Thursday, June 23, 2011

WSOP 2011: Past the Mid-way Mark

Thirty five out of the fifty eight championship bracelets have now been handed out.

Insufferable patriot that I am, I must point out that four championships have been won by Canadians. If these were the "Poker Olympics" then the gold medal count would currently be:

USA - 24
Canada - 4
Britain - 3
France - 2
Russia -1
Ukraine -1

And need I remind everyone that until a new main event champion is crowned in November, the current reigning world poker champion is a Canadian?

As usual most bracelets have gone to relative unknowns. Eight bracelet winners had never even cashed in a WSOP event before their victories. Still some big names have gotten their wins, well three big names any way: John Juanda got his fifth bracelet, Jason "You've Probably Seen Me in PokerStars Commercials" Mercier collected his second, and European poker superstar Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier collected his first WSOP bracelet.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, Juanda's win in 2-7 draw lowball came at the expense of Phil Hellmuth, who despite having more WSOP wins than anyone else is still looking for a championship in any form of poker other than Texas Hold 'em. Since then Hellmuth came in second place again, this time in Seven Card Stud. You almost feel sorry for the guy.

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