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Well, we are about to hit the presses for our August issue, and we are a little over halfway through the World Series of Poker. We had anticipated a great World Series and we haven’t been disappointed. Records have been broken and big names are flourishing at final tables. We will bring you up to speed on everything that has happened so far, and we’ll continue to bring you the best updates in town on worldseriesofpoker.com
Our cover says it all: Phil Hellmuth wasted no time in making poker history at this year’s World Series. In the $2,000 NL Hold’em event, he broke his own record for all-time World Series of Poker cashes. Hellmuth held a lot of chips going into Day 2, but was bit pretty hard by a player known as Spiderman, ending Phil’s first quest for eleven bracelets. Hellmuth went back to work the next day at the $1,500 NL Hold’em event, and this time he would not be stopped. Phil not only made the final table, he dominated it.
He earned over $600,000 as well as his eleventh gold bracelet. You’d better believe Phil celebrated with his favorite Dom Perignon on his record-shattering night. Oh, and in case you were wondering if he took some time off to celebrate after his historic evening – well, he didn’t. He got right back to it and had a chance at number twelve less than ten days later with yet another final table; this one tying TJ Cloutier’s record for most World Series of Poker final tables.
Fast Facts: Men “The Master” Nguyen is second in all-time cashes, with 55.
PHIL HELLMUTH SO FAR
No-Limit Hold’em (Event 28) Buy-In: $3,000 Date: 6/17/2007
Finished: 6th
Earnings: $76,464
No-Limit Hold’em (Event 15) Buy-In: $1,500 Date: 6/9/2007
Finished: 1st
Earnings: $637,254
No-Limit Hold’em (Event 10) Buy-In: $2,000 Date: 6/6/2007
Finished: 104th
Earnings: $3,901
The Spirit of Youth
This year, our June cover highlighted some of the most talented youth in the game today. One of our young guns, Jeff Madsen, made some history of his own last year by becoming the youngest player ever to win a World Series bracelet, and then became the youngest to win two! Well, young Madsen, one of your records is history already. See what happens when you get old? Online phenom Steve “MrSmokey1” Billirakis came out to his first World Series ready to go and broke Jeff’s record in the first open event of the year, at the age of twenty-one years and ten days. He won his first World Series bracelet along with over $500,000 in the $5,000 mixed Hold’em event. His success hasn’t stopped there, as he already has four World Series cashes this year – more than anyone (including Phil Hellmuth)! You not only need to be an excellent player to break this record, but you have to have impeccable birthday timing, too! Good luck next year, all you twenty year-olds!
Fast Fact: Jeff Madsen, at 21 years and 6 weeks, is the youngest player to have won two World Series of Poker bracelets.
STEVE “MRSMOKEY1” BILLIRAKIS CACHES
No-Limit Hold’em / Six Handed (Event 30) Buy-In: $2,500 Date: 6/18/2007
Finished: 16th
Earnings: $15,390
World Championship Pot Limit Hold’em (Event 13) Buy-In: $5,000 Date: 6/8/2007
Finished: 29th
Earnings: $14,030
No-Limit Hold’em w/Re-Buys (Event 8) Buy-In: $1,000 Date: 6/5/2007
Finished: 45th
Earnings: $11,905
World Championship Mixed Hold’em Limit/No-Limit (Event 1) Buy-In: $5,000 Date: 6/1/2007
Finished: 1st
Earnings: $536,287
Three-peat
Allen Cunningham must love the World Series of Poker. Since his first World Series cash in 1998, Allen has won over $6 million, along with 5 bracelets! That’s not a bad ten years! The last three have been especially sweet, as he has won a bracelet each year. Two years ago, Allen won the $1,500 NL Hold’em event; last year he won the $1,000 NL Hold’em with Rebuys and finished 4th in the Main Event. This year, he came back yet again, and won the $5,000 PL Hold’em event. At this pace Allen Cunningham will be getting close to double digits with his quest for World Series bracelets.
Fast Fact: Allen seems to excel at Pot Limit games. Since 2005, he has three final tables and one bracelet in World Series Pot Limit events.
Allen Cunningham
No-Limit Hold’em (Event 22) Buy-In: $5,000 Date: 6/13/2007
Finished: 54th
Earnings: $12,653
World Championship Pot Limit Hold’em (Event 13) Buy-In: $5,000 Date: 6/8/2007
Finished: 1st
Earnings: $487,287
The Ice Man Cometh Close
Last year Phil Ivey came very close to winning his sixth World Series of Poker bracelet. He finished 2nd to Sammy Farha in the $5,000 Omaha Hi- Low Split, and finished 3rd in the inaugural $50,000 HORSE event. We figured Phil would be hot for gold this year with all of the non-Hold’em events, and we weren’t wrong. Phil has been seen playing well into the night at this year’s World Series and came close again – twice! Phil bested 178 players in the $5,000 7-card Stud event, before losing to Chris Reslock. About one week later, he again proved a master at the mixed games by finishing 4th in the $5,000 HORSE event. With a couple of small changes in history, we could be talking about Phil Ivey now owning nine World Series bracelets. The month is still young, though, and we have both the big time HORSE event and the Main Event to come. If we were into gambling here at Bluff, we would definitely put some money on Phil trying on one of the newly designed CORUM bracelets in the coming weeks.
Fast Fact: Although Phil has won five World Series bracelets, none of them are for Hold’em.
Phil Ivey So Far
H.O.R.S.E. (Event 26) Buy-In: $5,000 Date: 6/15/2007
Finished: 4th
Earnings: $65,424
World Championship Seven Card Stud (Event 11) Buy-In: $5,000 Date: 6/6/2007
Finished: 2nd
Earnings: $143,820
Multi Tabling
Well, not exactly. However, a number of folks have already made multiple final tables! Phil Hellmuth, John Phan, Michael Gracz, Tom Schneider, Marco Traniello, Eric Lynch, and Travis Rice have all accomplished that tough feat this year. We love to say we told you so, because Bluff was on the money this year with our predictions in the June issue.
We just knew John Phan, Eric Lynch, and Travis Rice would have a great World Series, and we are proud that they have proven us right. We at Bluff call it the Bluff Anti-Curse, which we will reveal more about in our September issue. We look forward to seeing who else can get back to a final table this year and guess it will most likely be the faces you have seen within our pages and on our covers!
Fast Fact: At last year’s World Series of Poker, there were two multiple bracelet winners. Jeff Madsen won two bracelets and made four final tables, and Bill Chen won two bracelets as well.
Not the only game in town
This year, on top of the World Series of Poker, there has been a complete explosion of poker in Las Vegas during the summer months. Binion’s, The Venetian, and Bellagio all have run summer tournament series. While the Binion’s and Venetian events are focusing on tournaments for players with a smaller bankroll, the Bellagio has been offering up some pretty decent-sized tournaments, which will be capped off with a $10,000 WPT event. David Williams is the big winner so far, capturing the $5,000 event that featured Roland De Wolfe, Ted Lawson, and John Gale. Also spotted at a final table? Travis Rice in the $2,500 NL Hold’em event.
Fast Fact: The June 8th event at The Venetian featured 372 entrants, with a prize pool of over $350,000. The winner, Brent Roberts, took home $111,282 for his efforts.
A Scrum at The Bellagio
We are used to hearing about big games at the Bellagio, and the World Series tends to draw even more attention to them. It’s rumored that Brian “SBRugby” Townsend squared off against some of the game’s best for three days, playing a $1,000/$2,000 NL Hold’em, PL Omaha rotation. Two of those days were spent playing fan favorite Sammy Farha and the third playing David Benyamine and Johnny Chan. How did things turn out? Well, the story goes that SBRugby booked a win of over $2.1 million. Not too shabby for a young guy who was playing as low as $.25/.50 NL Hold’em last January.
Fast Fact: Both of Sammy’s World Series of Poker bracelets are in Omaha events; however he is most well known for finishing second to Chris Moneymaker in the 2003 Main Event.
Ok, so we know that is a lot to digest. The best part? We still have all the big money events to come! Be sure to scope out our September issue for complete results of this year’s World Series of Poker. If you can’t wait ‘til then, you’d better head to worldseriesofpoker.com to get all the latest!
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