WSOP Update: ***Spoiler Alert***

A lot of us have casually been watching the World Series of Poker on ESPN and have been waiting (somewhat) for the final nine players to decide who is this years champion.

After the long delayed final table started this past weekend for television purposes they played to the final two players last night.

Peter Eastgate: 79,500,000
Ivan Demidov: 57,725,000

It should be noted that Demidov made it to the final table of this year's WSOPE (Europe) as well, finishing in 3rd place.

Eastgate


Demidov


The rest of the "November 9" finished in this order:

1st: -- $9,152,416
2nd: -- $5,809,595
3rd: Dennis Phillips -- $4,517,773
4th: Ylon Schwartz -- $3,774,974
5th: Scott Montgomery -- $3,096,768
6th: Darus Suharto -- $2,418,562
7th: Chino Rheem -- $1,772,650
8th: Kelly Kim -- $1,288,217
9th: Craig Marquis -- $900,670

Scotty, Baby

Congratulations to Scotty Nguyen, who took down the $50k HORSE Championship early this morning. For those that don't know, many (most?) see this World Series of Poker event as the real world poker championship.

Scotty is now the first player to have won the main event and the HORSE championship. He actually gives a good word to the wise in this interview about young players that need to learn how to win with class and I'm in complete agreement. "Act like you've been there before."

I ran into Scotty when I was in Vegas earlier this month and he is definitely a class act who is friendly to everyone he passes. Congrats.

Barry Greenstein update from the $50k HORSE event

This is pretty damn boring as BG discusses the players at his table, his chip stack and how boring he is at blogging.

World Series of Poker Rail Girls

Wickedchopspoker.com has posted some pictures of some of the girls that have been railing their friends, boyfriends, husbands, whoever at the World Series of Poker.

Here's the link to the full album and a few of the highlights:

$5k PLO Rebuys Final Table - Wow

Today's final table in the $5k PLO rebuys tournament is just...ill. At 2+2 a poster suggest that it's the best ever but I have to disagree and go with the 2006 $50k HORSE event that featured Doyle, Ivey, Reese, Antonius, Tomko, Cloutier and others.

Seat 1: John Juanda 694,000
Seat 2: Phil Hellmuth 119,000
Seat 3: David Benyamine 1,041,000
Seat 4: Kirill Gerasimov 558,000
Seat 5: Phil Galfond 1,393,000
Seat 6: Daniel Negreanu 460,000
Seat 7: Brian Rast 1,176,000
Seat 8: Adam Hourani 300,000
Seat 9: Johnny Chan 624,000

Obviously Hellmuth will bust first and from there it's going to be good. I'm rooting for Juanda or Negreanu to take it down.

In other events, Kenny Tran won the head's up tournament bracelet and Barry Greenstein took down the Razz event to continue this year's incredible run of big name pro's winning tournaments.

Congratulations to the Mouth

Yesterday Mike "The Mouth" Matusow captured his third bracelet in the $5,000 no-limit deuce-to-seven draw lowball tournament against a tough final table. He took down $537,862 in prize money and we all know he needs it.

2008 WSOP Highlights

Here are some WSOP highlights from pokerlistings (events 15, 16, and 17). Note how sick the final table in the $5k 2-7 Draw is:

Erick Lindgren 1100000
Mike Matusow 540000
Jeffrey Lisandro 510000
Barry Greenstein 440000
Tony 'G' Guoga 440000
David Benyamine 350000
Tom Schneider (2007 WSOP player of the year) 195000

2008 WSOP Kicks Off

If you're a poker player aspiring to set your name in poker history, there's no better place to do it than the 2008 World Series of Poker. The month long series of tournaments kicks off today with a $10,000 Pot Limit Hold Em' Championship event.

The complete schedule can be found here, including the 2008 Main Event which will begin July 3rd and culminate in a delayed final table that will be played sometime in October.

Almost every single big name player will be in Vegas for the month of June not only for the chance at millions in tournament prizes but as well as the juicy cash games that the whole WSOP atmosphere generates.

CrookedStraight's own Killa Kev is making the trek out to Vegas in search of glory. Or just a story or two to blog about. So we wish him and everyone else the best of luck at the tables.

Oh yea, in case you didn't know, many online poker sites will also be holding a "mini wsop" with identical events only 1/100th of the actual WSOP entry fee. So regular $1,500 events will be $15. $10,000 Championship events will be $100 tournaments, as well as a H.O.R.S.E. $500 event mirroring the WSOP $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event.