2008 WSOP Event 21 No-Limit Hold’em

Individual Event Reports

Event 21 -- No-Limit Hold’em Day 1

As we move forward in the tournament schedule, the events become larger and so does the money. This tourney had 731 players who paid $5,000 a piece to sit at these tables. A whopping cash pool of $3,435,700 was made and will be divided up between the top 72 finishers. The new champion will receive $755,856 for three days work. All players will have 10,000 chips up front and the goal will be to survive 10 sixty minutes of play.

And when the money gets this big, the big names come out like Scotty Nguyen, Phil Ivey, Johnny Chan, Joe Hachem, Michael Binger, Chad Brown, Greg Raymer, Huck Seed, William Chen, Vanessa Rousso, Harry Demitriou, John Hennigan, Can Kim Hua, Bill and Kristy Gazes, Jamie Gold and Alan Smurfit.

Player Andy Black took to the unconventional methods of holding down his chips for this tournament. He has the crown of a human skull on top of his cards. Witchcraft maybe? We don't know, but after requests to drink from it, Greg Raymer came to his rescue telling the requestors that he couldn't because he plans to eat from it later on.

By days end, there were 121 that will move on to Day 2 beginning at 2:00 pm. tomorrow.

1. Alex Melnikow 248,800
2. Sam El Sayed 215,800
3. Jared Okun 170,000
4. Thanhdat Tran 164,700
5. Hasan Habib 140,200
6. Keith Tilston 135,400
7. David Seidman 119,800
8. Rajesh Vohra 117,700
9. Mark Radoja 117,700

Event 21 -- No-Limit Hold’em Day 2

Here is the payout schedule for the final table:

1. $755,891
2. $482,372
3. $292,034
4. $238,781
5. $195,834
6. $154,606
7. $120,249
8. $94,481
9. $68,714

1. Scott Seiver -- 2,512,000
2. Rajesh Vohra -- 1,040,000
3. Jacobo Fernandez -- 848,000
4. Dave Seidman -- 653,000
5. Adam Geyer -- 645,000
6. Ben Sprengers -- 441,000
7. Chuck Sklar -- 439,000
8. Scott Freeman -- 423,000
9. Anders Henriksson -- 311,000

Event 21 -- No-Limit Hold’em Final Table

Here are excerpts from the event summary as given by the WSOP:

James Mackey won this event last year. He entered again this year, but did not cash. This brings the current streak to 21 straight non-cashes for defending champions in their respective events. Through the conclusion of Event #21, the professionals versus amateurs WSOP gold bracelet scoreboard currently reads: Professionals (15) and Amateurs (4). Note: Two events have been won by Semi-Pros (2).

The winner was Scott Seiver. He is a 23-year-old professional poker player Seiver collected a whopping $755,891 for first place. He also earned his first WSOP gold bracelet. So far this year, Seiver has three WSOP cashes, including a 1st, 14th, and 22nd. He also cashed three times at last year's World Series, giving him a total of six career in-the-money finishes.

On the last hand of the heads up, Dave Seidman raised 200K and was called by Scott Seiver, with both seeing a flop of 9 7 3 and Dave checked. Scott responded by raising and Dave went all-in with A 7 of which Scott called holding K 9. Turn card was a 5 and river a 3, giving Scott a larger two pair to win the championship.

1. Scott Seiver $755,891
2. Dave Seidman $482,372
3. Benjamin Sprengers $292,034
4. Jacobo Fernandez $238,781
5. Rajesh Vohra $195,834
6. Chuck Sklar $154,606
7. Anders Henriksson $120,249
8. Adam Geyer $94,481
9. Scott Freeman $68,714