World Series of Poker, Event 31-32 Summary


The WSOP is the biggest poker event in the calendar. It is where hundreds and hundreds of players from all around the world gather together for over 60 events ranging from all flavours of poker. The events take place at the world renowned Rio Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. These articles will focus on the WSOP events from 2012, and recap everything you will need to know.Event 31: No Limit Hold’emAnother record breaking turnout for Event 31: A No Limit Hold’em match.Buy in: $1,500Entrants: 2,811Prize Pool: $3,794,850Paid Places: 297Almost 300 of the 2,800 players who turned up to play in Event 31 would cash out (One of the highest so far in this tournament) But the winner here is Carter Phillips, a previous six handed event winner, making this his second ever bracelet, and a sweet prize fund of $664,130 to add to his bankroll. Phillips’s victory would not come easy however; he had to top a mountain of poker players to grab the win, including a heads up match against the youngest main event champion ever: Joe Ceda. It would seem that winning the biggest poker event in the world casts a hanging shadow over your head, as none of the main event winners in the past decade have secured a second gold bracelet.

The heads up match started with Ceda having a rough 2-1 lead on Philips. The lead teetered between the players but Phillips started to take a lead. After some all in hands, the pivotal moment came when Phillips turned 3 of a kind, and Ceda couldn’t claw it back. He made over 6 million in chips and crippling Ceda by leading with an 11-1 lead. The game was over a few hands later and Ceda came so close, yet so far and takes home $412,424.Event 32: H.O.R.S.EA high buy in for the second mixed game event this year.Buy in: $10,000Entrants: 178Prize Pool: $1,673,200Paid Places: 24Winning a final table against poker pros is a challenge, even having 1 player who has won before puts everyone on their game. How about a table with 2 winners? 4? Nope. This final table had 6; 6 previous bracelet winners, making this the second most stacked final table in poker history. Between the star studded final table which included Phil Ivey, Phil Hellmuth, John Monnette, Dan Kelly, Abe Mosseri and David Baker they hold 25 titles between them. I feel sorry for the other 2 players on that table.

The winner here was David ‘Bakes’ Baker. Baker is taking home his second gold bracelet and $451,779. His win came in his heads up match against John Monnette during Seven Card Stud. Both players were all in and showed their first street. Baker had a pair of sevens by Second Street. Monnette failed to hit anything by seventh but had many high cards to make a higher pair. It was all for nothing as Baker had trip sevens on Seventh. Monnette mucked and left, taking home $279,206