News / nono / 23 June 2008 / Leave a comment

29 facts about the WSOP Event 38, $2,000 Pot-Limit Hold'em, which had the longest heads up battle so far this year, that you may not have known.

• The $2,000 buy-in Pot-Limit Hold'em championship (Event #38) attracted 605 entries, creating a prize pool totaling $1,101,100. The top 63 finishers collected prize money.

• Attendance at this year's event increased slightly over 2007. Last year, there were 599 entries for this same event.

• Pot-Limit Hold'em was not introduced as part of the WSOP schedule until 1992. Past winners of WSOP gold bracelets in Pot-Limit Hold'em include - John Bonetti, T.J. Cloutier, Jay Heimowitz, Phil Hellmuth, David "Devilfish" Ulliott, Daniel Negreanu, Layne Flack, Steve Zolotow, Mickey Appleman, and Johnny Chan.

• Oddly enough, no player has ever won two gold bracelets in Pot-Limit Hold'em. It is one of the few games in WSOP history with no multiple winners.

• This is the third of three Pot-Limit Hold'em events on the 2008 WSOP schedule. Previous winners Nenad Medic (Event #1) and David Singer (Event #3) both entered this event, but did not cash.

• The tournament was played over three consecutive days. The final table was played on the ESPN main stage. This was the only final table scheduled on this day.

• Last year's champion Greg Hopkins did not enter this tournament. This brings the current streak to 38 straight non-cashes for defending champions in their respective events.

• The second-place finisher was tournament circuit regular, Chris Bell, from Raleigh, NC.

• The heads-up match between Kitai and Bell was the longest to date at this year's WSOP. It clocked in at nearly five hours and went 186 hands. By contrast, the first seven players were knocked out in a relatively quick 3.5 hour span and included only 101 hands.

• Chris Bell dominated much of the final table play. He knocked out five of the first seven players.

• The Kitai-Bell duel included ten chip-lead changes.

• Kitai was second in chips after Day One of play.

• The final table included players from five different countries. Nations represented included Belgium, Canada, England, Germany, and the United States.

• The third-place finisher was Keith E. Greer, Jr. - from Ft. Worth, TX. He staged quite a huge comeback in this tournament. On the fourth hand of play, after starting out with 4,000 in chips, Greer lost an all-in hand just three minutes after the tournament began. He was left with just 225 in chips and was prepared to make an early exit. Amazingly, Greer not only recovered and regained chips, he made it all the way to the final table. His faith and persistence in the event paid off to the tune of $94,694 in prize money.

• Former WSOP gold bracelet winner Lee Watkinson finished in fifth place. This was is his fourth time to cash at the 2008 World Series. Watkinson also made it all the way to the Main Event final table last year, finishing eighth.

• Former WSOP gold bracelet winner Robert Cheung finished sixth.

• Pakistani-born poker pro Ayaz Mahmood cashed for the 16th time in his career at the WSOP, by taking seventh-place in this event.

• High-stakes cash game player Ben Roberts, from London, England finished in eighth place. Roberts finished sixth in the 1998 WSOP Main Event.

• English actor Michael Greco finished ninth. Greco was a regular cast member on a popular British soap opera called "East Enders" which ran from 1998 through 2002.

• Michael Binger took 11th place. Binger now has 11 cashes since the start of the 2007 WSOP.

• Former WSOP gold bracelet winner Ted Lawson (30th)

• Through Event #38, only two players have made three final table appearances - Jacobo Fernandez and David Benyamine. Sixteen players have made two WSOP final table appearances. This list includes - Chris Bjorin, Andy Bloch, Alex Bolotin, Scott Clements, Chris "Jesus" Ferguson, Barry Greenstein, Fu Wong, Greg Jamison, Mike Matusow, Erick Lindgren, Minh Ly, Daniel Negreanu, David Singer, J.C. Tran, Theo Tran, and Tim West.

• 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.

• Winner Davidi Kitai is officially listed as being from Brussels, Belgium. Through the conclusion of Event #38 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 - Belgium
1 - Denmark
1 - France
1 - Holland
1 - Maryland
1 - Michigan
1 - Pennsylvania
1 - Russia
1 - South Carolina
1 - Wisconsin

• The Event #38 winner Davidi Kitai is to be classified as an amateur, since he plays poker part-time and has a full-time occupation. Accordingly, the "Pro-Am" gold bracelet scoreboard currently reads:
Professionals - 30 wins
Amateurs - 6 wins
Semi-Pros - 2 wins

• Michael Binger was the chip leader at the End of Day One for this event. He cashed. Hence, through Event #38, the End of Day One chip leaders have gone on to cash 75 percent of the time -- 27 of 36 occasions (the chip leader was not applicable on two events). Ten of these same 36 chip leaders (28 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.

• Jan Von Halle was the chip leader at the start of this final table. He ended up as the fourth-place finisher. Through Event #38, sixteen of 36 chip leaders at the start of the final table (44 percent) went on to win the event. Twenty-two of 36 chip leaders (61 percent) went on to finish in the top three spots. Two events did not have a chip leader (Heads-Up and Shootout tournaments).

• 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.

• David Benyamine is now the leader on the 2008 prize money list, having won the most money at the WSOP, to date. His accrued winnings total $941,651.

CORRECTIONS / ADDITIONS:

EVENT #36 - It was previously reported that the second-place finisher in this event -- Cody Slaubaugh, from Rugby, North Dakota -- made his first WSOP cash ever with a second place showing in this tournament. This is incorrect. That should have read FIRST FINAL TABLE ever. Slaubaugh has actually cashed four times at this year's WSOP, and six times in his short poker career.