Well, long story, tell it later. I basically didnÂ’t play at all from 2008 til this past May. Saturday will be four months sober.

$1-3 NLHE is a lot different than $15-30 LHE, let me tell you! 😂

So silly, sad, and a little scary how corporations/institutions are like this, across all walks of life. I could rant for hours but will just say that even if they agreed, theyÂ’d make you sign dozens of waivers and NDAs, paid you nothing, and not listed your name anywhere.

Benny & Jack Binion wouldÂ’ve welcomed you with open arms the way they did Alvarez.

I played in the 1996 $1500 CP. Busted very early. Wish I still had the receipt.
There used to be CP cash games at the WSOP through at least 2001.

Wink was pretty tall, mid 50s, looked like he played a lot of golf. Nice guy but adamant that it was Wink and Wink only.

I got some Hellmuth and Mike Sexton (13th) stories, will tell them later. I will say that making a WSOP FT gave me a whole new perspective on the guys that have made a lot of them.

You're right, you're right. Must be losing my mind!

Not sure what you mean by that. He won 1 bracelet in 1978, 2 in 1979, and 1 in 1980. Winning bracelets in three consecutive years is indeed a great accomplishment but not quite up there with winning three in one year.


Absolutely a great feat. I won't say more now, but Hellmuth will be on plenty of my lists.

Greg discusses the hand here. Kanter wound up going to the FT with 19% of the chips, finished 4th.

Aside from what a BTB win would’ve done for him per$onally, Greg would’ve become very mainstream, and with his legal background, his testimony before Congress and personal lobbying might’ve swung some votes on UIGEA.

He certainly would’ve been the only “ambassador for poker” that might’ve actually gotten something positive accomplished.

https://www.pokernews.com/news/2017/...ymer-28192.htm

It would have been pretty tough to swing votes on the UIGEA, given that it was snuck into the must-pass port security bill without any public discussion.

Oh I know. But didnÂ’t Greg, Ferguson & Lederer give some type of public testimony somewhere, or am I a worse drunk than I thought?

And may Dubya & McConnell swim with the Amazon urethra fish.

IÂ’m going to steal a (Monday) march here, sorry OP, no other place to post it.

Players to win another bracelet(s) along with the ME:

Moss (71)
Puggy won two
Doyle both years
Stu (81)
McEvoy
Keller
Harrington (be interesting to know his career win % in big buyin events)
Ferguson
Merson (underrated great year)
Jorstad (tag team event)

Hamilton mightÂ’ve; he made the FT of both PLO events and had a big chip lead 4-5 handed in one, but chopped all the money and then quickly busted out. I wonder how many champs (say from Chan forward) also had a runnerup.

I suppose the discussion is about small fields v far more events each year.

Congratulations. Keep moving forward. I am proud of you.

Thanks, appreciate that.

I did play some more $1500 WSOP & Bellagio events and some others but didn’t cash. At a O8 tourney at B I played with Rene Angelil. He won a pot while I Drove All Night was playing. Nobody said anything and then he goes “I better have won that hand!” and everyone cracked up. Nice guy, never saw him with an entourage or anything.

I did have about $15K in cashes in Wendover & Jackpot. I quit playing in late 2007 due to bad luck leading to bad play, and the limit games drying up. And drinking had always been an on & off problem since HS in the early 80s, mostly on.

Players Who Won Another Bracelet in the Same Year as the Main Event

This week's Top 10 Tuesday courtesy of BullyEyelash. I just sorted these by how impressive their other bracelets were and added details.

• 10. Espen Jorstad: 2022 $1,000 Tag Team with Patrick Leonard -- 913-team field but a team event nevertheless. Jorstad also had the most opportunities for a second bracelet (204 other events).
  
• 9. Johnny Moss: 1971 $1,000 Limit Ace-to-Five Draw -- A very small field, likely in the single digits. On the plus side, there were only four preliminary events.
  
• 8. Stu Ungar: 1981 $10,000 Deuce-to-Seven Draw -- 19-player field (13 preliminary events). Would add bonus points for being a non-Hold 'Em bracelet, but a surprisingly high number of these are (6 out of 10; 7 if you count Limit Hold 'Em as a different game).
  
• 7. Jack Keller: 1984 $5,000 Seven-Card Stud -- 55-player field (12 preliminary events).
  
• 6. Chris Ferguson: 2000 $2,500 Seven-Card Stud -- 151-player field (23 preliminary events).
  
• 5. Tom McEvoy: 1983 $1,000 Limit Hold 'Em -- Then-record 234-player field (14 preliminary events).
  
• 4. Dan Harrington: 1995 $2,500 No-Limit Hold 'Em -- 249-player field (23 preliminary events).
  
• 3. Greg Merson: 2012 $10,000 No-Limit Hold 'Em 6-Max -- Strong 474-player field (60 preliminary events plus 7 more chances in Europe).
  
• 2. Doyle Brunson: 1976 $5,000 Deuce-to-Seven Draw & 1977 $10,000 Seven-Card Stud Split -- The only player to do it twice, albeit over tiny fields of 14 (plus 6 rebuys) and 7 players (7 and 12 preliminary events).
  
• 1. Puggy Pearson: 1973 $4,000 Seven-Card Stud & $1,000 No-Limit Hold 'Em -- The entire festival had only seven events of which Pearson won three (over fields of 8 and 17).

Chronologically:

• 1971: Johnny Moss, $1,000 Limit Ace-to-Five Draw
• 1973: Puggy Pearson, $4,000 Seven-Card Stud & $1,000 No-Limit Hold 'Em
• 1976: Doyle Brunson, $5,000 Deuce-to-Seven Draw
• 1977: Doyle Brunson, $10,000 Seven-Card Stud Split
• 1981: Stu Ungar, $10,000 Deuce-to-Seven Draw
• 1983: Tom McEvoy, $1,000 Limit Hold 'Em
• 1984: Jack Keller, $5,000 Seven-Card Stud
• 1995: Dan Harrington, $2,500 No-Limit Hold 'Em
• 2000: Chris Ferguson, $2,500 Seven-Card Stud
• 2012: Greg Merson, $10,000 No-Limit Hold 'Em 6-Max
• 2022: Espen Jorstad, $1,000 Tag Team with Patrick Leonard

From MersonÂ’s wiki:

“In addition to his two bracelets, he finished 5th in the 750-person $2,500 four-handed event for a prize of $70,280 and 21st in the 924-person $3,000 six-handed event for a prize of $16,850.”

Certainly the best two bracelet series, and had he won the four-handed it would have to be the best period. And it could be the best anyway.

A note on McEvoy’s LHE win: The opening LHE event was the largest tournament in the world until the ME surpassed it in 2002. So for 13 months, Nani Dollison had won the largest tournament in poker history. Probably the longest ‘reign’ not involving a ME champion.

OP, as the son of two published writers, one of them also an editor, I applaud your work. After I posted it last night I realized there were ten guys!

Unfortunately, they've changed the POY formula so often, those numbers can't be used to compare years. But it's very subjective anyway how you weight each factor (field size, skill level of the field/final table/heads up, percent of events cashed/final tabled/won, etc.).


Sorry, I think your numbers are a little off here.

The 1983 $1,000 LHE had 234 players, which was broken just two days later by the $1,000 NLHE (248 players).

Nani Dollison's win was in the 2001 $2,000 LHE over a record field of 615, which lasted until the 839 in the 2003 Main Event.

This will partially spoil a future Top 10, but here's an article with more than you'd want to know about record field sizes through 2022.


Thanks. My eye is pretty fine-tuned to seeing lists of ten now, so I noticed the appropriateness right away.

Interesting about 1983. In 1996 for example, there were 526 in the $2000 LHE and 405 in the $1500 NLHE.

There were 631 entries in the 2002 ME.

Thanks. Will fix the next time I update my web site, probably early next year when I add everything from 2024.

Good catch. The hand I was referring to, described by Hellmuth:

In those years, we were very close friends with Huck Seed, who was one of the finalists. When there were 6 people left, Huck complained to me that he was already fed up with the pesky Irishman who was raising and reraising every hand. At some point, Huck could not stand it, and in order to put the insolent man in his place, he made a 4-bet push with Jd8d (Ed. – according to other sources, Huck limped into UTG, Noel immediately reraised him, and Huck announced a huge all-in overbet). Noel immediately called with Ad3h and knocked out the most formidable opponent in 6th place.

Back in the day I had the video of it and the expression on Seed's phase is one I will never forget.

Wow, been 25 years but I remember that Seed-Furlong hand. Terrible spew by Huck and iirc Furlong was never in serious trouble after that. Happened pretty early too i think.

Is Merson the only player with multiple $1M cashes in the same series?

Harrington & Rast each have three overall, Lamb has two… Sounds like a list!

Hunichen in 2024 had two over $2 million:

Yeah, I figured the high rollers would skew this.

2024 WSOP Las Vegas Olympics-Style Standings

WSOP bracelets are awesome. Almost every poker player who's ever played in the World Series of Poker dreams of winning one. But we definitely underappreciate those who have come oh so close only to fall short in second or third place. What if we did more to honor these great competitors and in Olympics fashion awarded them silver and bronze medals? Then we could also tally up the scores by country (sorted by total medals then by golds and silvers). Note: each player is categorized by their WSOP.com tournament page flag, which may not reflect their current residence or preference.


Country Leaders by Total Medals

• 10. Spain 5 (3 gold, 0 silver, 2 bronze).
  
• 9. Australia 5 (3 gold, 2 silver, 0 bronze).
  
• 8. China 6 (2 gold, 1 silver, 3 bronze).
  
• 7. Bulgaria 6 (2 gold, 1 silver, 3 bronze).
  
• 6. Italy 6 (2 gold, 3 silver, 1 bronze).
  
• 5. France 6 (3 gold, 3 silver, 0 bronze).
  
• 4. Japan 8 (1 gold, 3 silver, 4 bronze).
  
• 3. Canada 15 (6 gold, 5 silver, 4 bronze).
  
• 2. Great Britain 20 (8 gold, 7 silver, 5 bronze).
  
• 1. U.S.A. 248 (76 gold, 84 silver, 88 bronze).

Notes:

* The U.S. won 63.3% of the medals awarded in the 129 events (99 live and 30 online with the Tag Team awarding two of each medal). One of the U.S. bronze medalists has been deleted from the WSOP tournament results. Odds are 2-to-1 that the missing Online $333 No-Limit Hold 'Em bronze medalist was also American, which would be the U.S.'s 249th medal.

* Spain edged Germany (2 gold, 1 silver, 2 bronze) and Sweden (1 gold, 4 bronze) for tenth on tiebreak.

* Austria, Brazil, and Russia each won four medals. (One of the Russian players is missing from the WSOP results but is listed on Hendon.)

* Every position except for first is up for grabs when the rest of the year's bracelet events are tallied. Stay tuned for a late December update.


Individual Leaders

• 10. Chris Hunichen 2 (1 gold, 0 silver, 1 bronze).
  
• 10. Daniel Maor 2 (1 gold, 0 silver, 1 bronze).
  
• 10. Georgios Sotiropoulos 2 (1 gold, 0 silver, 1 bronze).
  
• 10. Miguel Use 2 (1 gold, 0 silver, 1 bronze).
  
• 5. Bryce Yockey 2 (1 gold, 1 silver, 0 bronze).
  
• 5. Chance Kornuth 2 (1 gold, 1 silver, 0 bronze).
  
• 5. Daniel Sepiol 2 (1 gold, 1 silver, 0 bronze).
  
• 5. John Racener 2 (1 gold, 1 silver, 0 bronze).
  
• 5. Zachary Vankeuren 2 (1 gold, 1 silver, 0 bronze).
  
• 4. Michael Rocco 3 (1 gold, 0 silver, 2 bronze).
  
• 3. Calvin Anderson 3 (1 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze).
  
• 2. David Prociak 3 (2 gold, 0 silver, 1 bronze).
  
• 1. Scott Seiver 4 (3 gold, 0 silver, 1 bronze).

Notes:

* The island nation of Seiver would have ranked 13th as a country if his sovereignty were officially recognized.

* After the first list, it's not surprising that the top 9 individuals are all Americans. Tied for tenth are a Greek (Sotiropoulos) and a Belgian (Use).

* The next eight players, who each had two medals but no golds, include two Canadians (Mike Leah and Thomas Taylor), a Brit (Robert Wells), and a Swede (Viktor Blom). The others are Chino Rheem, Jeremy Ausmus, Josh Arieh, and Pedro Rodriguez.

Wow. That's pretty insane, kinda reminds me of the oft-cited tidbit about California having one of the world's largest GDPs if it was its own country.

You always think of that witty rejoinder after it's too late. Deadline-challenged poker writers and editors have also missed some golden opportunities over the years. Here's a sampling of just ten of them (and if you think these are bad, I'll save you the pain of #11-20).

Missed Headlines

• 10. Man, Woman, Doman! (April 26, 1983): Jim and Donna Doman become the first husband and wife to win WSOP bracelets by defeating 24 other pairs for the Mixed Doubles title and $20,000.
  
• 9. An Transcends (May 8, 1992): An Tran reaches a record sixth final table and his seventh cash of year by finishing 7th in the $5,000 Seven-Card Stud for $12,200. [His final table record would be tied twice but remain unbroken until 2021, while his cashes record would last until 2003.]
  
• 8. Yan Can Cook (October 2, 2023): New Zealand's David Yan wins 1,140-player Online $10,300 No-Limit Hold 'Em for $1,538,400 a year after taking down 593-player Online $10,000 Super Million$ High Roller for $985,565. That's enough money to pay Martin Yan to cater his next few parties.
  
• 7. Phil & Ted's Excellent Adventure (May 8, 1993): Phil Hellmuth captures the $5,000 Limit Hold 'Em for his third bracelet of the year to match Ted Forrest. Hellmuth also had a 2nd place finish in between his victories for the pair's only other cash. [This remains the only time in WSOP history that two players have won three bracelets in the same year. Hellmuth was likely referencing a different Keanu Reeves movie when he claimed, "I can dodge bullets, baby!" a dozen years later.]
  
• 6. Ho Ho Ho! (December 15, 2020): Ten days before Christmas, Maria Ho cashes as the Last Woman Standing in the Main Event for a record third time (after finishing 38th in $237,865 in 2007 and 77th for $85,812 in 2014). The $35,194 she won for finishing 22nd (U.S. side) could buy some nice gifts for her friends and family.
  
• 5. Orenstein Transforms Poker (September 19, 1995): The United States Patent and Trademark Office approves Patent 5,451,054 sixteen months after Henry Orenstein submitted his hole card cam idea as Toy Builders (his other very famous invention was Tranformers).
  
• 4. Multiplicity Starring Michael, Michael, and Michael (July 8, 2024): Michael Watson (1st for $138,327), Michael McNeil (2nd for $101,118), and Michael Balan (3rd for $74,324) sweep the podium in the online $1,000 No-Limit Hold 'Em 6-Max. Ten of the 180 players who cashed are named Mike or Michael, including Michael Miller in 12th and Mike Leah in 81st. The 1996 movie stars Michael Keaton as Doug Kinney and his three clones Lance, Rico, and Lenny.
  
• 3. Stud Victory Sires Stud Victory (May 11, 1986): Barbara Enright parlays a $11 bet on a racehorse named Victory into a $75 satellite entry into a buyin for the Ladies Seven-Card Stud Championship, which she then wins over 81 other players for $16,400. In a post-victory interview, Enright conceded that her odds were longer than the horse's. "When I entered, I thought I had two chances, slim and none - but, I didn't think Slim had left town."
  
• 2. Baxter Axes Taxes (March 11, 1986): Billy Baxter wins landmark IRS case allowing professional poker players to treat poker winnings as earned income instead of unearned income, which is taxed at a higher rate.
  
• 1. Flaton Shoots Down Huey, Dewey, and Stuey (April 30, 1983): Ken Flaton wins the $1,000 Seven-Card Stud over sitting ducks Hugh Todd in 4th, Dewey Tomko in 3rd, and Stu Ungar in 2nd for $62,000 and his first [and only] bracelet.