Let’s have a look at event #26 through #30 today. But as I’m stupidly stuck with my habits, I would recommend that we jump back to year 1980. At that time the WSOP were dominated by experienced Texan players (Doyle Brunson, Amarillo Slim, etc…).
A young guy called Stu Ungar could not play his favorite game (gin rummy) anymore as a lot of opponents would not take part in tournaments if they knew he was playing. He was also banned from Las Vegas casinos as he counted cards at Black Jack. He therefore decided to give Texas Hold’em a try at the WSOP after only a few months of experience. His IQ of 185 and his natural abilities with cards helped him raise the level of his game during the course of the tournament. He played with a very aggressive style, which was quite uncommon at that time, and eventually reached the final heads-up against Doyle Brunson. Stu Ungar’s legend started after his straight beat Texas Dolly’s top two pairs on that day. He would then defend his title the following year and when he came back to poker in 1997, he won the WSOP main event a third time (only Johnny Moss has a similar record).
Stu Ungar is recognized by many as one of the best poker players of all time and as the best Gin Rummy player who has ever existed.
Now let’s have a look at our 2009 events.
On 12th June, 643 players gathered around the tables for event 26, a $1,500 Limit Hold’em tournament. The competition was quite fierce and by the end of day 1, 80% of the field was eliminated. When players reached the final table Swedish player Tomas Alenius was the short stack. Fortunately he managed to win a few big pots and eventually won the title, a nice little golden thing you put around your wrist and the $197,509 first prize.
Event 27 was a pot limit omaha hi-low competition. The buy-in was $5,000 and there were 198 entrants. The final table saw quite a few pros such as Andy Black, Scott Clements, Antony Lellouche or Roland de Wolfe. The latter managed to make it to the end. He did not only go home with his first bracelet and a nice $246,616 reward but he also became one of the only two players (with Gavin Griffin) to complete Poker’s “Triple Crown”. Prior to this WSOP title, De Wolfe had also won a European Poker Tour (EPT) title and a World Poker Tour (WPT) one.
Contrary to event 27, event 28 saw a big affluence of players. A little over 2,600 players joined in for this $1,500 No Limit Hold’em tournament. After adding up the 148 rebuys and addons, the total prize pool amounted $3,600,870. Mike Eise arrived at the final table as a chip leader but lost alsmost two thirds of his stack in a race (AK vs QQ) situation. He however fought his way back to victory. He received a bracelet (his first one) and the $639,331 first prize.
Event 29 was the No Limit Hold’em Heads up world championship. It obviously attracted many pros, among them we could cite, Brock Parker, Jason Mercier or Johnny Chan. All of them cashed but the best-of-three final match was between John Duthie, the EPT creator, and Leo Wolpert a former professional player. It took Leo Wolpert the whole three matches to win the title as he lost the first of the three matches. Leo Wolpert received his first bracelet and earned $625,682.
On 14th June, 436 players paid $2,500 to enter event 30, an Omaha Tournament. Consistency was rewarded and J.C. Tran who already held a bracelet earned in NLHE last year and who had already cashed three times this year made it to the end this time, personally eliminating five of his eight opponents at the final table. His second bracelet came with the first prize worth $235,685.
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