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It’s become so expensive to play in the World Series of Poker...
it’s difficult to know who actually MADE money no matter how much they cashed. Some endorsement contracts for instance include entry fees, others don’t. With the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E and the $5,000 rebuy events so costly, the Championship Final starts to look like a bargain at only $10,000 for a seat. Money is money, however, whether in comes from a sponsor as an entry fee or is a contracted payment. The $1 million a year endorsement packages for the World Champion might be a thing of the past, but Jerry Yang will do very well.
Yang’s $225 satellite win parlayed into more money than Jamie Gold’s post-legal settlement at $8.25 million. That’s the third and richest of the ZERO career earnings titles…in this year of the stone cold rookie. How great is that for poker? Jerry Yang proves definitively that anyone can will a world title. When Philip ‘Toasted Danish’ Hilm
played two hands horribly against Yang early, the final table was turned on its head. The Yin never quit for Yang from then on. We’ll have to wait until the telecast to see if Jerry Yang was aggressive, bluffing or run over by the deck. Can’t wait. Besides the entry fees, there are the escalating prop bets between players. The results of which are only recorded in hearsay. We do know that millions changed hands. Winners and losers, we can only guess. We know Harrahs won, though. Before the drop in the pits, the players were charged about $300,000 a day for the privilege of playing in this year’s WSOP. Thankfully, after a rocky start, the WSOP was a raging success overall. There is nothing even remotely as exciting as the World Series of Poker. It’s like the Tour de France versus ten and a half months of the Tour de Central Park. As a poker writer, the ending of the WSOP always feels like post partum must. Desolation and depression. Gratefully, we have a new toy to play with this year to cheer us up. WSOP Europe begins this Fall in London. Now the EPT has a competitor, like the WPT does here. It will be so interesting to see which of our frazzled pros can make the leap across the pond after 47 days in the Series. Just to have a benchmark for success this year at the WSOP, let’s see who of the name players did and didn’t drag at least $100,000 out of the Rio in 2007 in a single event. In fact a stunning 275 players accomplished this vaunted feat. 81 of those $100k plus scores came in the Main Event alone. Eight of the 275 players with at least six figure paydays totaled over $1 million. Five millionaires were at the Championship final table, placing first through fifth. Two 2007 millionaires, Freddy Deeb and Bruno Fitoussi were minted in the $50k H.O.R.S.E. And Bill Edler made his million combining cashes. The following ten players were the only ones out of the 275 $100k plus club to cash in TWO events over the $100,000 mark. Alex Kravchenko
was the only player in the entire 2007 WSOP to have a payout of over $1 million in one event and one of over $100,000 in another. Even Putin should be impressed by that performance. Multiple six figure players (all mistakes are my own) Scott Clements
four cashes, two final tables, one bracelet (Event 23), $323,198 total. Bill Edler
two cashes, one bracelet (Event 45), $1,238,162. (Edler was the only player to total over $1 million without a million dollar cash.) Alex Kravchenko six cashes, two final tables, one bracelet (Event 9) $2,120,905 total. Jeffrey Lisandro
six cashes, two final tables, one bracelet (Event 32), $461,999 total. (Jeffrey barely missed the Player of the Year award.) Rene Mouritsen three cashes, two final tables (two second places) $612,874. Richard Murnick three cashes, one final table, $526,447 Scotty Nguyen six cashes, two final tables, $678,499 total. (Only Phil Hellmuth made more for a former champion.) Tom Schneider
three cashes, three final tables, TWO bracelets (Events 5 and 46), the POY and $416,963 total. Kenny Tran three cashes, one final table, $847,559. (Kenny was the only player I saw who cashed in both the first and last events of the year.) Lamar ‘Wil’ Wilkinson two cashes, one final table, $352,500. Some of the other most popular player’s results: (If your favorite isn’t listed, I probably didn’t want to embarrass them showing a low number) Doyle Brunson two cashes, one final table, $132,991 Daniel Negreanu two cashes, one final table, $122,672 Chris Ferguson five cashes, one final table, $84,562 Alex Jacob three cashes, one final table, $298,070 Allen Cunningham
four cashes, one bracelet (Event 13), $525,837 Amnon Filippi six cashes, one final table (a heartbreaking last crash in the $50k HORSE) $648,719 Andy Black three cashes, two final tables, $181,738 Andy Bloch $52,992 Anna Wroblewski $201,598 Annie Duke $118,384 Antonio Esfandiari $21,614 Barry Greenstein four cashes, two final tables, $304,813 Berry Johnston $66,637 Billy Baxter $58,570 Blair Rodman
three cashes, one bracelet (Event 47), $722,696 Brandon Adams $212,829 Burt Boutin
four cashes and a bracelet (Event 7) $858,667 Chad Brown EIGHT cashes (Events 19, 31, 34, 42, 46, 49, 54, 55) two final tables, $469,084 Chau Giang $134,683 Chris Bjorin four cashes, three final tables, $305,633 Cliff Josephy $42,536 Cyndy Violette $30,749 Daniel Alaei $380,330 without a final table. Darrell Dicken $51,658 David Chiu $64,656 David Daneshgar $82,572 David Levi $69,055 David Pham $72,318 David Singer $353,018 David Ulliott $352,522 David Williams $74,335 Dewey Tomko $137,181 Diego Cordovez $142,436 Donncha O’Dea $82,390 Dustin Woolf $88,789 Dutch Boyd three cashes, two final tables, $250,627 Eli Elezra
one bracelet (Event 24) $198,984 Eric Froelich $40,465 Eric Lynch five cashes, two final tables $191,626 Erica Schoenberg $265,268 Erick Lindgren $51,536 Erik Seidel five cashes, one bracelet (Event 54) $589,393 Freddy Deeb
three cashes, two final tables, one bracelet (Event 39) $2,355,752 Gabe Kaplan $131,424 Gavin Griffin $84,348 Gavin Smith $184,989 (easy winner over Joe Sebok and Jeff ‘Joker’ Madsen) Greg Mueller five cashes, two final tables, $417,402 Greg Raymer $168,854 Gus Hansen $154,194 (61 st in the Championship after leading at one point) Hans Lund $39,445 Hasan Habib $45,959 Hoyt Corkins
one bracelet in Event 30, $545,390 Huck Seed $106,382 Huberto Brenes four cashes with three final tables, $415,452 in his second outstanding WSOP in a row. J. C. Tran a disappointing $31,804 as the pre-start favorite. Jeff Madsen $14,344 Jennifer Tilly $40,411 I’ll do the rest of the popular players next week in Part 2. Love Mike Paulle Email: mikepaulle@aol.com = |
