This is fast turning into a good series for the major pro players.   The latest winner being PokerStars pro Daniel Negreanu

WSOP Event 20 - $2000 Limit Holdem - 480 entrants
1 $ 204,874 Daniel Negreanu
2 $ 126,671 Ugur Marangoz  
3 $ 78,624 David Baker  
4 $ 63,335 Richard Li  
5 $ 51,542 Fu Wong  
6 $ 40,622 Jeremy Kottler  
7 $ 31,886 Greg Wohletz  
8 $ 25,334 Derek Lerner  
9 $ 18,782 Hein Tran  
10 $ 12,230 Daniel Makowsky  
11 $ 12,230 Babak Razi  
12 $ 12,230 Henning Granstad  
13 $ 10,046 Tommy Hang  
14 $ 10,046 Noelle Quevido  
15 $ 10,046 Ylon Schwartz  
16 $ 7,862 Douglas Rosen  
17 $ 7,862 Tom McCormick  
18 $ 7,862 Christine Smith

Excluding the ladies only event, this was the first bracelet for a female player in this year’s WSOP

WSOP Event 19 - $1500 PLO - 759 entrants
1 $ 227,965 Vanessa Selbst  
2 $ 145,459 Jamie Pickering  
3 $ 88,062 Stanley Statkiewicz Jr  
4 $ 72,004 Thom Schultz  
5 $ 59,053 Eugene Todd  
6 $ 46,621 Craig Natte  
7 $ 36,261 Mel Randolph  
8 $ 28,490 Jamie Robbins  
9 $ 20,720 Ken Lairson  
10 $ 12,950 Anthony Phillips  
11 $ 12,950 Calen McNeil  
12 $ 12,950 Chris Bjorin  
13 $ 10,360 Kyle Hegeman  
14 $ 10,360 Greg Cox  
15 $ 10,360 Rob Hollink
16 $ 7,770 Trai Dang  
17 $ 7,770 Todd Barlow  
18 $ 7,770 Colin York

EPT BARCELONA OPEN, SPAIN - Sept 10-14 2008 - €8,000 + 250

EPT LONDON, ENGLAND - October 1-5, 2008 - £5,200 + 200 

EPT POLISH OPEN, Warsaw - November 15-19, 2008 - 20,000 + 1,000 PLN

EPT PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC - December 9-13, 2008 - €5,000 + €250

EPT DEAUVILLE, FRANCE - TBC - €5,000 + 300

EPT SCANDINAVIAN OPEN, Copenhagen - February 17-21, 2009 -50,000 DKR + 2,250

EPT GERMAN OPEN, Dortmund - March 10 - 14, 2009  - €5,000 + 250

EPT SAN REMO, ITALY - April 18-23, 2009  - €5,000 + 250

EPT GRAND FINAL, Monte Carlo - April 28 - May 3, 2009 - €10,000 + €600

The 200 seat guaranteed WSOP ME Qualifier on PokerStars picked up 8076 entrants by the time registration had closed.  This meant a whopping 226 packages were there to play for.  After a gruelling 9 hours of play tioalberto had the undesired honour of bubbling in 227th to wrap up the tournament.

For the final 2 hours of the tourney many tables were being dominated completely by a big stack raising every hand, because they had others at the table covered, and obviously everyone was reluctant to bust.   Some serious stalling was taking place on all tables as the short-mid stacks were hanging on the best they could to ensure they made it.

Here is an example of a “safe” player (jacob126b38) raising every hand abusing the super-tightness of all other “unsafe” players.  He did this every hand for at least 90 mins.

PokerStars Game #18168239696: Tournament #89000000, $350+$20 Hold’em No Limit - Level XXII (5000/10000) - 2008/06/16 - 00:30:36 (ET)
Table ‘89000000 381′ 9-max Seat #9 is the button
Seat 1: AttackDog (187410 in chips)
Seat 2: baztheman (67598 in chips)
Seat 3: drpainx (89552 in chips)
Seat 4: ~J-Mani~ (32404 in chips)
Seat 5: PePsi4569 (130174 in chips)
Seat 6: jacob126b38 (1029773 in chips)
Seat 7: Leewah (69216 in chips)
Seat 8: EwigerStenz (120428 in chips)
Seat 9: NoKidding (109495 in chips)
AttackDog: posts the ante 1000
baztheman: posts the ante 1000
drpainx: posts the ante 1000
~J-Mani~: posts the ante 1000
PePsi4569: posts the ante 1000
jacob126b38: posts the ante 1000
Leewah: posts the ante 1000
EwigerStenz: posts the ante 1000
NoKidding: posts the ante 1000
AttackDog: posts small blind 5000
baztheman: posts big blind 10000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
drpainx: folds
~J-Mani~: folds
PePsi4569: folds
jacob126b38: raises 250000 to 260000
Leewah: folds
EwigerStenz: folds
NoKidding: folds
AttackDog: folds
baztheman has timed out
baztheman: folds
Uncalled bet (250000) returned to jacob126b38
baztheman is sitting out
baztheman has returned
jacob126b38 collected 34000 from pot
jacob126b38: doesn’t show hand
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 34000 | Rake 0
Seat 1: AttackDog (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 2: baztheman (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 3: drpainx folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 4: ~J-Mani~ folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 5: PePsi4569 folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 6: jacob126b38 collected (34000)
Seat 7: Leewah folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 8: EwigerStenz folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 9: NoKidding (button) folded before Flop (didn’t bet)

Next hand:- 

PokerStars Game #18168292066: Tournament #89000000, $350+$20 Hold’em No Limit - Level XXII (5000/10000) - 2008/06/16 - 00:34:13 (ET)
Table ‘89000000 381′ 9-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: AttackDog (181410 in chips)
Seat 2: baztheman (56598 in chips)
Seat 3: drpainx (88552 in chips)
Seat 4: ~J-Mani~ (31404 in chips)
Seat 5: PePsi4569 (129174 in chips)
Seat 6: jacob126b38 (1052773 in chips)
Seat 7: Leewah (68216 in chips)
Seat 8: EwigerStenz (119428 in chips)
Seat 9: NoKidding (108495 in chips)
AttackDog: posts the ante 1000
baztheman: posts the ante 1000
drpainx: posts the ante 1000
~J-Mani~: posts the ante 1000
PePsi4569: posts the ante 1000
jacob126b38: posts the ante 1000
Leewah: posts the ante 1000
EwigerStenz: posts the ante 1000
NoKidding: posts the ante 1000
baztheman: posts small blind 5000
drpainx: posts big blind 10000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
~J-Mani~: folds
PePsi4569 has timed out
PePsi4569: folds
PePsi4569 is sitting out
jacob126b38: raises 250000 to 260000
Leewah: folds
EwigerStenz: folds
PePsi4569 has returned
NoKidding: folds
AttackDog: folds
baztheman has timed out
baztheman: folds
baztheman is sitting out
drpainx: folds
Uncalled bet (250000) returned to jacob126b38
baztheman has returned
jacob126b38 collected 34000 from pot
jacob126b38: doesn’t show hand
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 34000 | Rake 0
Seat 1: AttackDog (button) folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 2: baztheman (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 3: drpainx (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 4: ~J-Mani~ folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 5: PePsi4569 folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 6: jacob126b38 collected (34000)
Seat 7: Leewah folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 8: EwigerStenz folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 9: NoKidding folded before Flop (didn’t bet)

PokerStars have got a tasty tournament this Sunday at 16:30 ET.   It is a $370 buy-in, and a whopping 200 WSOP Main Event packages are guaranteed.  That’s a package of a $10,000 entry, and $2500 expenses.   This is an equilvalent guaranteed prizepool of $2.5 Million!

Currently there are 1961 players registered, and PokerStars need a huge 6756 entrants just to cover their guarantee

If $370 is too steep for you, there are plenty of satellites, so be quick to get in on the action as this is only 1 day away

WSOP Event 18 - $5000 NL 2-7 Triple Draw w/rebuys - 85 entrants
1 $ 537,862 Mike Matusow
2 $ 347,004 Jeff Lisandro
3 $ 225,552 Barry Greenstein
4 $ 156,151 Erick Lindgren
5 $ 104,101 Tom Schneider  
6 $ 78,075  Tony ‘G’ Guoga
7 $ 58,990 David Benyamine
8 $ 45,110 Tom Dwan  
9 $ 34,700 Dario Alioto  
10 $ 34,700 David Grey  
11 $ 34,700 Chad Brown
12 $ 26,025 Nick Schulman
13 $ 26,025 Nikolay Evdakov  
14 $ 26,025 Michael Binger

This one always attracts the big names, as really you’d be crazy to enter it without at least 25K sat in your pocket.  Duece-Seven is less popular with the internet generation, making this one full of a large percentage of major names

WSOP 2008 Event 17 - $1500 NLHE Shootout - 1000 entrants
1 $ 335,565 Jason Young  
2 $ 209,527 Mike Schwartz  
3 $ 129,675 John Strzemp III  
4 $ 82,582 Rory Monahan  
5 $ 40,267 Matthew Giannetti  
6 $ 23,887 Kyle Bowker   (double WCOOP winner kwob20)
7 $ 15,697 Sergey Rybachenko  
8 $ 12,421 Thomas West  
9 $ 9,828 Alex Triner  
10 $ 7,507 Casey Coleman  
11 $ 5,596 Travis Roseberry  
12 $ 5,596 John McKinney  
13 $ 5,596 Garrett Beckman  
14 $ 5,596 David Orvis  
15 $ 5,596 John Wagner  
16 $ 5,596 Sarvesh Pershad  
17 $ 5,596 Daniel Smith  
18 $ 5,596 Craig Marquis

WSOP Event 16  - $2000 Omaha Hi-Lo - 553 entrants
1 $ 226,483 Andrew Brown 
2 $ 143,420 Ted Forrest
3 $ 88,065 Jim Pechac  
4 $ 71,961 Soheil Shamseddin  
5 $ 58,877 Kia Hooshmand  
6 $ 46,297 Ralph Perry  
7 $ 36,232 Scott Clements
8 $ 28,684 Allan Enciso  
9 $ 21,135 Jimmy Fricke  
10 $ 13,587 Lee Grove  
11 $ 13,587 Ralph Rudd  
12 $ 13,587 Mallory Smith  
13 $ 11,071 Jose Paz  
14 $ 11,071 Joe Aronesty  
15 $ 11,071 James Richburg  
16 $ 8,554 Michael Sohayegh  
17 $ 8,554 Pat Poels  
18 $ 8,554 Michael Reed

Scott Clements having won an Omaha bracelet in both 2006 and 2007, went close again in this 2008 event, finishing in 7th place

WSOP Event 15 - Ladies $1000 NL Holdem

1 $ 244,702 Svetlana Gromenkova  
2 $ 144,567 Anh Le  
3 $ 87,715 Patty Till  
4 $ 73,637 Christine Priday  
5 $ 60,101 Marla Crumpler  
6 $ 47,106 Debbie Mitchell  
7 $ 36,277 Roslyn Quarto  
8 $ 28,155 Yesenia Garcia  
9 $ 20,034 Sue Porter  
10 $ 12,877 Tina Dubowy  
11 $ 12,877 Marie Hoang  
12 $ 12,877 Courtney Farrell  
13 $ 10,179 Jena Delk  
14 $ 10,179 Van Nguyen  
15 $ 10,179 Christine Fanelli  
16 $ 7,472 Hoa Nguyen  
17 $ 7,472 Dawn Murray  
18 $ 7,472 Mango Martin

The 10K Stud was always going to attract the household names.  Both the buy-in, the smaller field, and game itself, appealing to many longer term veterans of the felt.

Many heavyweights cashed, including well respected Stud player (amonst other games) Phil Ivey, multiple bracelet winner Erik Seidel, the infamous Daniel Negreanu, and heavily respected breakthrough player Alex Kravchenko

WSOP Event 14 - $10,000 Seven-Card Stud (158 entrants)

1 $ 415,856 Eric Brooks  
2 $ 259,910 Fu Wong  
3 $ 163,372 Alexander Kostritsyn  
4 $ 118,816 Minh Ly  
5 $ 92,825 Erik Seidel
6 $ 74,260 Jim Paluszek  
7 $ 59,408 David Oppenheim
8 $ 48,269 Vassilios Lazarou  
9 $ 37,130 Phil Ivey
10 $ 37,130 Thomas Weideman  
11 $ 33,417 Daniel Negreanu
12 $ 33,417 Jacobo Fernandez  
13 $ 29,704 Alex Kravchenko  
14 $ 29,704 Robert Mizrachi
15 $ 25,991 David Levi  
16 $ 25,991 Michael Fiorito