as well. He's at a considerable chip disadvantage with only $308,000, but this will be his third final table at the 2008 WSOP.

The players returning to play today are:

Name	Chip Count
Jesse Chinni	$2,160,000
Rene Mouritsen	$1,007,000
Albert Iversen	$921,000
Max Greenwood	$728,000
Scott Freeman	$675,000
Phung Ngo	$556,000
Alex Bolotin	$308,000
Curt Kohlberg	$209,000
Dzianisau Aliaksandr	$186,000

Play will resume at 2 p.m. today and not stop until a winner is found. PokerListings also won't stop bringing poker fans the best live updates from the event until it's done.

Event 45

The $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. World Championship made a little more progress in its second day. After Day 1, 140 players of the 148 who started had survived to see Day 2, and now they'll begin play today with 67.

Freddy Deeb was among the fallen, ending his bid to become a two-time H.O.R.S.E. champion. David Singer also won't be returning to play today to try to make the final table for a third year in a row.

Lyle Berman will start the day as the chip leader, though he only has a little more than $20,000 than his nearest competitor, Patrick Bueno. Rounding out the top 10 are Barry Greenstein, Minh Ly, Chris Reslock, Joseph Michael, Erick Lindgren, Justin Bonomo, Daniel Negreanu and Doyle Brunson.

Perhaps after play ends today the list will finally be short enough to start naming all the big pros who are still in the event. In the meantime, poker fans will just have to check out the Event 45 live updates if they want to find their favorite pro and see how he or she is doing.

Event 46

Who's ready for some Day 2 action? I am!

The $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em Six-Handed event got under way on Thursday with 805 poker players ready to play. By the end of the day, however, only 96 were still in.

The money bubble will burst when play reaches 78 today, but they won't stop there as players battle down to the final table.

Jesper Petersen is the best situated when play resumed today. He is sitting as the chip leader with more than $204,000. Other players to keep an eye on include Davidi Kitai, Bertrand Grospellier, Shannon Shorr, Glen Chorny, Nick Binger, J.J. Liu, Chad Batista, Jimmy Fricke and Alan Smurfit.

Play resumes at 2 p.m. today, and all the action can be found in the Event 46 live updates.

Event 47

The second event to get started on Thursday was the $1,500 Seven-Card Stud Hi-Low Eight-or-Better event. With 544 players showing up to play, there is more than $740,000 on the line for participants.

Only 56 of those players will make it into any money, and with 117 players returning to play today it could be a hard-fought battle to get to the money and inevitably the final table at the end of the day.

Among the notable players to watch is Marco Traniello, who has cashed four times at the WSOP already this year. Traniello has been one of the most steady cashers in the World Series for the past several years. In 2005 he cashed in seven events, four more in 2006, three in 2007 plus a cash in the World Series of Poker Europe Main Event in 2007 as well.

Chris Bjorin, John Phan, Eugene Katchalov, David Sklansky, David Singer, Phil Hellmuth, Tony G, David Plastik, Barbara Enright, Cyndy Violette and Chip Jett are just a handful of the pros also returning to play today.

They will head back to the tables at 3 p.m. today as well, with plenty of coverage in the Event 47 live updates.

Event 48

The $2,000 No-Limit Hold'em event will kick off the poker action today at the Rio in Las Vegas when it gets started at noon. It is the only event scheduled to begin today and is expected to draw a hefty playing field.

Las year this event drew in 2,038 entrants and was won by Blair Rodman for a $707,898 top prize.

Stay tuned to the 2008 WSOP Live Updates section for news on this and all the other events at the WSOP, not to mention videos, photos, interviews and more.

Related Articles:

• 2008 WSOP Day 28: H.O.R.S.E.-ing around
• 2008 WSOP Day 28: Taking Lacourse to victory

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