2007 World Series of Poker

The 2007 WSOP Championship Bracelet

The 2007 World Series of Poker (WSOP) began on June 1, 2007. The $10,000 (US) no-limit Texas hold 'em Main Event began on July 6 and was completed on the morning of July 18. All events were held at the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada by Harrah's Entertainment, which has run the annual event since its purchase from the Binion family in 2004.

For the first time players began each event with double the amount of chips as the buy-in. This means that players in the Main Event started with 20,000 chips. The blind structure has also been increased and some blind levels removed but slowed to allow for more play.

In addition to the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event, which was first played at the 2006 World Series of Poker, this year there were two additional H.O.R.S.E. events with lower buyins ($2,500 and $5,000).

Tom Schneider, who won two events and made one other final table, won the Player of the Year Award. Michael Binger and Chad Brown led all other players with eight money finishes.

The annual celebrity event was changed this year, as it became a pro and celeb event called "Ante Up for Africa", hosted by actor Don Cheadle and poker pro Annie Duke. The final two players, Dan Shak and Brandon Moran, agreed to share first place and donate all prize money to charities in Darfur.

The last woman standing of the 2007 Main Event was Maria Ho who finished in 38th place.

Also this year, KEM Plastic Playing Cards were once again used for the events, rather than Copag brand plastic playing cards, which were used during the 2005 and 2006 WSOP.

Event schedule

Event
Number		 Event Winner Prize Runner-up Results
1 $5,000 World Championship Mixed Hold'em Steve Billirakis $536,287 Greg Mueller Results
2 $500 Casino Employees No Limit Hold'em Frederick Narciso $104,701 Charles Fisher Results
3 $1,500 No Limit Hold'em Ciaran O'Leary $727,012 Paul Evans Results
4 $1,500 Pot Limit Hold'em Mike Spegal $252,290 Gavin Smith Results
5 $2,500 Omaha/Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo 8 or Better Tom Schneider $214,347 Ed Tonnellier Results
6 $1,500 Limit Hold'em Gary Styczynski $280,715 Varouzhan Gumroyan Results
7 $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha w/Rebuys Burt Boutin $868,745 Erik Cajelais Results
8 $1,000 No Limit Hold'em w/Rebuys Michael Chu $585,744 Tommy Vu Results
9 $1,500 Omaha Hi/Lo Split 8 or Better Alex Kravchenko $228,446 Bryan Devonshire Results
10 $2,000 No Limit Hold'em Will Durkee $566,916 Todd Terry Results
11 $5,000 World Championship Seven Card Stud Chris Reslock $258,453 Phil Ivey Results
12 $1,500 No Limit Hold'em Short Handed Jason Warner $481,698 David Zeitlin Results
13 $5,000 World Championship Pot Limit Hold'em Allen Cunningham $487,287 Jeffrey Lisandro Results
14 $1,500 Seven Card Stud Michael Keiner $146,987 Nesbitt Coburn Results
15 $1,500 No Limit Hold'em Phil Hellmuth $637,254 Andy Philachack Results
16 $2,500 H.O.R.S.E. James Richburg $239,503 Walter Browne Results
17 $1,000 World Championship Ladies No Limit Hold'em Sally Boyer $262,077 Anne Heft Results
18 $5,000 World Championship Limit Hold'em Saro Getzoyan $333,379 Geoff Sanford Results
19 $2,500 No Limit Hold'em Francois Safieddine $521,785 John Phan Results
20 $2,000 Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo 8 or Better Ryan Hughes $176,358 Min Lee Results
21 $1,500 No Limit Hold'em Shootout Don Baruch $264,107 Jared Davis Results
22 $5,000 No Limit Hold'em James Mackey $730,740 Stuart Fox Results
23 $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha Scott Clements $194,206 Eric Lynch Results
24 $3,000 World Championship Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo Split 8 or Better Eli Elezra $198,984 Scotty Nguyen Results
25 $2,000 No Limit Hold'em Ben Ponzio $599,467 David Hewitt Results
26 $5,000 H.O.R.S.E. Ralph Schwartz $275,683 Bill Gazes Results
27 $1,500 No Limit Hold'em David Stucke $603,069 Young Cho Results
28 $3,000 No Limit Hold'em Shankar Pillai $527,829 Beth Shak Results
29 $1,500 Seven Card Razz Katja Thater $132,653 Larry St. Jean Results
30 $2,500 No Limit Hold'em Short Handed Hoyt Corkins $515,065 Terrence Chan Results
31 $5,000 World Championship Heads Up No Limit Hold'em Dan Schreiber $425,594 Mark Muchnik Results
32 $2,000 Seven Card Stud Jeffrey Lisandro $118,426 Nick Frangos Results
33 $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha w/Rebuys Alan Smurfit $464,867 Qushqar Morad Results
34 $3,000 Limit Hold'em Alexander Borteh $225,483 Brandon Wong Results
35 $1,500 No Limit Hold'em Ryan Young $615,955 Dustin Dirksen Results
36 $5,000 World Championship Omaha Hi/Lo Split 8 or Better John Guth $363,216 Robert Stevanovski Results
37 $2,000 Pot Limit Hold'em Greg Hopkins $269,274 Jason Newburger Results
38 $1,500 No Limit Hold'em Robert Cheung $673,628 Richard Murnick Results
39 $50,000 World Championship H.O.R.S.E. Freddy Deeb $2,276,832 Bruno Fitoussi Results
40 $1,500 Mixed Hold'em Fred Goldberg $204,935 Rene Mouritsen Results
41 $1,000 World Championship Seniors No Limit Hold'em Ernest Bennett $348,423 Tony Korfman Results
42 $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha Hi/Lo Split 8 or Better Lukasz Dumanski $227,454 David Bach Results
43 $2,000 Limit Hold'em Saif Ahmad $217,329 William Jensen Results
44 $2,000 Omaha Hi/Lo Split Frankie O'Dell $240,057 Thang Luu Results
45 $5,000 No Limit Hold'em Short Handed Bill Edler $904,672 Alex Bolotin Results
46 $1,000 Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo 8 or Better Tom Schneider $147,713 Hoyt Verner Results
47 $2,000 No Limit Hold'em Blair Rodman $707,898 Amato Galasso Results
48 $1,000 Limit 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball w/Rebuys Rafi Amit $227,005 Lenny Martin Results
49 $1,500 No Limit Hold'em Chandrasekhar Billavara $722,914 Taylor Douglas Results
50 $10,000 World Championship Pot Limit Omaha Robert Mizrachi $768,889 Rene Mouritsen Results
51 $1,000 S.H.O.E. Dao Bac $157,975 Adam Geyer Results
52 $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em w/Rebuys Michael Graves $742,121 Theo Tran Results
53 $1,500 Limit Hold'em Shootout Ram Vaswani $217,438 Andy Ward Results
54 $5,000 World Championship 2-7 Draw Lowball w/Rebuys Erik Seidel $538,835 Chad Brown Results
55 $10,000 World Championship No Limit Hold'em Main Event Jerry Yang $8,250,000 Tuan Lam Results

2007 records

Main Event

The $10,000 No Limit Hold'em Main Event began on July 6 with the first of four separate starting days. 6,358 players entered, 2,415 fewer than in 2006. This is the first time since 1992 that the Main Event experienced a reduction in participants. As the total number of registrants for the 2007 WSOP set a record at 54,288 with a total prize pool of $159,796,918 ($59,784,954 for the Main Event),[2] the decrease in the number of participants in the Main Event has been attributed to a recent law that limits Internet gambling.[3] As a result of this law, Harrah's did not allow online poker websites to directly purchase Main Event seats and offer them as prizes, if the sites conducted business with US citizens.[4] Online entries to the Main Event that were won as prizes on Internet poker sites were a substantial contributor to the dramatic growth the Main Event saw in the 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006.[3][5] The reduced field also meant a nearly one-third reduction in the Main Event's grand prize, from the record $12 million (US) in 2006 to $8.25 million.

A different, flatter, payout structure was introduced in 2007 further reducing the prize money awarded to the final table finishers. Players who busted early in the money received a larger share than they would have in 2006. The lowest payouts in 2007 were $20,320 (just over double the buyin), as compared to $14,597 in 2006. Every player who made the final table in 2006 won over 1.5 million dollars.

A minor controversy arose during the main event. The colors of the chips made it very difficult to differentiate between the chip values. Pokernews.com posted the following note on its live reporting log, "It has literally been impossible for us to count these players' stacks due to the positioning of the cameras and the incredibly similar colors of the various chip denominations."[6] Pokernews also reported that the chip color has affected play, "Because of the similarly-colored chips it took the dealer some time to count down Kluber's stack, and not long after Rahme began thinking about his response Kluber called the clock on him."[6] Other players have complained that they can't count their opponents stacks and fear asking for a chip count as speaking may reveal the strength of their hand.

Final Table
Place Name Prize
1st Jerry Yang $8,250,000
2nd Tuan Lam $4,840,981
3rd Raymond Rahme $3,048,025
4th Alex Kravchenko $1,852,721
5th Jon Kalmar $1,255,069
6th Hevad Khan $956,243
7th Lee Childs $705,229
8th Lee Watkinson $585,699
9th Philip Hilm $525,934

Other notable high finishes

NB: This list is restricted to top 30 finishers with an existing Wikipedia entry.

Place Name Prize
11th Scotty Nguyen $476,926
16th Kenny Tran $381,302
23rd Bill Edler $333,490
25th Daniel Alaei $333,490
26th Roy Winston $333,490

Performance of past World Champions

Name Year Event Champion Eliminated
(day)		 In the Money Place Prize
Thomas "Amarillo Slim" Preston 1972 1
Doyle Brunson 1976 and 1977 1
Bobby Baldwin 1978 2
Tom McEvoy 1983 2
Berry Johnston 1986 4 113th $58,570
Johnny Chan 1987 and 1988 1
Phil Hellmuth 1989 1
Brad Daugherty 1991 1
Jim Bechtel 1993 2
Dan Harrington 1995 2
Huck Seed 1996 5 73rd $130,288
Scotty Nguyen 1998 6 11th $476,926
Chris Ferguson 2000 3
Carlos Mortensen 2001 4 217th $51,398
Robert Varkonyi 2002 4 177th $51,398
Chris Moneymaker 2003 2
Greg Raymer 2004 1
Joe Hachem 2005 2
Jamie Gold 2006 1

Celebrities in the 2007 Main Event

World Series of Poker Europe

Under the leadership of WSOP commissioner, Jeffrey Pollack, the World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE) is the first expansion of the World Series of Poker. In September 2007, the first WSOP championship events outside of Las Vegas took place in London. It was the first time that WSOP bracelets were awarded outside of Las Vegas.[7] Three tournaments were held, with the main event being a £10,000 buy-in no-limit hold 'em tournament. The main event was won by Norwegian online prodigy Annette Obrestad, who won on the day before her 19th birthday and became the youngest person ever to win a WSOP bracelet.

See also

References

  1. ↑ 2007 World Series of Poker Continues to Smash Records! Accessed 7/14/07
  2. ↑ 2007 World Series of Poker Draws More Than 54,000 Entrants Field is Largest in WSOP History 7/9/07 Accessed 7/10/07
  3. 1 2 WSOP entrants down as play begins in Las Vegas 7/7/07. Accessed 7/9/07
  4. ↑ 2007 World Series of Poker Tournament Rules
  5. ↑ Top prize at World Series of Poker will be about $8.25 million July 9, 2007 Accessed 7/9/07.
  6. 1 2 The Trouble With Chip Colors at the 2007 WSOP Main Event
  7. ↑ Harrah's Set to Launch World Series of Poker Europe Feb 27, 2007. Gaming Business Accessed 7/25/07
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