WSOP Event #50

World Series of Poker Event #50, Pot-Limit Omaha World Championship, 29 June – 1 July 2008

Entrants: 381
Buy in: $10,000
Prize pool: $3,581,400

Final results:

1. Martin Smyth, $859,549

2. Peter Jetten, $528,256

3. Michael Mizrachi, $331,279

4. Billy Argyros, $268,605

5. Richard Harroch, $214,884

6. Kido Pham, $170,116

7. Tom Hanlon, $134,302

8. Brandon Moran, $107,442

9. Greg Hurst, $80,581

The $10,000 buy-in Pot-Limit Omaha World Championship (Event #50) attracted 381 entries, creating a record prize pool totaling $3,581,400. The top 36 finishers collected prize money.

This was the largest Pot-Limit Omaha tournament prize pool in poker history, and was won by Marty Smyth, from Belfast, Ireland. He is a professional poker player with many previous tournament cashes and wins. This was his first career WSOP gold bracelet.

Prior to this victory, Smyth had cashed only one time at the WSOP. That was a 39th-place finish in the $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha event earlier this year (Event #19).

Smyth won $859,549 for first place. This was the largest Pot-Limit Omaha top prize in poker history.

Prior to playing poker for a living, Smyth worked as a civil servant. “It was a dead-end job,” he said. “I was lucky to find poker.”

Smyth acknowledged the Irish poker pioneers who preceded his victory in this event. “Padriag Parkinson and Donnacha O’Dea were Irish poker gods to me,” he said.

Irish players were among the first internationals to start playing in the WSOP, more than 25 years ago. In the early 1980s, Jack Binion offered free room and amenities to any player who came to the WSOP from a foreign country. Irish poker players began playing at the WSOP and in 1999, the Irish had their first and only world champion – Noel Furlong (Note: Dan Harrington is of Irish decent, but is an American).

Smyth becomes the fifth Irish national in history to win a WSOP gold bracelet.

Prior to this win, Smyth’s biggest win was at the 2007 Irish Poker Open. Following his WSOP victory, Smyth cited the Irish poker championship as being his proudest moment. But he added that the WSOP gold bracelet was even more meaningful. Smyth has been playing professionally for about six years.

This tournament may very well have attracted the most international competition in WSOP history. Of the 36 players who cashed in this event, 15 different nations were represented. In fact, 28 of the 36 in-the-money finishers were from outside the United States. Players who cashed came from: Australia, Austria, Canada, Denmark, England, Germany, Holland, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland, Venezuela, and the United States.

Since Pot-Limit Omaha is one of Europe’s most popular forms of poker, it is perhaps no surprise that nearly half the players who cashed were from Europe (15 of 36).

The second-place finisher was Peter Jetten, from Toronto, Ontario (Canada). Oddly enough, Jetten’s best friend, Max Greenwood, earned a WSOP gold bracelet just two days earlier.

“You have to put yourself in a position to win,” Jetten said afterward. “I thought that the three of us (including Michael Mizrachi who finished third, and Marty Smyth who won) were the only players who really gave ourselves a chance to win. So, I was glad to see we ended up as the top three.”

The third-place finisher was highly-respected tournament pro Michael “the Grinder” Mizrachi. The outcome was a real disappointment to Mizrachi, especially given that several poker pros had succeeded in achieving their first WSOP victory this year. Some observers even thought that a Mizrachi victory might be a foregone conclusion, given that so many other great players were finally afforded their long-sought WSOP triumphs at this year’s WSOP.

Other former WSOP gold bracelet winners who cashed included Josh Arieh (12th), Eddy Scharf (17th), Dario Alioto (19th), Rob Hollilnk (22nd), David Williams (26th), and David Singer (34th).

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