July 7, 2008 -
When it comes to online poker satellite tournaments, there
is none other more contested than the World Series of Poker
events. If you've been keeping up with the WSOP this year,
you should know that it's been an exciting circuit thus far.
Recently, Event 40, 41 and 44 have proven to be quite
interesting - each of which was host to a "first time"
finish of sorts.
For Event 40, John "The Razor" Pham ended his
losing streak with not one, but two bracelet's (the first WSOP double bracelet
win in 2008). Pham's earlier win was Event 29, for which Pham bagged
approximately $152,000.
Beating out an impressive roster of poker pros,
including Daniel Negreanu, the Brunson's, Mike Caro, Billy Baxter, Andy Block
and David Sklansky, Pham put the nail in the coffin when he finally ousted Shun
Uchida and Gioi Luong. There was a combative final hour of head's up play
between Pham and Luong, ending when Pham fully exploited his 230,000 chip lead
going into the final table.
Event 41 was a first time win for the Florida
amateur, Frank Gary, who ousted the likes of Lou Esposito, Mats Gavatin, Nick
Binger, Jonathan Tamayo, Ricky Sanders and Fabrice Soulier. Finnal tablers
included Jonathan Tamayo, David Sorger, Chris Rentes, Alex Jilali, Michael Chu,
David Machowsky and Gary himself. In a very unpredictable turn of events, Binger
stepped up by eliminating six other players while the chip leader Jonathan
Tamayo held onto a substantial chip lead. Howerer, it was Frank Gary who was
still standing after heads up - earning him $219,508.
Event 44, which turned out to be a big-money
event, was host to another first-time winner - Canadian, Max Greenwood. 879
players entered the $1K No-Limit Hold'em tournament, which ended up procuring
2,500 rebuys and a total prize pool of over $3.2 million. Day one eliminated
just under 90% of the pack, with only 115 hopefuls making it to Day 2, including
Men "The Master" Nguyen, Eric Froehlich, Scott Clements and author of Online
Ace, Scott Freeman.
Going into the final table, it looked like 22-year
old, Jesse Chinni, stood a great chance to become the victor, having nearly a 1
million chip lead over the Danish player, Rene Mauritsen. However, Mauritsen
played tough at the final table to oust Chinni - but not tough enough to diffuse
the aggressive play of Max Greenwood, who eventually took home the
record-breaking first prize for Event 44 - $693,444. Mauritsen took home an
impressive $445,523 for second place.
Originally published:
July,
2008 | Categories:
Online Poker |
Gambling