WSOPE Wrap – Up

Posted by Craig on October 3, 2008

Well its over, four bracelets have been handed out and now its time to look back and see who had good events. Most of the big named professional players showed up and a lot of them had good showings in the four events. Personally I made some predictions before it started and not surprisingly went zero for four, but I kind of expected that. The World Series of Poker Europe has become a big event, one of the biggest in the world. The main event in Europe is definitely one of the major tournaments in the poker world. All the players love the structures, the tournaments allow for a lot of play and allow the best players a real chance to show off there skills.

Event #1 No Limit Holdem
The first event was a 1500 buy in that drew 410 players to London. The prize pool was 615 000 and Jesper Hougaard beat F. Serhan heads up to take home the first bracelet. This was Hougaard’s second bracelet, he also won the 1500 No Limit Holdem in Vegas this year. Two bracelets in one year, is a huge feat and Jesper has shown that he is a great No Limit Holdem player. Although there were not a lot of big names at the final table, a lot big named pros were in this event and a few of them managed to cash. Andy Bloch finished in 15th , Daniel Negreanu 24th and Brandon Cantu 27th. Hougaard took home over 140 000 for his win and the coveted bracelet. Negreanu would use his early success in this event to get confidence and ride it to the main event later in the week.

Event #2 HORSE
HORSE events are the hardest tournaments to win in the world. You need to be good at all the games and be able to switch between them and make money at all of all. HORSE as it always does brings out the biggest names in poker and they all want to say the won the HORSE tournament in London. There were 110 entries into the tournament, but you can be assured that all 110 felt they had a chance to win. Sherkhan Farnood out lasted the field to win his first World Series of Poker bracelet. The final table was full of poker super stars who just came up short Howard Lederer finished 3rd, Phil Ivey 6th and Jeffery Lisandro in 7th. Other pros who had deep runs in this tournament, but failed to make the final table were Phil Hellmuth and David Williams. I love HORSE tournaments, it truly shows who is playing the best. The best players are always there and give themselves a chance to win the tournament. You might not win the most money in these tournaments, but you will get a lot of respect.

Event #3 Pot limit Omaha
Omaha is a good game, and this is one of the biggest and best Omaha tournaments in the world. A 5000 buy in and 165 players made this a tough tournament to do well at. Theo Jorgensen won his first bracelet and took home more then 215 000. Theo outlasted big names players like Max Pescatori 5th, Chris “Jesus” Ferguson 7th and Allen Cunningham 16th. Jorgensen proved that he is a good Omaha player by out playing a fantastic field and he will look to gain momentum from this win and get more big titles in his career. Omaha is a huge game in Europe and is becoming very popular across the pond, probably the second biggest game in the world next to Holdem.

Event #4 No Limit Holdem Main Event
A 10 000 buy in and 363 players, this event would turn out to be a grueling and extremely difficult tournament to win. This was the big prize everyone wants this bracelet and from the very beginning of the tournament it looked like a big name would be there in the end. As it turns out there was a big name who took the bracelet and that was John Juanda. The final table was an exhausting 19 hours of play, that featured good players and big names alike. The big story was that Ivan Demidov, part of the November Nine, made his second main event final table in one year. That is a feat that will be hard to match, he and his countryman Stanislav Alekhin looked to have control of the tournament the whole way through and finished in 2nd and 3rd respectfully. Daniel Negreanu had another good showing finishing in 5th just ahead of Scott Fischman in 6th. Negreanu was the fan favorite, but could never really get it going at the final table. There were more recognizable names who challenged like, Brian Townsend 15th, Brandon Adams 17th, Mike Matusow 18th and Erik Seidel 19th. Its obvious that you were going to need to be at the top of your game to win this tournament, and that is what John Juanda did. Juanda is one of the best players in world, and he won his first bracelet since 2003 and fourth overall.

I am sure this event is considered a success, the players showed up and seemed to truly enjoy the tournaments. Four bracelets were given outs to Jesper Hougaard, Sherkhan Farnood , Theo Jorgensen and John Juanda. Daniel Negreanu and Andy Bloch had good events with two solid cashes each and I am sure when they look back at this event they will be happy. The tournaments just ended and I am already looking forward to next year, these tournaments are great. The structures allow for a lot of play and you get to see the big players truly show off there skills. Maybe next year they will even add more events, maybe a Seven Card Stud or RAZZ tournament. Its not Las Vegas, but the tournaments are still extremely good, and as time go’s on they will have a history of there own. The events were great and I hope you watch them when they come out on television.