Poker's 39th installment of the World Series of Poker is nearly in the books. With 54 of the 55 bracelet events decided, the Series has, so far, awarded more than $116 million in prize money to the 50,943 players who have taken a shot at a bracelet. The main event, which is still under way as we go to press, will add an additional $64 million to the already staggering prize pool, generated from the 6,844 players who took part in the $10,000 event. In this issue, we bring you results and recaps from events No. 34 through 53.
Jerry Yang is a family man, a philanthropist, a poker player, and a world champion. While he is all of those things, if you were to ask him which of his many roles in life is the most important, he would answer that of a family man. Many people in the poker world agreed that when Yang won the World Series of Poker main event last year, it couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.
Since 1973, Benny Binion and sons Jack and Ted had run the tournament with Eric Drache as their principal lieutenant. In '79, they established the Poker Hall of Fame, essentially a row of plaques hung along a wall of the Horseshoe -- a Wall of Fame, then, in the cathedral of tournament poker. Four of the charter members were fairly obvious choices: Johnny Moss, Nick Dandalos, Felton McCorquodale, and Wild Bill Hickok.
Phil Galfond, revered in the online poker community as "OMGClayAiken," can be found in the highest-stakes cash games that run online. The 23-year-old professional only recently made his first trip to Las Vegas because of the ease with which he makes a living on his laptop from his home in Madison, Wisconsin. Galfond routinely weathered six-figure swings before he was old enough to buy a beer, and his trip to Vegas was worthwhile, as he won a World Series of Poker bracelet in the $5,000 pot-limit Omaha rebuy event, good for more than $800,000.
At only 27 years old, Gavin Griffin already holds one of the most impressive collections of poker's most prestigious titles: World Series of Poker, European Poker Tour, and World Poker Tour championships. Now, Card Player is giving its readers a chance to send questions directly to the poker prodigy.
In the year of the Olympics, the
World Series of Poker
did a fair job of representing its version of worldwide unity through the number of international players who cashed, made final tables, and won
WSOP
bracelets. Not counting the main event, players from 57 different countries made splashes in this year's events, including players from Peru, Monaco, Guatemala, and Bolivia, just to name a few of the more obscure ones.
At the end of 53 World Series of Poker events, we have a winner of the Card Player World Series of Poker Player of the Year title. Despite a multiple bracelet summer by John Phan and Erick Lindgren's bracelet win and third-place finish in the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event, a player relatively unknown to casual fans, Jacobo Fernandez, walked away with the honor of being the most consistent player of the long, hot, busy summer.
Every year, I look forward to the most prestigious, most meaningful, and most important tournament of the year: the World Series of Poker. Here in Vegas, at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino, it's that time of the year! The Amazon Room at the Rio is filled with poker tables, roughly 200 of them in nice even rows, and four other rooms also are dedicated to the WSOP this year. Trust me, they need the space, because the fields in 2008 have been immense.
After I was out of the tournaments in Italy, I had a bit of free time on my hands. I wasn't going to be able to play in the European Poker Tour finals, as I had to get back to Vegas to film a Poker After Dark episode. Many poker players were still hanging around, since it wouldn't make sense to go all the way home, only to have to return to Monte Carlo in less than a week for the tournament. (Monte Carlo is only about a two-hour drive from San Remo.) Hence, I had plenty of company during my last few days in Europe.
By the time you read this, the final table for the World Series of Poker main event will be set in stone, and the promotion of the nine remaining players will have taken off. I believe that most players, including myself, have gotten used to the thought of the gigantic cliff-hanger that the final table of the world's largest poker tournament represents.
