Tao of Poker

WSOP Day 9: The Rise of Vinnie Vinh and the First 2008 Ten Bracelet Winners

By Pauly
Las Vegas, NV

Upsets do happen every day in life. The Belmont Stakes is a perfect example. Big Brown was the overwhelming favorite to win on Saturday afternoon, yet a 38-1 long shot crossed the finish line first. The horse that everyone dubbed the next triple crown winner limped to the wire in last place.

The Americans ice hockey team beat the Ruskies in the 1980 Winter Olympics. I recall with utter grief when Oscar Schmidt and his Brazilian hoops team upset the USA squad in the gold medal game at the 1987 Pan American Games. Brazil was down by double digits at the half and Schmidt led the Brazilians no-names to victory. He dropped 46 points on the college all-stars which included David Robinson, Danny Manning, Keith Smart, and Pervis Ellison. That humiliating victory was part of the reason why the Dream Team came to be in 1992.

You get my point. America loves an underdog. Hollyweird makes millions of dollars churning out feel-good film where the undermatched hero defies the odds to achieve glory.

At this year's WSOP the underdog is Vinnie Vinh.

The big question for Day 10... Will Vinnie Vinh show up for Day 3 and the Final table of Event #12? Will we see a reprise of the empty chair? When action was suspended early Sunday morning with 18 players to go, Vinnie Vinh was the chipleader with Erick Lindgren lurking right behind.

Here are two more questions... Can E-Dogg make his second final table of the 2008 WSOP? And can he actually win his second bracelet inside of a week?

There were two faces of Vinnie Vinh. One was the masterful poker player who stayed at the front of the pack for most of Day 1 and Day 2 until he late night when he accumulated more chips to end Day 2 as the chipleader. Then there was the erratic side of Vinnie Vinh with random outbursts which obviously stem from whatever inner demons he's wrestling with. Individually the incidents were all minor such as standing up, muttering incoherent things, laughing fits, and other peculiar behavior at the tables. Most of the time I watched Vinh, he appeared in control of the monster within.

Time will tell if Vinh returns for the restart or if we're going to be posting hundreds of pics of his empty chair. Or how about he advances to the final table with Lidngren. Man, if Vinh and Lindgren get heads up for a bracelet, that would be the story of the 2008 WSOP.

Here's the final 18 seating assignments:

Event $12 $1,500 Limit:

Table 14:
Seat 1: Teddy Monroe (Washington, DC) 40,000
Seat 2: Arash Beral (Los Angeles, California) 14,000
Seat 3: Brendan Taylor (Pasadena, California) 240,000
Seat 4: Zachary Henderson (Thunder Bay, Canada) 98,000
Seat 5: Markus Golser (Austria) 135,000
Seat 6: Steve Foutty (Santa Rosa, California) 21,000
Seat 7: Ali Eslami (Los Angeles, California) 208,000
Seat 8: John O'Brien (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) 163,000
Seat 9: Joseph Sanders (Lima, Peru) 173,000

Table 15:
Seat 1: Erick Lindgren (Las Vegas, Nevada) 244,000
Seat 2: Steven Shkolnik (Los Angeles, California) 199,000
Seat 3: Eric Pratt (Kennewick, Washington) 48,000
Seat 4: Duc Nguyen (Las Vegas, Nevada) 115,000
Seat 5: Zac Fellows (Vancouver, Canada) 164,000
Seat 6: Chung Law (Milpitas, California) 110,000
Seat 7: Christoph Niesert (Berlin, Germany) 173,000
Seat 8: Vinny Vinh (Houston, Texas) 335,000
Seat 9: Jimmy Shultz (Lewis Center, Ohio) 161,000

I must admit, I'm secretly rooting for the guy from Thunder Bay. That restart is scheduled for 2pm local time.

* * * * *
Two more guys won bracelets on Day 9.

Here's a complete list of bracelet winners from Event 1 through 10:

2008 WSOP Bracelet Winners:
Event #1 $10,000 World Championship Pot-Limit Hold'em - Nenad Medic
Event #2 $1,500 NL Hold'em - Grant Hinkle
Event #3 $1,500 Pot-limit Hold’em - David Singer
Event #4 $5,000 Mixed Hold'em (Limit/NL) - Erick Lindgren
Event #5 $1,000 NL Hold'em w/Rebuys - Michael Banducci
Event #6 $1,500 Omaha 8 - Thang Luu
Event #7 $2,000 NL Hold'em - Matt Keikoan
Event #8 $10K Mixed Championship - Anthony Rivera
Event #9 $1,500 NL Shorthanded - Rep Porter
Event #10 $2,500 Omaha8/Stud 8 - Farzad Rouhani

* * * * *
Around Midnight of Day 8, I found out that Phil Ivey had been betting big bucks on the NBA playoffs. He bet $2 million that the Lakers would win the Championship. So far, Ivey is in the hole after the Boston Celtics won Game 1. Game 2 is tonight and You gotta know Ivey is going to be sweating that game like a hooker in church.

Ivey advanced to Day 2 of the 10K Stud World Championship. Plenty of big dogs left including the legendary Archie Karas. Ivey and his crazy eyes will be focused on the closest big screen in the room. I could totally see him playing super fast to start to get chips and then sit out for two hours to watch the game and play a few hands during halftime.


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