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Wednesday, July 2, 2008

2008 WSOP Day 34: Hellmuth gets Schaaf-ted

By Sarah Polson

Phil Hellmuth was in the running for his 12th World Series of Poker bracelet win on Tuesday, but his H.O.R.S.E. game wasn't quite good enough to get him there. Instead it was James Schaaf who picked up a win, as did Ireland's Martin Smyth in the World Championship Pot-Limit Omaha event.

The final $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em event also played down to a final table on Tuesday, and the $1,500 Limit Hold'em Shootout got under way.

The only event on tap to begin today is the Ante Up for Africa charity event. As that tournament unrolls, a final two events will wrap up before the 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event gets started on Thursday.

Event 50

The final $10,000 World Championship event before the Main Event found a winner on Tuesday with a Pot-Limit Omaha event. With 381 players giving it a shot, there was more than $3.5 million in the prize pool for the event.

There were a lot of famous pros hoping for a piece of that money, but it was a lesser-known Irish pro named Martin Smyth who took down the event and its $859,549 top prize.

He defeated a final table that included Kido Pham and Michael Mizrachi, whose brother Robert Mizrachi won this event in 2007.

In the end it came down to Smyth versus Canadian Peter Jetten. On the final hand, the players ended up all-in after seeing a flop of Qc Tc 9h. Jetten revealed Ks Jd 3d 2c for a king-high nut straight. However, Smyth turned up Kc Jc Js Qd to also have a nut straight in addition to an open-ended straight flush draw.

The 7d on the turn didn't help anyone, but then the 6c came on the river and Smyth had the win.

The final table played out as follows:

Place Name Prize
1st Martin Smyth $859,549
2nd Peter Jetten $528,256
3rd Michael Mizrachi $331,279
4th Billy Argyros $268,605
5th Richard Harroch $214,884
6th Kido Pham $170,116
7th Tom Hanlon $134,302
8th Brandon Moran $107,442
9th Greg Hurst $80,581

For more information about how the tournament played out, visit the Event 50 live updates.

Event 51

A bracelet win has so far not been in the cards for Phil Hellmuth in the 2008 WSOP. He managed to get close again in the $1,500 H.O.R.S.E. event, but he hit the rail in third place on Tuesday. Instead it was amateur player James Schaaf who picked up a new bracelet after never having cashed in a WSOP event before.

Schaaf is a 36-year-old software engineer from Torrance, Calif. He plays very few tournaments, and almost didn't make it past the first day of this one.

All the players started out with $3,000 in chips in this event, and at one point, Schaaf was down to just $200. He was all-in a few times to get his stack to around $500, which he hovered at for several hands before going all-in again with J-T-8 in a Razz round.

Normally that would be a terrible starting hand in a lowball game like Razz, but it worked out for Schaaf and he tripled up and made it through the day.

In the end it came down to Schaaf versus Tommy Hang. The final hand came during a round of Stud Eight-or-Better.

Schaaf raised with 6h and Hang called with Jc. On fourth street, Hang bet his 2h, and Schaaf called with 8c. Schaaf took the lead on fifth street, betting out with his 9h, and Hang called with the 7h. When sixth street came along, Schaaf bet his 8h, Hang raised all-in with 7s, and Schaaf made the call.

Hang had trip sevens for a powerful heads-up hand, but Schaaf's run of good cards continued and he turned up an eight in the hole for trip eights.

The final table played out as follows:

Place Name Prize
1st James Schaaf $256,412
2nd Tommy Hang $158,933
3rd Phil Hellmuth $93,168
4th Esther Rossi $68,505
5th Jason Dollinger $54,804
6th Sam Silverman $42,966
7th Victor Ramdin $32,992
8th Matt Grapenthien $27,511

Some of the other pros who cashed in this event include Joe Hachem, Chad Brown, Allen Cunningham, Alex Jacob, John Juanda, Michael Binger, Mike Matusow and Svetlana Gromenkova.

Nikolay Evdakov also cashed once again to further break the record for most WSOP cashes in a single year. The previous record was eight cashes, and with this latest cash, Evdakov has now cashed in 10 events in 2008.

Evdakov could still increase that record by cashing in the Main Event or in the upcoming World Series of Poker Europe events taking place in London in September.

For more information about the $1,500 H.O.R.S.E. event, visit the Event 51 live updates.

Event 52

The seventh and final $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em event of the 2008 WSOP will come to a conclusion today as the top nine players return to play.

Poker fans may recognize a name or two on the list of players at the final table. They are:

Name Chip Count
Corwin Cole 1,668,000
Matt Matros 1,472,000
Jeff Courtney 1,443,000
David Daneshgar 1,178,000
Voitto Rintala 553,000
Dan Heimiller 544,000
Andrey Zaichenko 521,000
Scott Sitron 504,000
Farzad Rouhani 212,000

Some of the pros who made the money but fell short of the final table include Mimi Tran, Vanessa Rousso and more.

The final table will resume play at 2 p.m. today with live coverage provided by our crack tournament reporting team.

Event 53

It's going to be a long day of play for those in the $1,500 Limit Hold'em Shootout that began on Tuesday. The event is scheduled for two days' play, but 823 players showed up to play on Tuesday, and 72 will return to play again down to a winner today.

Leading the way into the second day of play is Dave Orvis with $88,000 in chips, but he is closely followed by Danny Wong with $83,000 and Jonathan Tamayo with $80,000. Also among the living are Hoyt Corkins, Kenna James, Jimmy Fricke and Rhett Butler.

The players, all of whom are at least in the money after Day 1, will return to play again at 2 p.m. today. Stay tuned to PokerListings for all the live updates, videos, photos, reports and more from the 2008 WSOP.

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