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2006 World Series of Poker
Events 36 to 40

Event #36 July 24 -- Limit Hold'Em Shootout
Buyin: $1,500.00
524 entrants had their eyes on the first prize of $157,338 from a $715,260 money pool and the gold bracelet with payouts to the top 54 players. In a shootout it is either live or die and there were lots of casualties. Among them were Mimi Tran, Josh Schlein, Barry Greenstein, Mike Matusow, Gavin Smith and Joe Cassidy. But Chris Moneymaker won his table as did Howard Lederer, Eric Froehlich and Mike Caro. They were part of the 54 survivors to move on to Day 2.

Day 2 had the field spread out across 6 tables with 9 players a piece. Action went very fast as play went from 2:30 p.m. to 8:45 p.m. to get down to the final 6. Todd Witteles went to the rail in 12th, Eric Froehlich busted out in 32nd spot, Chris Moneymaker went out in 28th place, Andy Bloch left in 26th place each receiving $7,135 for the effort.

The final table action was fast and furious as Marianno Garcia (6th) was busted by Ralph Porter, Tom Schneider (5th) is sent home by Arnold Spee, Victor Perches eliminates both Ralph Porter in 4th and Anders Henriksson in 3rd. There was nothing left but the heads up for the championship which lasted 2 hours between them. On the last hand here is what took place. Victor raised from the button and Arnold called. The flop came out Ad Jh 9s. Arnold checks, Victor bets and Arnold calls. Turn card is a 6d and Arnold bets $30,000. Victor (Ah 6h) goes all in and Arnold calls (Qh Js). River card is an 8s which helped neither player and Victor's pair of Aces wins the tournament for him!

1. Victoriano Perches -- $157,338
2. Arnold Spee -- $78,679
3. Anders Henriksson -- $50,068
4. Ralph Porter -- $39,339
5. Tom Schneider -- $28,610
6. Marianno Garcia -- $17,882

Event #37 July 25 -- No-Limit Hold'Em
Buyin: $1,500.00
There were 2,803 tournament entrants, a $3,826,095 prize pool with payouts going to the top 272 players. Action began at 12:00 noon for the first round of this tournament. The numbers were huge, reflecting players that wanted to get into something as they were waiting for the Main Event to begin on Friday. There were so many players that the field was split into half with 50% playing while the other 50% were on a break. At one point, tournament officials asked players to play a little tighter because they were falling behind in getting everyone seated. A lot of eliminations took place with names like Kathy Liebert, Gavin Smith, Chris Moneymaker, Men "The Master" Nguyen, Tiffany Williamson, Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi, Jennifer Tilly, Vanessa Rousso and Morgan Machina being listed with the vanquished. 157 remained for round 2.

Among the notables for Day 2's list of eliminations were T.J. Cloutier, Rafe Furst, Phil Laak, Tony Cousineau, Johan Storakers, Richard Grijalva, Mike Nargi and Joe Awada. Even though the lists are lengthy, they give a preview as to who will be available for the Main Event. Play continued until 1:35 a.m. the next day when the 9 for the final table were assembled.

The final table got under way at 2:30 p.m. and the first to go was Peter Dalhuijsen (9th) when he lost to 3 of a kind Jacks produced by Osman Kibar. Jason Strasser's paired Q's were too strong for the pocket 4's of George Christian, so George left in 8th place. James Gorham with 3 A's outdid the paired Jacks held by Jason Strasser ensuring Jason a 7th place finish. Miff Fagerlie went out in 6th courtesy of Mohamad Ilyas. Nick Ronyecz left in 5th through Age Spets, then Age was busted out in 4th by Osman Kibar. And Mohamad Ilyas earned the 3rd position after losing a hand to James Gorham. This left James Gorham and Osman Kibar alone for the heads up which finished in 7 hands and 15 minutes of time. In the final hand, Gorham limps in preflop and Kibar raises $90,000. Flop shows 10s 6h 6s. Kibar then bets $150,000 and is called by Gorham. Turn card is a 7h and Kibar (Kd Kh) goes all in, Gorham (7d 6d) calls. River card was a Qh helping neither player and a full house allows James Gorham to pick up his first gold WSOP bracelet!

1. James Gorham -- $765,226
2. Osman Kibar -- $420,870
3. Mohamad Ilyas -- $228,800
4. Age Spets -- $178,296
5. Nicholas Ronyecz -- $153,044
6. Miff Fagerlie -- $128,174
7. Jason Strasser -- $108,661
8. George Christian -- $89,531
9. Peter Dalhuijsen -- $72,313

Event #38 July 25 -- No-Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball with rebuys
Buyin: $5,000.00
There weren't many players probably because this event is so close to the Main Event start date. 81 entrants did show and made 159 rebuys which helped to create a whopping $1,164,048 prize pool. No-Limit 2-7 Draw lowball is one of those specialized events, for example, the "Royal Flush" hand is made up of 7-5-4-3-2. Flushes and straights are not good to draw for the player. And any Ace drawn is played as a high card only. In Day 1 Todd Brunson was the only one we know of who pulled down the ultimate hand of 7-5-4-3-2. But Doyle Brunson, "Sean" Sheikhan, Erik Seidel, Michael Mizrachi, Rafael Perry and Chris Ferguson who was taken out of the game by David Williams did not do so well as they were among the broken and busted for today. Play ended around 3:10 a.m. the next day with 21 players moving to the next round.

The second day began at 3:00 p.m. First elimination of the day came when Mike Matusow sent Johnny Chan to the sidelines. Johnny was joined by Andrew Black, Michael McKenna, Farzad Bonyadi, Tim Phan, David Grey and Mickey Appleman. Payouts only went to the top 7 due to the low number of entrants. But one player who slowly popped his head out and made the final table was Daniel Alaei who had $176,000 10 min after the final table start. You can see from the results list that he was up against some heavy players at the final table, which included Layne Flack. Eventually the heads up came between Daniel Alaei and David Williams which lasted 3 1/2 hours. Here is how the last hand was played. Williams went all in and was called by Alaei. Alaei showed 8 6 5 3 2. Williams turned over his cards but was drawing dead. The winning hand was pretty uneventful, but it was enough to give Daniel Alaei his first gold bracelet in the World Series of Poker.

1. Daniel Alaei -- $430,698
2. David Williams -- $256,091
3. Phillipe Rouas -- $162,967
4. Men "The Master" Nguyen -- $128,045
5. Greg Raymer -- $93,124
6. Allen Cunningham -- $58,202
7. Eliyahu Levy -- $34,921

Media/Celebrity Event and Satellite Day July 27
No news has been released on this event by the World Series of Poker outside of the finishers at the final table. If any more information becomes available, it will be posted here.

1. David Tuchman
2. Dominic Fugere
3. Matt Kapelas
4. Steven Leventhal
5. Kerry McGregor
6. Dilly Durke
7. Lisa DeVita
8. Lawerence Lazarte
9. Brad Willis

Event #39 -- Main Event
Friday July 28 Buyin: $10,000.00
Note: Because the Main Event will be spread over a number of days, please use the buttons on the left to access daily reports.

Event #40 August 3 -- No-Limit Hold'Em
Buyin: $1,000.00
With 1,100 entries and a $1,001,000 prize pool those not watching the Main Event now realize that all the action is not just there. Payouts went to the top 102 entrants. But the competition was pretty fierce with only 40 players left after the first day of the schedule 2 day event.

When the final table began play, Vijayan Nagarajan was the first to go after the first two hands. Players then went on a dinner break, but when they came back Anh Lu sent Nick Mementi back for dessert in 8th place. Next Mark Petrillo went out in 7th when his all in move with pocket J's was met by Fabrice Soulier's pocket A's and did not win. Soulier also sent John Buttifant out in 6th place. Earl Coggins was eliminated next in 5th after going all-in with 6 8 suited. Fabrice Soulier then went out in 4th after his Qc 7c was overcome with Anh Lu's 9c Kc when Lu caught another K on the river. (A Q came up for Soulier on the flop and things looked good for about 16 seconds.) 3rd place was the result of Baktash Gulzarzada losing a hand with Pramesh Bansi when his all in move with $384,000 failed.

Anh Lu staged an amazing comeback at the final table. Earlier in the day he had been beaten down to only $10,000 in chips. As the day continued he won a 3 way all in, a couple of more all in moves combined with aggresive strategy. When the heads up came he had $250,000 in chips. But Bansi was the aggressor wearing Lu down to where he had to go all in with 8s 3s against Bansi's A x on the final hand. Bansi received an Ace on the river to seal away a gold bracelet just for him.

1. Pramesh Bansi -- $230,209
2. Anh Lu -- $120,120
3. Baktash Gulzarzada -- $63,570
4. Fabrice Soulier -- $50,050
5. Earl Coggin -- $40,040
6. John Buttifant -- $35,035
7. Mark Petrillo -- $30,030
8. Nick Memeti -- $25,025
9. Vijayan Nagarajan -- $22,523