11 Days in July
However, the fi rst big storyline turned out to be the size of the fi eld. While preliminary events were turning out bigger fi elds than 2007, there was plenty of speculation in the days leading up to the start of the event as to just how many players would plunk down the $10,000 for the big dance. The fi rst of four Day 1s, Day 1A produced a fi eld of only 1,297 players. Day 1B, played on July 4th, was actually smaller with 1,158 players deciding to skip the fi reworks on the Strip for the fi reworks on the felt.
Less than 48 hours before registration was set to close only 2,455 players had registered. To come even close to the 2007 number of 6,358, Days 1C and 1D would need to average nearly 2,000 players each. Harrah’s was banking on a large number of players making their way to Las Vegas for the weekend start days.
Rather than reveal the total number of registered players via the numerous tournament clocks in the room, tournament directors covered up the number, leading to speculation that they may not be overly happy with the turnout. When the Day 1C fi eld was announced at 1,928 players it looked as if the 2007 fi eld size was within reach. Still, Harrah’s went with the unusual step of issuing a press release with a tinge of desperation to it just 19 hours before registration closed:
“Players everywhere still have the chance to come and participate in the world’s largest poker tournament series. Registration for the 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event remains open. But the opportunity of a lifetime for poker players everywhere is about to come to a close. The $10,000 buy-in tournament continues with the play of Day 1D, which has been designated as the fi nal day players will have a chance to play in this year’s Main Event.”
If WSOP management had any concerns about having a fi eld smaller than last year those fears were obliterated by the 2,461 players who registered for Day 1D. The fi nal tally of 6,844 players was the second largest in the history of the WSOP, behind 2006’s 8,773-player fi eld. The total prize pool was announced at $64,333,600, to be divided amongst the top 666 players with fi rst place paying $9,119,517.
Helping to drive that number up was the continued increase of players coming from outside the United States. In 2007 a total of 87 countries were represented but that number jumped this year to 118, a 36% increase. This certainly caught the attention of the man who’s been trying the hardest to increase the global awareness of the brand. WSOP Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack beamed about the accomplishment: “The results this year demonstrate the increasing global appeal of our events and the universal recognition that winning a World Series of Poker gold bracelet is poker’s ultimate achievement.”
Not only did international players register in record numbers, but they also put up strong results. The November Nine includes one Russian, one Dane and two Canadians.
While the number of players from other countries continued to grow one thing that remained steady was the prevalence of talented and determined amateurs looking to become the 2008 version of Chris Moneymaker or Jerry Yang. The chip leaders at the end of each Day 1 weren’t exactly household names. Some had cashes in WSOP or WPT events, but none were names easily recognizable by even the most rabid poker fans.
Mark Garner (Day 1A), Ben Sarnoff (Day 1B), Henning Granstad (Day 1C), and Steve Austin (Day 1D) all found themselves at the top of the leaderboard on their respective days. Only Granstad, who fi nished 553rd, ended up in the money once all was said and done.
Brian Schaedlich, a special education teacher from Ohio, fi nished Day 2A with 801,000 in chips. Calling him the overwhelming chip leader at that point was an understatement considering he had more than double the number of chips of his nearest opponent. That nearly inconceivable lead, combined with the humble nature with which he approached the attention he was receiving, made him a favorite with the mainstream media.
“I love what I do, I love kids. Poker is just something I do for fun. Even if I did win the money, I’d still be there the next day teaching,” said Schaedlich. “I don’t think my kids would really understand Mr. Schaedlich winning $9.1 million and not showing up the next day. I couldn’t do that to them. If I was a little kid and my teacher left me after (saying) he loves what he does and he loves us – I couldn’t walk out on them like that.”
Unfortunately for Schaedlich he barely survived Day 3 and was sent home early on Day 4. But like every amateur player given a chance to chase their dreams, Schaedlich left the Rio content, satisfi ed, and hungry for more. “I had a great time,” Schaedlich said shortly after busting out. “I wish it had turned out better, but the last few days were a blast.”
The big stories in the early days of the Main Event surrounded many amateurs and unknowns. However, the preliminary events leading up to the big dance had a decidedly different theme. Rather than being dominated by home game heroes as was often the case in years past, the biggest poker names were claiming the bracelets. Erick Lindgren, Barry Greenstein, Nenad Medic, Daniel Negreanu, Kenny Tran, and David Singer all won events in the early weeks of the Series. With “The Year of the Pro” in full swing poker’s biggest names hoped to continue the trend with a strong showing in the Main Event.
Three popular pros in particular – Brandon Cantu, Mike “The Mouth” Matusow, and Phil “Poker Brat” Hellmuth – had strong showings and gave everybody a reason to believe they’d be joining the festivities in November. To the surprise of nobody, Hellmuth was the one who made the most noise and it wasn’t just with his play.
Only days after coming close to his 12th bracelet with a 3rd place fi nish in Event #51 ($1,500 H.O.R.S.E.) the Poker Brat went back to work, hoping to put more distance between himself and Doyle Brunson and Johnny Chan on the all-time bracelets list. Feeding off the momentum from his earlier performance, Hellmuth was in control through the early days and managed to navigate himself to an average stack at the end of Day 3.
Looking to top his NASCAR-style entrance from last year, Hellmuth donned a General’s uniform and rode in on an army jeep – all in conjunction with the UltimateBet Army promotion. Escorted by eleven camoufl ageclad models, the entrance was well received. But it was Day 4 where classic Hellmuth fi rst made an appearance. Ending the day with 581,000 chips, nearly 1 million behind the chip leader, Hellmuth was impressed with his own ability to avoid elimination.
“Today was the fi rst day that I faced some adversity,” said Hellmuth. “But I’m still here. I’m still in this. They tried to bust me but it didn’t happen. I fought through it all today.”
And while it was the fi rst time he faced adversity, it certainly wasn’t the last. Halfway through Day 5 Hellmuth was moved to the ESPN feature table where he found his good friend Matusow as a tablemate. Matusow had been at the table the entire day and the short-stacked underdog had a crowd gathered behind him. With the cameras on and the crowd fi xated, Hellmuth was in fi ne form.
Towards the end of the day Hellmuth got into a hand with Romanian poker star Cristian Dragomir. Hellmuth raised pre-fl op and Dragomir called to see a fl op of 10c 9c 7s. Dragomir bet out big and Hellmuth folded As-Kd face up. Thatfs when the gallery, who had been cheering against Hellmuth for the past few hours, asked Dragomir to show the bluff. He turned over 10.4. and the crowd cheered as loud as they had the entire day. The crowdfs eruption preceded Hellmuth's.
“Listen buddy, you’re an idiot. This is the Main Event and you’re the worst player in history.” Following the completion of the hand, the last of the evening, ESPN was quick to interview Hellmuth about it. He managed to drop a number of expletives and voiced his displeasure with the way the table had been treating him. Hellmuth continued to ramble, to nobody in particular, with a verbal tirade obviously directed towards Dragomir. But the best was yet to come.
After hearing a fl oor person’s description of events, fl oor supervisor Steve Frezer deemed that Hellmuth had violated the player conduct rules created by Harrah’s shortly after the 2007 WSOP. Hellmuth was assessed a one orbit penalty for violating Rule #35:
“Any player who directs any profane and/or abusive language at another player, dealer or tournament staff member or who makes any profane and/or abusive comments about another player, dealer or tournament staff member will be penalized in accordance with Rules No. 31 and/or 51. In particular, the use of the so-called “f-bomb” and “c-bomb” as well as derivatives of those and similarly offensive terms, will subject the offending player to penalties if they are directed at or refer to another player, dealer, staff member, patron or offi cial of Harrah’s or the WSOP.”
The penalty would force Hellmuth to sit out an entire orbit to start Day 6 and with only 735,000 chips he’d forfeit nearly 10% of his stack. But the drama just couldn’t end there. Hellmuth got in touch with WSOP Tournament Director Jack Effel and Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack to argue that the penalty was excessive. With little fanfare Harrah’s released the following statement early the next morning:
“This morning Phil Hellmuth met with Jack Effel, WSOP Tournament Director, Howard Greenbaum, Harrah’s Regional Vice President for Specialty Gaming, and Jeffrey Pollack, Commissioner of the WSOP. Based on that meeting and an offi cial review of the situation, it was decided that the penalty imposed on Mr. Hellmuth at the conclusion of play last night was excessive. ‘Warnings and penalties are intended to correct inappropriate behavior and our rulings should be as fair as possible, given the circumstances,’ said Pollack. ‘In this instance, the punishment did not fi t the crime.’ ‘Phil has now been warned and put on notice in a way that he never has been,’ Pollack added.”
Hellmuth sat down the next morning and played the rest of the tournament without incident. But Day 6 would be his last. Hellmuth busted in 45th place after he was unable to win a coin fl ip with A-Q. Despite not making the November Nine, Hellmuth found comfort in having played so well through six days.
“I just couldn’t catch a card when I needed one,” said Hellmuth. “I know I outlasted like 6,000 other players but I played so well. I just deserved better than this.”
Hellmuth’s elimination left Mike Matusow and Brandon Cantu as the only recognizable names. But they weren’t generating anywhere close to the buzz that PokerNews.com reporter Tiffany Michelle was. When Lisa Parsons was eliminated in 76th place it left Michelle as the last woman in the tournament. The question then became just how much longer she would last.
Rather than play it safe and stick around, Michelle went for the kill and had a top-fi ve chip count on Day 6. She was in position to become only the second woman to make the fi nal table of the Main Event, matching Barbara Enright’s feat in 1995. As players were falling to the wayside, Michelle was still in contention. But it wasn’t meant to be and the last female in the fi eld was eliminated in 17th place, good enough for $334,534 in cash.
Michelle’s elimination meant being one step closer to knowing the identity of the November Nine. Play temporarily slowed with eleven players remaining, but losing back-to-back all-ins for Joe Bishop meant the remaining ten players would move to the ESPN feature table to eliminate one more before breaking for 117 days.
It took 44 hands to lose a single player. Dean Hamrick, who had lost a huge pot to Craig Marquis earlier with pocket queens, became the answer to a poker trivia question when his A-J was unable to outrace the pocket queens of Marquis. The pay difference between 10th and 9th was $308,801, not to mention the hundreds of thousands of dollars in endorsement money.
With Hamrick’s elimination the WSOP Main Event was suddenly on pause. The nine players who will return to the Rio on November 9 will soon be household names to all of you.