Friday, Dec. 19, 2008

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Year in Review: Pro victories mark 2008 WSOP

Medic alert! Nenad registers a WSOP win.

By Jason Kirk

This is the sixth in a 12-part series taking a month-by-month look at what happened with poker in 2008. The series will publish every other day until the end of the year, covering the major happenings from all corners of the poker industry.

Poker had a big year in 2007 as it bounced back from the ugliness of the UIGEA, setting the stage for an even bigger year in 2008. With December now drawing to a close, it's time to take a look back at June's poker happenings, with a focus on the World Series of Poker.

Live Tournaments

The month of June was dominated by the 39th annual WSOP, and after several years of big finishes by amateurs, the pros reasserted themselves at this Series.

Medic wins first bracelet

Andy Bloch came into the $10,000 Pot-Limit Hold'em World Championship with the chip lead, but in the end it was Canadian poker superstar Nenad Medic who walked away with his first WSOP bracelet.

Medic squared off with Bloch in a heads-up match, holding a 2-1 chip lead that he never relinquished despite Bloch's best efforts.

"It meant a lot to have that lead; just in case I lost the first hand, I'd still be alive. And I happened to pick up a lot of hands heads-up, but things went my way today," Medic said in his interview.

The $10,000 buy-in PLHE event was the first of eight World Championship events on the schedule for the 2008 WSOP, marking the first time the tournament series has hosted so many high-buy-in events in a single year.

Another record

Event 2, $1,500 NLHE, ended up drawing an astounding 3,929 players. The record-breaking field - nearly 1,000 players more than the previous record - was so large that Day 1 was split into two.

American Grant Hinkle defeated Englishman James Akenhead in heads-up play - and left Chris Ferguson short of another bracelet in third place - in order to claim the $831,279 top prize.

(Hinkle's brother, Blair, would claim gold as well in Event 23, making the two the first pair of siblings to win bracelets in the same year.)

Full Tilt represents

Two Team Full Tilt members claim their long-awaited first WSOP bracelets and another one picked up his third this year.

David Singer had come close on several occasions, but the seventh final table was the charm. He won the $1,500 Pot-Limit Hold'em event, mounting a huge comeback to claim the win. To make the win even sweeter, it came on the same day as the birth of his new son.

Erick Lindgren took home his first career WSOP bracelet on the same day as Singer, winning the $5,000 Mixed Hold'em event over a star-studded final table that included Justin Bonomo, Roland De Wolfe, David "Chino" Rheem, Howard Lederer, David Williams and Isaac Haxton.

What's that you say? Three bracelets?!

Fellow Full Tilter Mike Matusow's third bracelet might have come in one of the smallest events of the WSOP, but it also came in a game that few have mastered. Matusow wonthe $5,000 2-7 Draw Lowball with Rebuys event, topping a field of 85 players.

"The Mouth" held off some stiff competition at the final table, including Jeffrey Lisandro, Barry Greenstein, Tom Schneider, Erick Lindgren, Tony G and David Benyamine.

"I mean I'm happy I won this, I beat the toughest field in poker history and I know for sure, I played off the f**king charts; that's all that matters to me," Matusow said in his postmatch interview. "If I would have lost, if I'd've come second, I would have been just as happy because I know how good I played."

Selbst, Negreanu earn bracelets

With nearly half the WSOP schedule in the bag, June 13 saw wins for two more well-known players.

Vanessa Selbst became only the 12th woman in WSOP history to win an open event when she topped the $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha event. Despite multi-tabling between two events, Selbst built a monster stack and never looked back.

On the other side of the Amazon Room, Daniel Negreanu took down the $2,000 Limit Hold'em event to claim his fourth bracelet. Negreanu beat out a field of 480, and claimed that Matusow's win served as his motivation.

In jest, he said he couldn't stand to see Matusow even with him on the bracelet list and "went out tonight and did something about it."

Tran, Greenstein claim gold

Day 18 of the 2008 WSOP saw two more professional players claim bracelets.

The first was Kenny Tran, who topped a field of 256 to claim the $10,000 Heads-Up No-Limit Hold'em World Championship for a $539,056 cash.

What up G? That looks like bracelet No. 3.

Later that night, Barry Greenstein claimed his third WSOP bracelet with a win in the $1,000 Razz event to further bolster his poker reputation. Greenstein said the win wasn't as special as his second bracelet.

"The one that was most important for me was the second one, surprisingly enough, because there was a gentleman, Charlie Tuttle, who was dying of cancer. I told him the day before that I was going to win a bracelet," Greenstein told PokerListings in his interview.

"To be able to say that and go out and do it was very emotional. That was actually the most special one for me. The only thing special about winning this one is I had side bets that I would win a bracelet."

OMG it's a bracelet!

The $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha with Rebuys event featured Daniel Negreanu, Johnny Chan, Phil Hellmuth and David Benyamine, but none of them could claim the win.

That honor went to online nosebleed-stakes cash-game player Phil "OMGClayAiken" Galfond, who topped the star-studded field for a win worth $817,781.

Phan, Hollink come out on top

Day 20 of the 2008 WSOP saw two more professionals claim their first bracelets.

John Phan took the win in the $3,000 No-Limit Hold'em, making up for two runner-up finishes in the two previous World Series. He earned $434,789 for outlasting a field of 716 players.

"I put some sick reads on people and made some sick calls. I made a lot of outrageous calls yesterday and today with all my chips," Phan said in his interview. "It's unbelievable. When you're in the zone and you read the guy - you can't explain it."

While Phan was busy winning his event, Rob Hollink broke his own personal cold streak at the WSOP and gave Holland its first gold bracelet winner by taking down the $10,000 Limit Hold'em World Championship.

Phan would also return to the winners circle on Day 27 in the $2,500 2-7 Triple-Draw Lowball event. His win over a final table that included Robert Mizrachi, David Sklansky and Gioi Luong put him in the running for Player of the Year.

Super Dario wins

Super Dario gets his day.

Day 21 of the WSOP saw Dario Minieri add his name to the list of pros taking down bracelets in 2008. The 23-year-old Italian came into the final table of the $2,500 Six-Handed No-Limit Hold'em event with the chip lead but saw his stack dip in three-handed play before he came back to win the entire thing.

"I am really happy that I had another chance to win a tournament," said the Team PokerStars pro, referring to his near miss at the EPT San Remo. "I still can't believe it. It was one of my dreams to win a bracelet. It is so beautiful."

Belgium in the books

Davidi Kitai gave Belgium its place in the WSOP record books on Day 25, claiming the top prize in the $2,000 Pot-Limit Hold'em event after defeating Chris Bell in a five-hour heads-up match.

"Yes, it's amazing. It's such a small country and not many poker players. It seemed impossible for someone [Belgian] to win," Kitai said in his interview, "but I had a lot of support."

A Nguyen win

The month of June closed out with a big win for Scotty Nguyen, who claimed top honors at the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event.

"You know, the Main Event, I already have it. The H.O.R.S.E. event, that was so important to me," Nguyen said in his interview. "I want to be the only man to ever win the Main Event at the World Series and the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. and a WPT Main Event. And now I'm the only man that's ever done that."

At the time, Nguyen's win was hailed as good for the game, but controversy would erupt later in the year after the episode aired on ESPN showing his inappropriate final-table behavior.

Poker loses John Bonetti.

A Poker Loss

As the month of June drew to a close, the news came in that three-time WSOP bracelet winner John Bonetti had passed away at the age of 80.

Bonetti didn't begin to play poker until he was 55 years old. When he took up the game, though, he showed that he had a knack for being there at the end.

In addition to his bracelet wins, he twice finished in third place at the WSOP Main Event and made a total of 19 WSOP final tables.

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