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2008 World Series of Poker

A summary of 2008 world series of poker.


The World Series of Poker (WSOP) is an event that consists of various poker tournaments. It is one of two most prestigious poker events in the world, the other one being the World Poker Tour. The WSOP is held every year in Las Vegas. Since 2007, it has been composed of 55 events, and all of these except for the Main Event are finished in just over a month.

2008 World Series of Poker

The 2008 World Series of Poker was the 39th WSOP and was held at the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino. This series was started on May 30, 2008. All the events except for the $10,000 World Championship No Limit Hold'em Main Event were through by July 15. As with all WSOP winners since 1976, this year's event winners each received a WSOP bracelet along with the designated prize money. The prizes ranged from $87,929 to $9,119,517.

2008 World Series of Poker events and winners

Poker tournaments of the 2008 WSOP had many participants, with some of the events having thousands of individuals all vying for the prize. The $50,000 World Championship H.O.R.S.E. is particularly interesting, because it's a game that is only entered by those who are already very familiar with various poker variants. Scotty Nguyen managed to win this event, gathering $1,989,120 and beating 147 other entrants in the process, including the runner-up Michael DeMichele. Another poker player who walked away with a huge prize is Joe Commisso, who won $911,855 in the $5,000 No Limit Hold'em Six Handed, successfully beating the 804 other participants in that event. Marty Smyth battled with Peter Jetten in the $10,000 World Championship Pot Limit Omaha event and successfully managed to beat him, earning himself $859,549.  

Phil Galfond participated in the $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha w/Rebuys along with 151 other players, beating them all and managing to win $817,781. The $2,000 No Limit Hold'em had 2,317 participants, but Alexandre Gomes managed to rank first among all of them, getting the cash prize of $770,540 for himself, while Scott Seiver won the $5,000 No Limit Hold'em, beating out 730 other players to get his own prize money of $755,891.

2008 World Series of Poker records

Nikolay Evdakov, who finished in the money for 10 events, set a record for most cashes for a single WSOP. Previously, players have only been able to make eight cashes at a single WSOP. These players are Humberto Brenes, Chad Brown, Michael Binger, and Phil Hellmuth. Evdakov is also the only person who has had the most cashes without ever being included in any final table. Hellmuth, who managed to be part of two final tables, also made a new WSOP career record of having been included in 41 final tables, which is two more than that of previous record holder T. J. Cloutier. Another interesting record set this year was made by Scotty Nguyen, who became the first player to have both a $50,000 H.O.R.S.E World Championship bracelet and a Main Event bracelet.

Some foreigners also did well enough to become the first in their country to win bracelets in WSOP. Alexandre Gomes, a Brazilian, won Event 48. He is the first South American player to have succeeded in winning a WSOP since Carlos Mortensen, an Ecuadorian, became the winner of the 2001 Main Event. Rob Hollink also managed to win a WSOP bracelet during Event 30, becoming the first Dutch to do so. Belgian winner Davidi Kitai, on the other hand, won Event 38, becoming the first in his country to have a WSOP bracelet.

It's also interesting to note that the final table of 2008 WSOP Main Event lasted for 15 hours and 28 minutes, longer than the previous record of just 14 hours and 2 minutes, which happened during the 2005 WSOP.

Highlights of the 2008 World Series of Poker

Aside from the setting of new records, another highlight of the 2008 WSOP is the selection of Erick Lindgren, who participated in three final tables and managed to win one bracelet, as the receiver of the "Player of the Year Award." The 2008 WSOP is also the first to postpone the playing of the Main Event once it was down to just the nine players that made up the final table. The Main Event was resumed on November 9. This change was made because of the request of ESPN to allow it to broadcast the event just shortly after it happened.

The Main Event of the 2008 World Series of Poker

The 2008 WSOP Main Event, which was the $10,000 World Championship No Limit Texas Hold'em, started on July 3, the first out of four starting days. Once the players were down to the final table on July 14, the game was postponed. All the players for the final table were paid the ninth place prize money in July, with the rest of the prize pool handed out accordingly in November. The venue of the game was also changed. Instead of the Amazon Room, which has also been referred to as "the Poker Room," the final table was held in the Penn and Teller Theatre. On November 9, the participants played, with the winner being decided the night after that. It took 274 hands before the final table was finished.

Various celebrities also participated in the main event, with two of them managing to place in the money. Celebrities who joined include José Canseco, Nick Cannon, Larry Flynt, Jason Alexander, Orel Hershiser, Brad May, Sam Simon, Mekhi Phifer, David Wells, Jennifer Tilly, and Forrest Griffin. There was also Paul Azinger, Chuck Liddell, Shannon Elizabeth, Ray Romano, Sully Erna, Andy Griggs, Bruce Buffer, and Shane Warne. The two celebrities who finished in the money were Steve Davis and Kara Scott. Steve Davis got booted out at 389th place, but he still got a prize of $28,950. At 104th place was Kara Scott, who got to take home $41,816.

The final table consisted of nine players, namely Craig Marquis, Kelly Kim, David Rheem, Darus Suharto, Scott Montgomery, Ylon Schwartz, Dennis Phillips, Ivan Demidov, and Peter Eastgate. Ivan Demidov placed second, winning $5,790,024, while Peter Eastgate won the WSOP bracelet for the main event and raked in the $9,152,416 prize money. With his feat, Peter Eastgate also managed to be the youngest Main Event winner, being only 22 at the time he won. The previous youngest Main Event winner was Phil Hellmuth, who was aged 24 back when he won in 1989. Eastgate is also the first European to win the Main Event after Noel Furlong managed to do so in 1999.

Previous Main Event champions at the 2008 World Series of Poker

There were also 20 previous main event champions playing at the Main Event of the 2008 World Series of Poker. These included Jerry Yang, Greg Raymer, Jamie Gold, Carlos Mortensen, Chris Moneymaker, Dan Harrington, Huck Seed, Doyle Brunson, and Scotty Nguyen. Among all of them, only two placed in the money: Phil Hellmuth, who was the Main Event champion during the 1989 WSOP, and Johnny Chan, who was the Main Event champion in 1987 and 1988. Phil Hellmuth got to take home $154,400 because of landing in 45th place, and Johnny Chan got $32,166 for finishing in 329th place.