The $5,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em championship attracted 731 entrants. The total prize pool amounted to $3,435,700, which is a record payout for this event. The top 72 finishers collected prize money.
Attendance for this event increased by 14 percent over last year. In 2007, this same tournament attracted 640 entries.
The tournament was played over three consecutive days. On Day Three, the final table was dealt out on the feature table, located on the ESPN stage. The secondary final table, located adjacent to the main stage area, featured the conclusion of Event #22 ($3,000 buy-in H.O.R.S.E.) in a scheduling overlap. Most days at the WSOP this year will include two final tables.
The winner was Scott Seiver. He is a 23-year-old professional poker player from Las Vegas, NV. Seiver is originally from Columbus, OH.
Seiver collected a whopping $755,891 for first place. He also earned his first WSOP gold bracelet. So far this year, Seiver has three WSOP cashes, including a 1st, 14th, and 22nd. He also cashed three times at last year’s World Series, giving him a total of six career in-the-money finishes.
The second-place finisher was David Seidman, from Chicago, IL.
Jacobo Fernandez made his second final table at this year’s WSOP. He took fourth place in this event and was the runner up in the Pot-Limit Hold’em championship (Event #3). This was his fourth cash this year.
Chuck Sklar busted out in sixth place, his highest WSOP finish to date. Sklar is a Hollywood comedy writer who has worked on the Academy Awards broadcast, the Chris Rock Show, and several other television and film projects.
Anders Henriksson took seventh place. This was his third career WSOP final table. In 2006, Henriksson won a gold bracelet in the $1,500 buy-in event.
Scott Freeman was the ninth-place finisher. He took 19th place in the 2007 WSOP Main Event.
James Mackey won this event last year. He entered again this year, but did not cash. This brings the current streak to 21 straight non-cashes for defending champions in their respective events.
Notable in-the-money finishers included former WSOP gold bracelet winners Humberto Brenes (14th), Kathy Liebert (24th), Hasan Habib (37th) and David Singer (58th).
Humberto Brenes achieved his 50th career WSOP cash with his finish in this event. He becomes only the seventh player in the 39-year history of the WSOP to achieve this milestone. Others include – Phil Hellmuth, Men “the Master” Nguyen, T.J. Cloutier, Berry Johnston, Chris “Jesus” Ferguson, and Erik Seidel.
Through the conclusion of Event #21, the professionals versus amateurs WSOP gold bracelet scoreboard currently reads: Professionals (15) and Amateurs (4). Note: Two events have been won by Semi-Pros (2).
Through the conclusion of Event #21, only one player has cashed five times to date – Nikolay Evdakov, from Moscow, Russia. Evdakov is in serious contention to challenge the record set for “Most WSOP Cashes in a Single Year,” shared by Michael Binger (2007) and Humberto Brenes (2006), with eight in-the-money strikes. Three players have cashed four times – Jacobo Fernandez, Craig Gray, and Roland Isra.
The current Milwaukee’s Best Light “Player of the Year” standings shows Erick Lindgren on top of the points list with one gold bracelet win and three cashes.
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