Sunday, Sept. 9, 2007

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Historic records set by WSOPE events

Doyle Brunson plays in Event 2 of the World Series of Poker Europe.

By Sarah Polson

Live tournament play is bigger and better than ever with the arrival of the World Series of Poker Europe in London. The inaugural event, presented by Betfair, will pay out the largest prize pools for live H.O.R.S.E. and Pot-Limit Omaha tournaments in European poker history.

"We are pleased that we are establishing new records for live tournament play in Europe," said Jeffrey Pollack, World Series of Poker commissioner.

"Out of the gate, WSOP Europe has attracted many of the world's greatest players - all competing to win the first WSOP bracelets ever awarded outside the United States."

With 105 entrants from all over the world including some of the game's biggest names, the first event of the series, £2,500 H.O.R.S.E., saw a total prize pool of £262,500 paying out to the top 16 players.

To give you an idea of the caliber of the playing field, among the 105 players there was a total of 98 WSOP bracelets. Doyle Brunson brought his power of 10 bracelets to the event, and Phil Hellmuth was there with his 11.

The final table of the event had nine bracelets among the eight players. Jennifer Harman, two-time bracelet winner, started the final table as the chip leader.

She was joined by one-time bracelet winner Kirk Morrison, five-time bracelet winner Chris Ferguson, 2007 Main Event final-table finisher and bracelet winner Alex Kravchenko, Thomas Bihl, Yuval Bronshtein, Joe Beevers and Gary Jones.

Harman was almost able to take her chip lead all the way to a first-place finish and third bracelet, but it was Bihl who claimed the first bracelet of the WSOPE and the £70,875 top prize.

On Saturday, the second event of the European Series got underway as well with more than 160 players anteing up the £5,000 buy-in for Pot-Limit Omaha. Brunson gave the honorary "Shuffle Up and Deal" announcement before joining the star-studded field.

Some of the names standing out in the field include Roland De Wolfe, David "Devilfish" Ulliott, Andy Bloch, Marco Traniello, Nenad Medic, Tony G, Jamie Gold, Barry Greenstein, Phil Hellmuth, Phil Gordon and more.

Many pros survived to see the second and final day, playing today. The field would be weeded out even more, though, as the day wore on at the Casino at the Empire.

The final table came down to Sherkhan Farnood, Istvan Novak, Dario Alioto, Antoine Arnault, Andy Block, Tony G, David Callaghan, Sampo Lopponen and M.H. Razaghi battling it out for the second record-breaking £900,000 prize pool of the series.

Watch the pros vie for Europe's second World Series bracelet in the PokerListings.com Live Tournaments Section. We'll be providing the best live updates, reports, interviews and photos from the event.

The Main Event, £10,000 No-Limit Texas Hold'em, begins Monday with the playing field split between three casinos in London. With a 750-player capacity, the event could bring in a prize pool of roughly £7.5 million.

PokerListings.com will be there for all six days of the Main Event to continue to bring you the best coverage of everything poker. Keep checking in to find out how your favorite pros are doing and who will walk away with the coveted Main Event bracelet.

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