WSOP Events 21-25 Recap

Event: 21 Buy in: $1,500 Game: NL Hold'em Shootout

The NL Hold'em Shootout's format is different than that of regular tournaments. Rather than accumulating chips and being moved around accordingly by a tournament director, players are placed in what might best be likened to heats. Players are assigned to a table which plays until it has one player left standing. Then, all of the winners are divied into tables again, and the process repeats itself. The event is essentially a series of single table sit and goes. Even with 900 entrants, the event managed to play down to the final table within one day. The final table featured top pros (and good friends) Erik Lindgren and Daniel Negreanu. Lindgren is revered as one of the top young poker players, but has yet to win a WSOP bracelet. He was unable to get anything going and finished last at the final table. Negreanu, in search of his fourth bracelet, seemed to have everything going. Knocking out 3 of the 8 final table competitors, Negreanu had over 55% of the chips in play when play began 4-handed. He then went on a downward slide exiting in 3rd place as Don Baruch came back to win the gold bracelet.

Event: 22 Buy in: $5,000 Game: NL Hold'em

College dropout James Mackey began his final table push for the title when he knocked out Michael Gracz (9th) with a set of queens. The final table included Tex Barch (8th), Michael Binger (3rd) (I referred to him as a "smart guy" in a previous post), and former Cardplayer Magazine cover boy, Nick "The Takeover" Schulman (6th). Other notable finishers includee Ross Boatman(10th), Phil Laak (11th), and Kathy Liebert (13th).

Event 23: Buy in: $1,500 Event: PL Omaha

Scott Clements has had an impressive WSOP run winning his first bracelet in 2006 and coming in 5th in event 15 this year. Determined to keep his run going, Clements took down the $1,500 PL Omaha event beating 2006 Main event 24th place finisher Eric Lynch heads up. William Durkey, the 24-year-old winner of event 10 had an other impressive showing as he finished in 4th place.

Event: 24 Buy in: $3,000 Game: Seven-card stud hi-low split

Eli Elezra outlasted a field of 236 to win his first WSOP bracelet. The Las Vegas real estate mogul and "Big Game" player beat 1998 Main Event winner Scotty Nguyen (2nd) and Dutch Boyd during 3-handed play. The attitude at the final table was loose to say the least as Eli Elezra stood up during heads up play to inform the onlookers that he was drunk. With Scotty Nguyen sitting alongside, you can be sure there were plenty of drinks passed around. Elezra was interviewed after the victory stating that the 1st place prize money of $198,984 was less than half of what he won from side bets on his winning a bracelet. His biggest side bet was with Barry Greenstein, who gave him 10-1 odds that he would not win, leading to a payoff of a quarter million dollars. Famed poker writer David Sklansky finished 5th in the tournament.

Event: 25 Buy in: $2,000 Game: NL Hold'em

Ben Pozino defeated a field of leading to first place prize of nearly $600,000. Pozino had about a 9-2 chip lead heads up against David Hewitt and never looked back.

-Benjamin Ryan