The $10,000 buy-in World Championship Pot-Limit Hold'em event had a total of 352 entrants that created a prize pool of $3,308,800.
36 places will be paid out in this event with the winner standing to capture nearly $800,000 and the first coveted gold bracelet of the 2008 World Series of Poker. For more information on the payout structure, click on the 'Prizepool and Payouts' link in the right menu.
Lee Watkinson moved in the last of his chips with and Phil Laak made the call with . All looked good for Laak as the flop came and the turn the , but on the river Watkinson spiked the to double up and stay alive. He now has 21,000, while Laak was left with 14,500.
Clonie Gowen took her up against Nikolay Evdakov's in a race for her tournament life. Things looked good for Gowen on the flop and even better on the turn, but the fell on the river, eliminating her from Event #1.
As mentioned earlier, Barry Greenstein has been eliminated. Shawn Keller and Greenstein got the chips all in preflop with Greenstein holding A-K and Keller holding T-T.
When Keller saw he was ahead going to the flop, he jumped up and yelled, "Come on, tens!"
The flop was good to Keller as the fell. The turn was the and the river the to eliminate Greenstein from action.
An early position player raised to 1,200 and 2004 Main Event champion Greg "Fossilman" Raymer made a pot-sized reraise from the cutoff. The original raiser called.
Raymer's opponent checked the flop and Raymer moved all in for 7,300. His opponent thought and then called the all-in bet showing . Raymer turned over the . The turn brought the and Raymer says, "That's a good card for you, it gives you more outs."
The river brought the and Raymer's opponent made a queen-high straight to bust the Fossilman.
With the board reading Jamie Gold piled the rest of his chips into a single stack, stood up and with a big grin said, "I'm making the Kenny Tran call. I hope you're bluffing."
Maybe Gold was influenced by the fact that Kenny Tran was standing next to the table watching the hand unfold with Burt Boutin. Unfortunately for Gold his opponent wasn't bluffing--he held the for the wheel and Gold was eliminated. As Gold stood up from the table Tran said, "If that call would've worked out it would've ended up in my blog."
Jean-Robert Bellande moved all in preflop with and was called by a dominating .
Bellande couldn't catch up on the flop of 7-7-T. The turn brought another seven and the river an unhelpful three for Bellande and Bellande has been eliminated after not being able to get much going this tournament.
With the board reading on the turn, Howard Lederer bet 3,000 from early position, a middle position player called, and John "World" Hennigan moved all in for 6,325. Lederer called and the MP player folded.
Lederer showed , but Hennigan was way ahead with . The river was the and Johnny World dragged the pot. After the hand, he was up to 18,800 while Lederer slipped to 11,300.