Well Known Charities to Benefit from WSOP Win!

You might have guessed this years WSOP winner, Jerry Yang held it down at the final table, personally removing 8 of the 9 World Series of Poker final table contenders from the game.

Earlier I said perhaps it was skill, perhaps it was luck. Perhaps though, it was skill, mixed with a bit of good Karma ..

Jerry managed to fill in a gutshot straight draw in the last hand of the 2008 WSOP main event, a gutshot, meaning a six and only a six would win him the hand, and knock Tuan Lam out of the game.

Perhaps good deeds just do not go unrewarded, Jerry Yang previously pledged 10% of his WSOP winnings to three very worthwhile and well known charity organizations.

The Make a Wish foundation - Known for honoring wishes of dying children.
The Ronald McDonald House - Providing food and shelter to endless numbers of battered women and children.
Feed The Children - A Christian organization that provides food, medical care and educations to countless children world wide.

Jerry Yang, father of six, took home a prize of just over 8 million dollars ($8,250,000), knocking out Lam who won 2nd place in the tournament for a prize of nearly 5 million dollars ($4,840,981)

Raymond Rahme Busts out in 3rd, WSOP down to Heads Up Play!

The final four WSOP players played for eight hours before Alex Kravchenko finally busted out, swooping up a 4th place WSOP win, however, it took much less time to go from the final three, to heads up WSOP main event final table action!

Eight minutes in fact.

With an ace on the board, Raymond Rahme pushed all of his chips to the middle, Jerry Yang, who has been killing at this years WSOP final table, thought about the decision for a lot longer than many thought necessary, he held ace 5 and did eventually make the call. The turn and river cam blank and Raymond Rahme from South Africa ended his 2008 World Series of Poker adventure taking home just over 3 million dollars.

Be it luck, or be it skill, Jerry Yang has been burning up this years final table since taking his seat, of the 9 original final table contenders, only one of them was not removed by Yang.

The two remaining WSOP Bracelet contenders:

Jerry Yang in the lead with 104,450,000 chips and Tuan Lam with 23,025,000 remaining in WSOP tournament chips.

Alex Kravchenko eliminated from the WSOP in 4th

The final four players remaining at the World Series of Poker main event final table played for more then eight hours before one of them finally busted out. Alex Kravchenko was nothing if not patient, he got his chips in with a monster, big slick, and found himself up against, you'll never guess who, this years final table force, Jerry Yang.

To rub it in, fate layed down a third eight for Yang on the flop. The turn was no help, and left Kravchenko drawing dead at the river.

Alex won nearly 2 million dollars for his efforts, taking home a prize of $1,852,721.


Chip Counts after Kravchenko's departure:

Jerry Yang - 67,300,000
Raymond Rahme - 36,100,000
Tuan Lam - 24,075,000

John Kalmar Busts Out in 5th - WSOP 2007

Breaking News! Two WSOP final table players went all in, and Jerry Yang was not involved! The all in moment involved John Kalmar of the United Kingdom, and Raymond Rahme of South Africa.

Kalmar pushed his stack all in preflop, and was called by Rahme, who showed the same hand Yang took out Khan with, pocket jacks.

The fans went crazy, each shouting for their chosen player, the jacks held, and the Rahme fans raised the roof!

Kalmar didn't do to bad either though, being one of the final five at the World Series of Poker final table, he is the first to cash for more than one million dollars, taking home a total prize of $1,255,069. That win ought to make entry into the World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE) this September a pretty easy choice.

"It was so great," Childs said minutes after his elimination "The best day of my life is when I got married, and this is probably the second."

Childs was staked into the WSOP by his father, Bill who joined him from the rail at the event, not a bad investment at all.

Current Final Table Chip Counts:

Jerry Yang: $65,425,000
Raymond Rahme: $29,100,000
Alex Kravchenko: $17,950,000
Tuan Lam: $15,000,000

All soon to be millionaires.

Yang Still at it, Eliminates Hevad Rain Khan from the 2007 WSOP

Khan's exit from the World Series of Poker began when he pushed a $3 million chip bet into the pot from the small blind, Yang called. Rain Khan went all in .. in the dark, All in pre-flop, in the dark, at the World Series of Poker final table.

Khan pushed the remainder of his chips into the pot, before the flop even fell onto the table.

The Flop:

King of Clubs
2 Diamonds
4 Spades

Yang called the all in bet, and flipped over pocket jacks. Khan turned over his cards, showing the Ace of Spades and the Queen of Diamonds. Two overs it could have been worse.

The turn and river were both uneventful for the players, a 4 of clubs for the turn, a 3 of spades on the river, there was no screaming, piggy back rides for chairs, or invisible basketball games to follow this hand.

Remaining WSOP Final Table Chip Counts:


Jerry Yang: $73,040,000

Tuan Lam: $19,915,000

Raymond Rahme $15,955,000

Jon Kalmar $13,405,000

Alex Kravchenko $5,170,000

Katja Thater 2nd Woman Ever to win WSOP Non Exclusive Bracelet!

Katja Thater left the WSOP Razz Event with a new title - Second Woman ever to win a Non-Exclusive Bracelet Event. A woman is guaranteed to win at least one bracelet every year. Some one has to win the ladies event. This year Katja Thater has established another notch for women in the world of poker, by taking the bracelet in this non-exclusive event. The only woman to accomplish this before her was Annie Duke in 2004..

Players were in game until 4 a.m. on day one, and 3 a.m. on day two during one of the longest tournaments of the series. The final eight voted to return on day three to finish the tournament, originally scheduled as a two-day event.

The chip counts stood as follow when the final table opened:

1- O'Neil Longson with $385,500
2- St. Jean with $171,000
3- Denny Axel with $123,000
4- Katja Thater with $117,500
5- Paul "Eskimo" Clark with $88,500
6- Mark Vos with $84,500
7- Thomas Daubert with $54,500
8- Men "The Master" Nguyen with $35,000

The two short stacks, Daubert and Nguyen, traded places in the chip counts until Thater knocked both out on the same hand. Daubert finished in eighth place, and Nguyen moved up, based on starting chip count, to finish in seventh place. The next busted player was Vos, in sixth place, when his 9 low was undercut by Clark's 8 low. Nguyen and Vos were keeping the table light and laid back, so when they were both out, the game became more serious. Thater also knocked out the fifth place Axel when the sixth and seventh streets were paired against his hand.

Paul Clark overcame tremendous obstacles to make this final table. It was only days earlier that he had a stroke, and still entered the poker game with 340 other players to finish in the top 4. To see ‘Eskimo' return so quickly was a relief for the poker world as a whole.

Longson came in as the chip leader but could not capture another bracelet. After Longson was eliminated in third place, Thater and St. Jean were set up for heads-up play. After many hands back and forth Katja Thater finally overcame Larry St. Jean with 8-5-4-3-2. This made WSOP history, and ripples across the whole event.

Here are the final table results for the $1,500 razz event:

1- Katja Thater - $132,653
2- Larry St. Jean - $73,311
3- O'Neil Longson - $46,547
4- Paul "Eskimo" Clark - $31,186
5- Denny Axel - $24,204
6- Mark Vos - $18,386
7- Men "The Master" Nguyen - $14,197
8- Thomas Daubert - $10,473