Poker Articles

One of the highlights of any calendar year for poker players is the World Series of Poker. Held annually at the Rio All-Suites Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, the WSOP serves as the host of over 50 prestigious poker tournaments. For the second time, the WSOP also traveled across “The Pond” to London, England for four more bracelet events. At the end of the day, PocketFivers captured eight bracelets out of the 59 up for grabs in what was ultimately a highly-successful tournament series. Moreover, ESPN’s broadcast ratings of the Las Vegas events were up dramatically in 2008, in part due to viewers learning who will win instead of how someone already won.

Perhaps the highlight for the PocketFives community during the WSOP was the performance of the Hinkle brothers. Grant (drossxyu) and Blair (blur5f6, pictured at right) became only the second pair of brothers ever to win WSOP bracelets. The first, Puggy and J.C. Pearson, accomplished the feat over 20 years apart. Grant took down a $1,500 No Limit Hold’em tournament for $831,000 and Blair tasted victory in a $2,000 No Limit event for $507,000. The duo accounted for $1.3 million of the $25 million total take by PocketFivers on the felts of the WSOP. The total prize pool for the 59 bracelet events was a healthy $190.6 million.

Twelve countries claimed bracelets in Las Vegas and London. Among them was the European nation of Belgium, which grabbed its first bracelet by virtue of Davidi legrouzin Kitai’s win in a $2,000 Pot Limit Hold’em tournament. Belgium’s Gross Domestic Product was ballooned by $244,000 as a result. Other countries that boasted bracelet wins were Afghanistan, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, The Netherlands, Russia, and the United States. The Danes took home four bracelets of their own, the second most of any country. Main Event Champion Peter Eastgate and Theo Jorgensen each took home one. Jesper Hougaard grabbed two bracelets, one in Las Vegas and one in London. Players from the United States earned 40 bracelets.

Grant Hinkle (pictured at left) battled against a field of 3,929 players in Event #2, the largest turnout ever for a non-Main Event tournament. When the $10,000 buy-in Main Event rolled around, 6,844 players checked in, the second largest total ever. Well over 70 PocketFivers cashed in the Main Event and two, Scott r_a_y Montgomery and Darus BejoMas Suharto, reached the final table and became a part of poker’s inaugural “November Nine.” Their worlds were turned upside down for a period of 117 days between the end of play in July and the resumption of the final table in November. Montgomery and Suharto finished fifth and sixth, respectively, for a combined $5.5 million. Eastgate, in a rather subdued fashion, pocketed $9.1 million for first, becoming the youngest WSOP Main Event ever at age 22.

In November, the WSOP moved down the hall, as the final table of the Main Event was held in the spacious Penn and Teller Theater at the Rio. The two-hour telecast aired on November 11th, one week after general elections in the United States. In 2007, the Main Event final table scored a 1.29 rating. This year, that number shot up by 50% to 1.94. The second hour received a 2.08 rating, the highest mark for any WSOP program since 2004. To put those numbers in perspective, the 2003 Main Event final table in which Chris Moneymaker changed the poker world forever garnered a 1.64 rating. Major League Baseball games on ESPN during the regular season averaged a 1.4. In games that aired on ESPN and TNT, the National Basketball Association mustered a 1.3 rating average during its regular season.

The growing international presence at the WSOP was a noticeable trend from 2007 to 2008. Players from 125 countries descended upon the Rio this year, up 44%. Besides Kitai, other non-U.S. bracelet wins by PocketFivers included Alexandre Allingomes Gomes (Brazil) and Sebastian miamivice Ruthenberg (Germany). A total of 59 countries had at least one person cash. All 50 United States and all 10 Canadian provinces had entrants cash in the WSOP, the first time either has occurred. In a press release distributed earlier this year, WSOP Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack commented on the international lure of the tournament series: “The results this year demonstrate the increasing global appeal of our events and the universal recognition that winning a World Series of Poker gold bracelet is the game’s ultimate achievement.”

Just over one-third of the chip leaders entering final table play ultimately took home a gold bracelet. Other PocketFivers who managed to score a coveted piece of hardware included Michael worldsgrtest Banducci (Event #5), Barry barryg1 Greenstein (Event #26), and Matt mattg1983 Graham (Event #53, pictured at right).

That’s a look back at some of the names and numbers that made the 2008 WSOP groundbreaking for PocketFivers everywhere. Happy New Year to every member of the online poker community!

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