World Series of Poker Reset

Today is the start of the last preliminary event at the World Series of Poker before Thursday's $10,000 Main Event gets underway. It has been a wild month of poker at the Rio in Las Vegas. So wild, in fact, that it has been difficult to take it all in. That said, this a good time to recap every event in the last few weeks so everyone can clear their heads before the Main Event circus starts.

Below is a list of each event, along with its winner, first place prize money, and a brief comment.

Event #1 – June 2, 2005 -- $500 No-Limit Hold’em – Casino Employees

WINNER: Andy Nguyen; $83,390
The 43-year-old Nguyen is a poker dealer at Binion’s Casino in Las Vegas and came to the US from Vietnam 20 years ago.

Event #2 – June 3, 2005 -- $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em

WINNER: Allen Cunningham; $725,405
Cunningham’s third bracelet was won on the second hand of heads-up play against defending champ, Scott Fischman. Tournament field was the second largest in the history of the WSOP, behind only last year’s Main Event.

Event #3 – June 5, 2005 -- $1,500 Pot-Limit Hold’em

WINNER: Thom Werthmann; $369,535
Werthmann’s first bracelet came at the expense of Layne Flack, a five-time winner. The champ overcame a 3-1 chip deficit to seize the title.

Event #4 – June 6, 2005 -- $1,500 Limit Hold’em

WINNER: Eric Froehlich; $361,910
Froehlich became the youngest WSOP bracelet winner at 21 years, 3 months, and 3 days of age.

Event #5 – June 7, 2005 -- $1,500 Omaha High-Low Split

WINNER: Pat Poels; $270,100
Poels was down to 300 chips on Day One when the blinds were at 100/200. Sixth place finisher, “Minneapolis Jim” Meehan, made the final table in this event for the third year in a row.

Event #6 – June 8, 2005 -- $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em Shootout

WINNER: Isaac Galazan; $315,125
First shootout ever at the WSOP. Galazan is a nightclub owner who splits time between Miami and Bangkok, Thailand.

Event #7 – June 9, 2005 -- $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em with Re-buys

WINNER: Michael Gracz; $594,460
Gracz also won the Party Poker Million tournament earlier this year. This was the second event so far whose prize pool eclipsed $2 million.

Event #8 – June 10, 2005 -- $1,500 Seven-Card Stud

WINNER: Cliff Josephy; $192,560
Josephy was at the WSOP solely to play Hold’em, but busted out of his tournament early, leaving him with nothing to do on Thursday. He had never played Stud before, but wanted to try, so he got some quick pointers from friends. Low-and-behold, he won the whole thing.

Event #9 – June 12, 2005 -- $2,000 No-Limit Hold’em

WINNER: Erik Seidel; $611,795
This was Seidel’s seventh gold bracelet. The final three of Perry Friedman, Cyndy Violette, and Seidel were all well-known poker pros and former bracelet winners.

Event #10 – June 12, 2005 -- $2,000 Limit Hold’em with Re-buys

WINNER: Reza Payvar; $303, 610
This was Payvar’s first ever WSOP. He will be donating a portion of his winnings to the charity, “Put a Bad Beat on Cancer” in honor of his late father, who died of the disease.

Event #11 – June 13, 2005 -- $2,000 Pot-Limit Hold’em

WINNER: Edward Moncada; $298,070
Eight different countries were represented at the final table, and it just so happened that Moncada, an American, is nicknamed “Bolivia”.

Event #12 – June 15, 2005 -- $2,000 Pot-Limit Omaha with Re-buys

WINNER: Josh Arieh; $381,600
This was Arieh’s second WSOP win of his career. He used an early chip lead to run over the table with textbook aggressive play, even raising in the dark pre-flop once.

Event #13 – June 16, 2005 -- $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em

WINNER: T.J. Cloutier; $657,100
Cloutier not only won his sixth bracelet, but also his 58th major tournament victory. The win also put him second on the all-time WSOP money list.

Event #14 – June 17, 2005 -- $1,000 Seven-Card Stud High-Low Split

WINNER: Steve Hohn; $156,985
Hohn finally broke through after placing second and third in this same event in previous years.

Event #15 – June 17, 2005 -- $1,500 Limit Hold’em Shootout

WINNER: Mark Seif; $181,330
One of the longest final tables of the WSOP, the 13-hour competition didn’t end until after 4:00am

Event #16 – June 18, 2005 -- $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em Shootout

WINNER: Anthony Reategui; $269,100
Five players were knocked out in a span of fifteen minutes at this final table, allowing Reategui to amass a chip lead that would have required him to produce the biggest choke job in the history of poker in order to lose.

Event #17 – June 19, 2005 -- $2,500 Limit Hold’em

WINNER: Quinn Do; $265,975
Quinn Do also placed 5th in the Limit Hold’em Shootout final table two days earlier. Looks like this guy is good at limit hold’em.

Event #18 – June 20, 2005 -- $2,000 Seven-Card Stud (Eight-or-Better)

WINNER: Denis Ethier; $160,682
Ethier bought and raised racehorses for years before getting into poker. His career switch was a good one.

Event #19 – June 20, 2005 -- $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha

WINNER: Barry Greenstein; $128,505
Greenstein dedicated his victory to Charlie Tuttle, a 26-year-old poker fan in Tennessee, who was battling cancer. Upon hearing about Charlie’s fight, Greenstein, along with Marcel Luske, Max Pescatori, and John Juanda, gave him a call. Unfortunately, Charlie lost his struggle a couple days later.

Event #20 – June 22, 2005 -- $5,000 Pot-Limit Hold’em

WINNER: Brian Wilson; $370,685
Wilson had two huge come-from-behind hands when he was all-in during the heads-up portion of the competition. The biggest, which gave him the chip lead, was when he held 4-4 versus John Gale’s 10-10 and hit a 4 on the flop. From there, he went on to claim his first bracelet.

Event #21 – June 23, 2005 -- $2,500 Omaha High-Low Split

WINNER: Todd Brunson; $255,945
This was Brunson’s first WSOP bracelet, now only nine behind his father, Doyle.

Event #22 – June 24, 2005 -- $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em

WINNER: Mark Seif; $611,145
It took Seif years to win his first bracelet; it took him a week to earn his second. He made the final table by amassing such a huge chip stack that it was almost comical. Seif did take a hit just before making the final table, sending him to the finals in middle position, but he resumed his aggressive play and laid waste to the remainder of the field. Seif is the only player to win two bracelets at the 2005 WSOP.

Event #23 – June 25, 2005 -- $5,000 Seven-Card Stud

WINNER: Jan Sorensen; $293,275
The “Great Dane” defeated a number of seasoned pros, including final table competitor, Joe Awada, who won this same event last year.

Event #24 – June 25, 2005 -- $2,500 No-Limit Hold’em

WINNER: Farzad Bonyadi; $594,960
This was Bonyadi’s third WSOP victory of his career, coming after a grueling two and a half hours of heads-up play.

Event #25 – June 26, 2005 -- $2,500 Pot-Limit Hold’em

WINNER: Johnny Chan; $303,025
With this, his tenth WSOP win, Chan broke a first-place tie with Phil Hellmuth and Doyle Brunson for the most WSOP bracelets of all time. Chan was all but dead, too, when play was four-handed, as he went all-in with Q-Q versus Frank Kassela’s A-A. Considering anyone reading this already knows Chan won, you can guess what came on the flop.

Event #26 – June 27, 2005 -- $1,000 Ladies No-Limit Hold’em

WINNER: Jennifer Tilly; $158,625
And she can act, too. Tilly steamrolled the final table of the ladies’ event, earning $2,000 more than her boyfriend, Phil Laak, did when he placed second to Johnny Chan the day before.

Event #27 – June 29, 2005 -- $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha with Re-buys

WINNER: Phil Ivey; $630,685
Ivey became the youngest poker player ever to win five WSOP titles. This one was against one heck of a final table, which included the likes of Phil Hellmuth, Allen Cunningham, Eddy Scharf, and Robert Williamson III.

Event #28 – June 30, 2005 -- $5,000 Limit Hold’em

WINNER: Dan Schmiech; $404,585
Schmeich won his first gold bracelet by defeating former “Welcome Back, Kotter” star, Gabe Kaplan, in heads-up play.

Event #29 – July 1, 2005 -- $2,000 No-Limit Hold’em

WINNER: Lawrence Gosney; $483,195
Five out of the nine players at the final table hailed from outside of the United States, including Gosney, who is from Leeds, England.

Event #30 – July 1, 2005 -- $1,500 Seven-Card Razz

WINNER: O'Neil Longson; $125,690
The Razz tournament was the longest of the WSOP so far, with the final table not finishing until seven o’clock in the morning.

Event #31 – July 1, 2005 -- $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em (Six-Handed)

WINNER: Doyle Brunson; $367,800
Johnny Chan was not alone at the top of the WSOP’s all-time bracelets list for long, as Brunson earned his tenth title at the young age of 71.

Event #32 – July 3, 2005 -- $5,000 Omaha High-Low Split

WINNER: David Chiu; $347,410
This was the largest Omaha High-Low Split event in history, marking the first time that such a tournament generated a prize pool eclipsing $1,000,000.

Event #33 – July 3, 2005 -- $3,000 No-Limit Hold’em

WINNER: Andre Boyer; $682,810
Boyer finally reached the pinnacle after ten years of playing at the WSOP.

Event #34 – July 3, 2005 -- $1,000 Seniors No-Limit Hold’em

WINNER: Paul McKinney; $202,725
McKinney, at 80 years of age, became the oldest bracelet winner in WSOP history. His comments afterward were quite deep, “I like moonshine whisky, big cigars, and young women.”

Event #35 – July 5, 2005 -- $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha

WINNER: Rafi Amit; $511,835
Amit overcame a ten-minute cursing penalty during heads-up play, a penalty which lost him 210,000 chips, to take his first WSOP championship.

Event #36 – July 5, 2005 -- $3,000 Limit Hold’em

WINNER: Todd Witteles; $347,385
Following Quinn Do’s lead from earlier in the WSOP, Witteles improved on an earlier limit hold’em final table appearance to emerge victorious in his second try.

Originally published July 5, 2005