WSOP Event #20

Ryan Hughes won Event #20, the $2,000 buy-in Seven-Card Stud High-Low championship at the 2007 World Series of Poker. Hughes is a 26-year-old poker pro from Phoenix, Arizona.

Hughes was born in San Francisco, CA, and studied at Arizona State University. He did not complete his college degree, opting instead to try to make it as a professional poker player. He has now been playing seriously for about five years and has made a steady income each and every year since leaving school.

Hughes won several poker tournaments in the Los Angeles area, and this was his sixth cash at the WSOP after finishing in-the-money in the 2005 main event. Prior to this win, his best finish was ninth place in an Omaha-High-Low event. First place paid $176,358.

Douglas "Rico" Carli has stayed under the radar of public attention for over three years. No more. Although he has yet to win a gold bracelet, Rico has made more cashes than any player during the last three years, when combining WSOP and WSOP Circuit events (season three of the Circuit ended last month). He cashed in the very first WSOP Circuit event ever held at Harrah’s Atlantic City (January 2005) and combined for an astonishing 31 cashes at WSOP-related events alone since then. His third-place showing in this event was also his third cash at this year’s World Series.

2004 world champion Greg "Fossilman" Raymer was the fourth-place finisher. He has already cashed three times at this year’s World Series and made two final-table appearances.

Five-time WSOP gold bracelet winner Ted Forrest finished in 10th -place. Forrest would undoubtedly have more tournament wins in his illustrious poker career, had he not spent about ten years focusing on highly-lucrative cash games instead.

Alex Kravchenko finished in 22nd place. He won the Omaha High-Low championship and his first gold bracelet last week.

Other former WSOP gold bracelet winners who finished in the money include Andre Boyer, Artie Cobb, Dan Heimiller, John Juanda, Jeff Madsen, and Mike Wattel. Of this supremely-talented group, Cobb was once-considered the best seven-card stud player in the world by his peers in a poll conducted during the 1990s. He won this event back in 1983.

Although it is not as popular as hold’em, seven-card stud high-low split is the preferred game by many top pros. The reason is, stud high-low tends to be a more technical game and involves fewer bad beats than hold’em. The oft heard phrase is — "players have more control over the situation." The game is also sometimes called "Eight-or Better."

Final results:
1. Ryan Hughes, Phoenix, AZ, $176,358
2. Min Lee, Fullerton, CA, $97,461
3. Douglas Rico Carli, Alliance, OH, $61,880
4. Greg “Fossilman” Raymer, Raleigh, NC, $41,460
5. Stephen Graboski, Harwinton, CT, $32,178
6. Jim Weir, Tampa, FL, $24,443
7. Ron Ware, Tracy, CA, $18,873
8. Adam Spiegelberg, Henderson, NV, $13,923
9. Donald Webb, Rincon, GA, $9,591