And of course, the poker community will always welcome hot babes who can play poker with wide open arms. You can find her on PokerStars tables using the screen name 'FatimaDeMelo'. Common misspellings: Fatime, Faatima, Morera, Morena Learn more about Fatima Moreira de Melo at PokerStars. The 2007 World Series of Poker was the 38th annual World Series of Poker (WSOP). Held in Las Vegas, Nevada at the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino, the series featured 55 poker championships in several variants.As a WSOP custom since 1976, each of the event winners receive a championship bracelet in addition to that event's prize money. The series culminates with the $10,000 No-Limit hold'em.
Scott Seiver stormed through the competition on Day 1 of the PokerStars North American Poker Tour (NAPT) $25,000 High-Roller Bounty Shootout at the Venetian. Seiver ousted all six opponents at his starting table to move on to Day 2.
Seiver collected a $5,000 bounty for each player knocked out, or $30,000 total. In addition, his appearance at Thursday’s final table in the $25,000 buy-in event is worth another $75,000. All told, he’s a very happy camper heading into the finale, which will air as part of ESPN2’s coverage of the NAPT beginning in April. Seiver didn’t knock out a bunch of amateurs, either. Instead, he defeated Betfair pro Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi heads-up. Also a victim of Seiver’s bloodbath was Season 7 World Poker Tour (WPT) Festa al Lago winner Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier.
Seiver sent Team PokerStars Pro member and “High Stakes Poker” regular Barry Greenstein to the rails first, followed by Victory Poker front man Antonio Esfandiari, cash game specialist Chau Giang, and online poker pro Brian “tsarrast” Rast. Seiver won his first World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet in 2008, when he took down a $5,000 No Limit Hold’em event for $755,000.
Joe Cassidy defeated Justin “ZeeJustin” Bonomo heads-up at Table 1 to move on to Thursday’s finale. Cassidy knocked out four of his six opponents, including reigning WPT Championship winner Yevgeniy “Jovial Gent” Timoshenko, Bodog poker pro David Williams, and Unabomber Poker namesake Phil Laak. Cassidy finished 13th in the inaugural $50,000 HORSE Championship during the 2006 WSOP for $137,000. Also eliminated from Table 1 were “Poker2Nite” host Joe Sebok and Tommy Vedes.
2008 WSOP Main Event champ Peter Eastgate emerged victorious from Table 2. Eastgate defeated fellow young gun Isaac Haxton heads-up to collect his $5,000 bounty. Haxton sent Alec “traheho” Torelli and poker bad boy Tony G packing in third and fourth places, respectively, to give Eastgate a run for his money. The table also featured James Calderaro, Italian stud Dario Minieri, and WPT Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic winner Daniel Alaei.
Ashton Griffin outlasted 2003 WSOP Main Event winner Chris Moneymaker at Table 3 to advance. Moneymaker eliminated fellow Main Event champion Joe Cada along with Hasan Habib and Jason Mercier before Griffin took out the former Tennessee accountant. Griffin finished 12th in the 2009 WSOP Europe £5,000 Pot Limit Omaha tournament for £15,000.
Over at Table 4, Brett Richey defeated three consecutive players down the stretch for the win, including Victory Poker’s Lee Markholt. Richey also sent Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond home in third place and Andrew “good2cu” Robl out in fourth. Markholt, meanwhile, eliminated rumored new DoylesRoom Brunson 10 member Alex “AJKHoosier1” Kamberis and poker veteran John “World” Hennigan.
An epic battle between Faraz “The-Toilet” Jaka and UB.com’s Annie Duke unfolded at Table 5, with the former finally reigning supreme. Jaka busted four players from his table, including Jennifer Tilly, Vanessa Rousso, and 2006 World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) Main Event winner J.C. Tran. Oddly enough, only three women competed in the 49-player event; all of them were seated at the same table and eliminated by Jaka. You can check out Annie Duke’s evaluation of Jaka’s poker game.
Finally, DoylesRoom pro Hoyt Corkins, fresh off of taking down the WPT Southern Poker Championship in Biloxi, bested European Poker Tour (EPT) founder John Duthie at Table 7 to move on to the finale. Corkins amassed five bounties in the process, including Adam Richardson, Hevad “RaiNKhaN” Khan, 2004 WSOP Main Event champ Greg Raymer, and Steven Paul-Ambrose (who now goes as Steven Paul).
PokerStars is awarding $100,000 to the player with the most number of bounties when the tournament concludes. As it currently stands, Seiver leads the way with six and Corkins has five. Cassidy and Jaka each own four bounties.
The tournament resumes at Noon PT on Thursday, as all eyes today are focused on the Main Event of the NAPT Venetian. The winner of the Bounty Shootout will earn $460,000 in addition to the $75,000 reward for making the final table.
By the members of Team Blog
When the final table of the 2007 World Series kicks off on Tuesday, three PokerStars players will be vying for the gold championship bracelet. Among them are a PokerStars VIP Club Supernova, a high-limit cash game specialist, and a sexagenarian from South Africa.
Here's what the final table looks like (with PokerStars players in bold).
Philip Hilm 22,070,000
Tuan Lam 21,315,000
Jon Kalmar 20,320,000
Raymond Rahme 16,320,000
Lee Childs 13,240,000
Lee Watkinson 9,925,000
Hevad Khan 9,205,000
Jerry Yang 8,450,000
Alex Kravchenko 6,570,000
Here's a bit more about the PokerStars players at the final table.
Tuan Lam
Tuan Lam is a 40-year-old former poker dealer from Ontario, Canada. Known as BABYHAN on PokerStars, you'll find him regularly playing the high-limit cash games to a lot of success. Lam finished runner-up in the 2005 World Championship of Online Poker $200 short-handed no-limit hold'em event. He has played a few big live tournaments, but this is by far his biggest tournament cash so far.
Raymond Rahme
Sixty-two year-old Raymond Rahme only started playing no-limit hold'em two years ago. This life-long seven card stud player is a semi-retired entrepreneur from South Africa and is part of a television program that has followed him here to Vegas. Rahme has a large contingent of South Africans here with him in Las Vegas and was responsible for breaking the final table bubble by busting the tenth place player after flopping a set of queens.
Hevad 'RaiNKhaN' Khan
Hevad 'RaiNKhaN' Khan is an imposing and excitable figure who is a PokerStars VIP Club Supernova. Once accused of being a poker bot, RaiNKhaN is famous for being able to play dozens of SNGs at the same time on a single 17' monitor. RaiNKhaN has developed quite a following here after proving to be the most animated character left in the event. This is RaiNKhaN's second trip to the World Series main event. He now stands to make more money than he ever has before.
The game will resume on Tuesday at noon. The final nine players will be competing for these prizes.
1. $8,250,000
2. $4,840,981
3. $3,048,025
4. $1,852,721
5. $1,255,069
6. $956,243
Hevad Khan Poker
7. $705,229
8. $585,699
9. $525,934
Final table play will last for hours and hours (some have predicted anywhere between 18 and 22). It will be a marathon. Still, getting there wasn't easy either.
***
The Amazon Room is a 39,000 square foot ballroom, used for conventions and trade shows. Two months out of the year, it becomes a poker room for the WSOP. Down to eleven players, only a twentieth of the space is used to hold the final two tables. The ESPN Feature Table is down to five players: Tuan Lam, Scotty Nguyen, Philip Hilm, Raymond Rahme, and Lee Childs.
Short-handed play at the Main Event can be difficult to adjust to for some players. Those experienced with this part of a tournament can grab crucial chips needed at a Final Table while others stay tight and hope to wait out the next guy to bust. The money starts jumping after the tenth player busts, and no one wants to be the Final Table bubble boy. Play was not weak/tight, but it certainly was deliberate. Each hand was unpredictable. One would be a quick raise met by universal folds and resulted in a pot only as big as the blinds and antes. The next would be an excruciatingly long hand that lasted longer than some Turbo SNG's. Screams came from sweaters as one player or another took down a big pot. For the most part, it was a long process of sitting and waiting, for the players as well as the spectators. Short-handed play ended there with the unexpected elimination of The Poker Prince Scotty Nguyen. That left PokerStars players Raymond Rahme and Tuan Lam.On what PokerNews dubbed 'The Outer Table,' play was not much different. However, it did feature the most animated player left in the field. After a card-dead opening to the day, PokerStars qualifier Hevad 'RaiNKhaN' Khan built up a head of steam, and then got together a decent stack that gives him plenty of ammunition for the final table. Two big pots after the dinner break against first Jerry Yang and then Jon Kalmar pushed him over the 12,000,000 mark. And although he slipped back a bit, he is in far better shape than he could have hoped for just hours earlier.
He spent most of the day on the outer table, and ended his stay there in typically aggressive fashion in the big blind, re-raising Lee Watkinson's 500,000 bet from the cut-off to 1,170,000 to take the pot without further bloodshed. Finally when Nguyen busted off the feature table, the final ten players got together to knock off one more player.
That process took a couple of hours and only ended when Steven Garfinkle moved all-in pre-flop with A3. Rahme woke up in the small blind with pocket queens, made the call, and flopped a set. A couple of cards later, Garfinkle was out and the final table was set.
Here's a look back at the rest of the day's coverage:
Khan Play Poker
Roy's 4'sLazy Sunday
Scott Freeman's Magic
Focus
Patience is a virtue
John Armbrust from the felt
Big han's for BABYHAN
Strong Rain forecastJohn Armbrust's finish
Almost Everybody Loves Raymond Rahme
RaiNKhaN storms up leaderboard