News / nono / 23 June 2008 / Leave a comment

26 facts about the WSOP Event 36, $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em, including corrections and additions, that you may not have known.

• The $1,500 buy-in No-Limit Hold'em championship (Event #36) attracted 2,447 entries, creating a prize pool totaling $3,340,155. The top 198 finishers collected prize money.

• This is the fourth of seven $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em tournaments on the 2008 WSOP schedule. This game and buy-in level has consistently proven to be the most popular draw on the schedule in recent years, aside from the Main Event.

• An alternative lower buy-in No-Limit Hold'em tournament (less than $10,000) has been included as part of the WSOP schedule every year since 1973. Over the years, these buy-in amounts have ranged from $1,000 up to $5,000. However, more $1,500 buy-in No-Limit Hold'em tournaments have now taken place at the WSOP over the past 39-years than any other event.

• The tournament was played over three consecutive days. The Omaha High-Low Split World Championship also concluded on this day, which was played at the secondary final table nearby.

• The curse continues. Last year's champion for the event, Ryan Young played in this tournament. But he did not cash. This brings the current streak to 36 straight non-cashes for defending champions in their respective events.

• Denmark becomes the seventh nation to produce a gold bracelet winner at this year's WSOP. This list now includes Canada, Denmark, Germany, Holland, Italy, Russia, and the United States.

• Hougaard becomes only the second WSOP gold bracelet winner in history from Denmark. The other is Jan Sorensen, with two wins.

• The second-place finisher was Cody Slaubaugh, from Rugby, North Dakota. He is a 23-year-old student who was making his first WSOP cash ever.

• The final table lasted eight hours. The heads-up match went for about 90 minutes.

• Aaron Kanter finished in third place. He is perhaps best known for finishing fourth in the 2005 WSOP Main Event.

• John Shipley from Solihull, England finished ninth in this tournament. He was the seventh-place finisher in the 2002 WSOP Main Event.

• Duncan "Pumper" Bell, who won the $2,500 No-Limit Hold'em championship (Event #13) took 20th place in this event.

• Praz Banzi, from the UK, and winner of a WSOP gold bracelet in 2006, finished 46th.

• Two-time WSOP gold bracelet winner Freddy Deeb finished in 80th place.

• Former WSOP gold bracelet winner "Syracuse Chirs" Tsiprailidis cashed in 163rd place.

• Former WSOP gold bracelet winner Michael "Little Man" Sica finished in 178th place.

• Nikolay Evdakov, from Moscow, Russia is the only player at this year's WSOP who has cashed seven times - just one off the all-time record mark. Evdakov is positioned to break the record set for "Most WSOP Cashes in a Single Year," shared by five players -- Michael Binger (2007), Chad Brown (2007), Phil Hellmuth (2006), Richard Tatalovich (2006), and Humberto Brenes (2006), with eight.

• The Milwaukee's Best Light "Player of the Year" standings currently shows Jacobo Fernandez as the leader. Here are the top five ranked players:
1. Jacobo Fernandez - 222 points
2. Barry Greenstein - 185 points
3. Erick Lindgren - 185 points
4. Daniel Negreanu - 170 points
5. Vanessa Selbst - 163 points

• Through Event #36, only one player has made three final table appearances - Jacobo Fernandez. Fifteen players have made two WSOP final table appearances, to date. This list includes - Chris Bjorin, Andy Bloch, David Benyamine, Alex Bolotin, Scott Clements, Chris "Jesus" Ferguson, Barry Greenstein, Fu Wong, Erick Lindgren, Minh Ly, Daniel Negreanu, David Singer, J.C. Tran, Theo Tran, and Tim West.

• Through the conclusion of Event #36 at this year's World Series of Poker, the gold bracelet count by nations and states reads as follows:
10 - Nevada
6 - California
4 - New York
2 - Canada
2 - Germany
2 - Italy
2 - Missouri
1 - Denmark
1 - Holland
1 - Maryland
1 - Michigan
1 - Pennsylvania
1 - Russia
1 - South Carolina
1 - Wisconsin

• The Event #36 winner Jesper Hougaard is to be classified as a professional, since he has been playing for a living for two years and has a number of cashes in major poker tournaments. Accordingly, the "Pro-Am" gold bracelet scoreboard currently reads:
Professionals - 29 wins
Amateurs - 5 wins
Semi-Pros - 2 wins

• Owen Crowe was the chip leader at the End of Day One for this event. He cashed and even went so far as the final table (eighth place). Hence, through Event #36, the End of Day One chip leaders have gone on to cash 76 percent of the time -- 26 of 34 occasions (the chip leader was not applicable on two events). Ten of these same 34 chip leaders (29 percent) made it to the final table. Only one chip leader went on to win the event. That lone wire-to-wire winner was Vanessa Selbst in Event #19.

• Jesper Hougaard was the chip leader at the start of this final table. He ended up as the winner. Through Event #36, fifteen of 34 chip leaders at the start of the final table (44 percent) went on to win the event. Twenty-one of 34 chip leaders (62 percent) went on to finish in the top three spots. Two events did not have a chip leader (Heads-Up and Shootout tournaments).

• Another bit of trivia is the player with the most cashes, but no wins in WSOP history. Tony Cousineau now has 35 in-the-money finishes in his WSOP career, which began in 1999. However, he has yet to win a gold bracelet. His highest finish was 4th place back in 2001.

• It should be noted that the Milwaukee's Best Light "Player of the Year" rankings will now include points accrued from the $50,000 buy-in H.O.R.S.E. championship.

CORRECTIONS / ADDITIONS:

SABYL COHEN-LANDRUM -- All tournament records should be corrected to reflect that Sabyl Cohen-Landrum has previously been listed as Sabyl Cohen, before her marriage. She has also been listed as "Suzan Cohen" and Sabyl Landrum" in various poker archives. She prefers this to be changed at all sites and records to: SABYL COHEN-LANDRUM.

EVENT #5 - The 60th Place finisher was WILLIAM JORDAN, which was mistakenly listed by some sites as WILLIAM SOFFIN (incorrect).

EVENT #25 - The 76th Place finisher was JAMES JORDAN SULLIVAN, from PORTAGE, IN

MOST WSOP CASHES WITHIN A SINGLE YEAR - The current record is eight - shared by five players, not four as was previously reported. RICHARD TATALOVICH posted eight cashes in 2006. One of these cashes for Event #43 (2006), Tatalovich's 43rd-place finish, was omitted from records.

MOST WSOP FINAL TABLES WITH NO WINS - This was previously reported to be Andy Bloch, with nine final table appearances, but no gold bracelets (to date). This information is incorrect. TOM MCCORMICK (a.k.a. "The Shamrock Kid") hold this record with 11 final table appearances, but no wins.