News / nono / 16 June 2008 / Leave a comment

14 facts about the WSOP Event 23, $2,000 No Limit Hold 'Em, where Nevada residents lead the bracelet with 8/23, that you may not have known.

• Through the conclusion of Event #23 at this year's World Series of Poker, the gold bracelet count by nations and states reads as follows:
8 - Nevada
4 - New York
2 - California
2 - Canada
2--Missouri
1 - Germany
1 - Maryland
1 - Michigan
1 -- Pennsylvania
1 - South Carolina

• Through the conclusion of Event #23 at this year's World Series of Poker, the Professionals versus Amateurs gold bracelet scoreboard reads:
Professionals - 17 wins
Amateurs -- 4 wins
Semi-Pros -- 2 wins

• The $2,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold'em championship attracted 1,344 entries. The total prize pool amounted to $2,446,080. The top 99 finishers collected prize money.

• This is the second of three $2,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold'em tournaments on this year's schedule. Each of the last two years has included three NLHE event with this same buy-in.

• The tournament was played over three consecutive days. On Day Three, the final table action took place on the ESPN main stage.

• The second-place finisher was Mark Brockington, from Edmonton, Alberta (Canada). Amazingly, Brockington started with $100 in his poker bankroll and has never been in the red since then. Brockington, who earned a PhD, has his work cited by Chris "Jesus" Ferguson in his own PhD thesis.

• Dustin Dirksen is a law school graduate who also runs three small businesses. He also plays poker full time. Dirksen was the runner-up in a $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em event last year. He took fifth place this time.

• Two-time WSOP gold bracelet winner Chris Bjorin, from London, England was the sixth-place finisher. This marked the 41st career WSOP cash for Bjorin, placing him 13th on the all-time list. Thor Hansen, who is ranked right behind Bjorin for career in-the-money finishes commented that Bjorin is truly one of the best poker players in the world. He went on to state the Bjorin would have many more cashes if he played in more events.

• The final table included players from Canada, France, England, Holland, Australia, and the United States.

• Two-time WSOP gold bracelet winner Barry Greenstein cashed, finishing in 46th place.

• Players from 12 different nations finished in the money. Countries represented included - Australia, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, England, France, the Faroe Islands, Holland, Italy, Japan, Norway, and the United States.

• Hjalti Jacobson became the first player in history from the Faroe Islands to cash at the WSOP. The Faroe Islands are located in the Norwegian Sea and are an autonomous province of Denmark.

• Ben Ponzio won this event last year. He did not enter the tournament this year. This brings the current streak to 23 straight non-cashes for defending champions in their respective events.

• Through the conclusion of Event #23, 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 four players -- Michael Binger (2007), Chad Brown (2007), Phil Hellmuth, Jr. (2006), and Humberto Brenes (2006), with eight in-the-money strikes.