The Suite Blog >> World Series of Poker Update for Events 40-44

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