WSOP Event #40

World Series of Poker Event #40, Limit Deuce-to-Seven Triple-Draw Lowball, 22-24 June 2008

Entrants: 238
Buy in: $2,500
Prize pool: $547,400

Final results:

1. John Phan, $151,911

2. Shun Uchida, $95,795

3. Gioi Luong, $61,582

4. Robert Mizrachi, $41,055

5. Ben Ponzio, $28,738

6. David Sklansky, $20,527

7. William Baxter, $15,053

8. Suk Sung, $15,053

9. Michael Wattel, $12,316

The $2,500 buy-in Limit Deuce-to-Seven Triple Draw Lowball championship (Event #40) attracted 238 entries, creating a prize pool totaling $547,400. The top 24 finishers collected prize money.

The 2008 Limit Deuce-to-Seven Triple Draw Lowball champion is John Phan, from Stockton, CA. Phan is a professional poker player. This was Phan’s second career WSOP win, and second gold bracelet victory this week. His previous win was in the $3,000 No-Limit Hold’em championship (Event #29), which concluded exactly seven days ago.

With this victory, Phan’s two wins at this year’s World Series means that the WSOP has had multiple event winners every single year since 1999. This multi-winner list includes the following names: David Phan (2008); Tom Schneider (2007); Bill Chen (2006); Mark Seif (2005); Ted Forrest (2004); Chris Ferguson and John Juanda (2003); Phil Ivey (2002); Scotty Nguyen (2001), and Chris Ferguson (2000).

Pham won $151,911 for first place. Prior to this year’s two wins, Phan had two runner-up finishes in WSOP events in 2006 and 2007.

Following his victory, Phan revealed that he intends to donate some of his cash prize to charity, and specifically the hometown in Vietnam where he still has relatives.

Phan seemed much more excited about this win than his previous victory last week. When asked to explain why he showed more enthusiasm for the second win, Phan stated that he now on a mission to set new records. He cited a new goal to become the first three-event winner (in a single year) since Phil Ivey’s accomplishment back in 2002. “I’m going to go after all of Stu Ungar’s records,” Phan stated in reference to the three time Main Event icon.

Phan’s poker nickname is “the Razor.” It was given to him because Phan likes to gamble high and is described as always living on the edge.

Robert Mizrachi took fourth place. He won his first WSOP gold bracelet last year.

Poker theorist and author (of 12 books) David Sklansky finished in sixth place. Sklansky, who won three WSOP gold bracelets, earned his last victory 25 years ago, back in 1983. Had he won this event he would have broken Chip Reese’s record of 24 years for the longest time gap between gold bracelet wins.

Other former WSOP gold bracelet winners who cashed in this event included Mike Wattel (9th), Greg Raymer (11th), Dario Alioto (12th), Chau Giang (14th), Claude Cohen (18th), Ralph Perry (20th), and Bill Chen (24th).

This was Greg Raymer’s first cash at this year’s WSOP. The 2004 world champion has made it to at least one final table every year since his Main Event victory. But he has yet to crack the barrier this year.

John Phan was the chip leader at the start of this final table. He ended up as the winner. Through Event #40, seventeen of 38 chip leaders at the start of the final table (45 percent) went on to win the event. Twenty-three of 38 chip leaders (61 percent) went on to finish in the top three spots. Two events did not have a chip leader (Heads-Up and Shootout tournaments).

All WSOP images are supplied by “IMPDI for the 2008 WSOP”