Poker News and Poker Gossip

The main event is now on hold until November when the final 9 players listed below will battle it out for the remaining $32,633,446 of the prize pool.  So, without further adieu, here is your 2008 WSOP Final Table:

Dennis Phillips - $26,295,000
Ivan Demidov - $24,400,000
Scott Montgomery - $19,690,000
Peter Eastgate - $18,375,000
Ylon Schwartz - $12,525,000
Darus Suharto - $12,520,000
David Rheem - $10,230,000
Craig Marquis - $10,210,000
Kelly Kim - $2,620,000

Here is the current chip leader Dennis Phillips (sponsored by Pokerstars.com):

These players will play out the final table live over a series of episodes by ESPN.

ESPN will air a one-hour special on the final nine players Nov. 4 at 9 p.m. EST. The Main Event coverage will begin on Sept. 2 at 9 p.m. ET on ESPN, with two 1-hour episodes running each Tuesday until the Nov. 11 finale.

David Rheem, one of the final table players has received quite a bit of attention lately.  It appears that he had an outstanding arrest warrant, so it is unclear if he will end up playing the final table.  Hopefully he gets these problems figured out in time for the Nov 11th finale.

Patrik Antonius might just need to turn to his fiance Maya Geller (being reported as Maya Geller-Antonius) for some poker lessons after this WSOP. The soon-to-be-wed couple are both still alive in the main event, but it is Maya that has a significantly larger stack. Maya curently has 135,200 chips, while Patrik is in the lower percentage of the field with just 29,500.

Maya has been playing really well and has eliminated several players while also making some incredible laydowns. Here is a video of the couple recording a VLOG for Patrik by RawVegas.TV:

The payouts for the main event at the 2008 WSOP have finally been announced. Here they are:

Well, he was probably paid to be there at least, but UFC Fighter Forrest Griffin was at Day 1D of the WSOP Main Event today. Griffin, who won his fight on Saturday night, came straight from the hospital to play some poker. Sporting all Full Tilt Poker logos, I suspect they offered him a nice chunk of cash to show his bruised-up face in their gear. Unfortunately for FTP, Griffin got bored pretty fast and started a string of all-in blind moves. On his first one, Griffin made a boat and doubled up, but eventually ran into trouble and was busted out of the tournament.

Here is an interview with Griffin in the player’s lounge:

Ryan Hughes could easily be considered the best Seven Card Stud Hi-Low-8 or Better player in the world.

Hughes managed to beat the field of 543 players in event 47 (the $1500 Seven Card Stud Hi-Low-8 or better) to win $183,368.  But, get this, this is his 2nd bracelet for this game at the 2008 WSOP.  In event 20 (the $2000 Seven Card Stud Hi-Low-8 or better) Hughes outlasted 340 players to win $176,358.

This brings his total winnings from this game to $359,726 plus 2 fancy peices of hardware!

According to the WSOP website, Hughes is the first player in World Series of Poker history to ever win two gold bracelets in Seven-Card Stud High-Low Split.

Born in San Francisco, Hughes started playing poker in 2003 while he was in College at Arizona State University.  Hughes told reporters that his favorite poker game is Omaha High-Low Split, but after his finishes in these events, that might be changing.

There has been quite a bit going on lately, so I figured it would be easier to just do a summary post of all the things.

Jennicide Is Off For Jury Duty
Jennifer Leigh (aka Jennicide) had to leave the WSOP early this year to attend jury duty.

In her blog she recently wrote:
“I have been having a chain of nightmares of being sequestered to a long murder trial, in which I feel sorry for the 11 other jurors that would have to be witness to my bantering and childlike snootiness for the terrible circumstances.

I need to be in Las Vegas during these times! Yet, I am stuck in Delaware! I have to wake up at an unreasonable hour too! Reporting to the courthouse at 8:30 a.m.?!”

Ernest “The Murderer” Scherer Playing WSOP Events
Ok, we made the nickname up, but Gambling911 released an article that Sherer is the main suspect for the murder of his parents.

Hookers Get Rolled
Pauly posted a great story about how some poker players rolled some hookers with tournament chips…

“Benjo told me a hilarious story about how Bellagio hookers were trying to cash tournament chips at the cage.
Apparently, a couple of horny and angle-shooting poker players removed $1,000 denomination tournament chips out of play. They used those chips to pay off hookers, who were not very bright and accepted the chips in return for sexual favors. Of course they did not read the fine print on the chips where it said it’s not legal tender and only a tournament chip.

Horny Poker Players 1, Dumb Hookers 0.”

Joe Hachem Might Be The Next Joe Hachem