2008 WSOP Event 35 Seven Card Stud

Individual Event Reports

Event 35 Seven Card Stud Day 1

A total of 381 players paid $1500 each to get in on tournament number #35. Cash pool size reached $520,065 and will be divided between 40 finalists. The field is about the same size as last year which was 385 when Michael Keiner won this event picking up his first WSOP bracelet. Action began at 5:00 pm with all players having 3000 in chips and blinds starting at 50/100. But Lakers owner Jerry Buss was seen at the tables for this event.

In a poker tournament with top names, not everyone survives. The list of the fallen for Day 1 include John Juanda, David Williams, Michael Binger, Phil Hellmuth Jr., Huck Seed, Andy Bloch, Michael Mizrachi, Hoyt Corkins, Allen Kessler, David Singer, Phil Ivey, David Sklansky, Rolf Slotboom, Humberto Brenes and Paul "Eskimo" Clarke. The tournament director saw the day close at 2:15 am the next day. There will be seventy players remain to move to Day 2. Here are the top 9 with chip counts:

1. Leonardo Ebeling 78,000
2. Greg Pappas 50,000
3. Al Barbieri 44,500
4. Levon Torosyan 38,700
5. Charlie Townsend 38,000
6. Michael Rocco 36,400
7. Chris Tryba 32,900
8. Payam (Paul) Attarchi 31,300
9. Kim Erfle 31,200

Event 35 Seven Card Stud Day 2

Payout schedule for the final table:

1. $135,753
2. $83,210
3. $50,186
4. $37,184
5. $28,083
6. $21,842
7. $16,642
8. $14,041

1. Michael Rocco 255,000
2. Al Barbieri 252,500
3. Jeffrey Siegal 150,000
4. Giacomo Dagostino 123,000
5. Levon Torosyan 114,500
6. Andre Boyer 106,000
7. Max Troy 88,500
8. Danny Kalpakis 55,000

Event 35 Seven Card Stud Final Table

Event notes from the WSOP:

Seven-Card Stud first debuted at the WSOP back in 1973. Puggy Pearson was the very first champion. Artie Cobb is the only player in WSOP history who has won three gold bracelets in Seven-Card Stud. Cobb played in this year's event, but did not cash. Note: Cobb's fourth gold bracelet came in Seven-Card Stud High-Low Split � which more precisely gives him four wins in Stud. Other former Seven-Card Stud winners include two poker legends, Stu Ungar and Chip Reese. Last year's champion Michael Keiner, from Germany, played in this event. But he did not cash. This brings the current streak to 35 straight non-cashes for defending champions in their respective events.

The 2008 $1,500 buy-in Seven-Card Stud champion is Mike Rocco. He is a 48-year-old professional poker player, who by his own admission has been going through some rough times lately. Incredibly, Rocco won his way into this event by winning a $215 single-table satellite. Rocco collected $135,753 for first place. He also earned his first WSOP gold bracelet. Rocco had tears in his eyes in a post-tournament interview when he was asked about his 5-year-old son, Oliver. "He means everything to me," Rocco said. "This (gold bracelet) is for him." "I can't say enough about my friends," Rocco said as he pointed to fellow poker pros Jeffrey Lisandro and Cycndy Violette who watched the entire final table match. "I got more phone calls from my friends in the last two days than the last two months � and I don't even owe them money!" The final table lasted nearly nine hours. The heads-up match went for about three hours.

At the beginning of the heads up match, Michael had 345,000 chips to Al Barbieri shouldering 800,000. The chips began to trade back and forth between the two until Michael hit a set of Queens and his fortune turned. He won the small and large hands to go as high as 930,000 to Al with 230,000 before the final hand. At that point Al told Michael that he had to take him out in the next 15 hands or they would be there a while. Well Al went all-in on third street with a pair of threes and Michael called, but paired his King card on seventh street which was enough to give him the win and title of champion.

1. Michael Rocco $135,753
2. Al Barbieri $83,210
3. Levon Torosyan $50,186
4. Max Troy $37,184
5. Giacomo Dagostino $28,083
6. Danny Kalpakis $21,842
7. Andre Boyer $16,642
8. Jeffrey Siegal $14,041
9. Charles Moore $11,441