by Hillary LaClair, Senior Editor
The World Series of Poker Europe 2008 came to a close this weekend, with John Juanda as the victor of the Main Event. A humble Juanda jokes about his victory however, saying, “I won my last bracelet so long ago, I can’t remember. It’s embarrassing.”
Juanda was one of 362 players whose entry fees amounted to a grand prize pool of 3.62 GBP. Many online poker pros participated this year, including Phil Laak, Chris Ferguson, David Ulliot, Antonio Esfandiari, Yevgeniy Timoshenko, Marco Traniello, Nenad Medic, Jinnifer Tily, Gus Hansen, David “Chino” Rheem,Roland de Wolfe, Juha Helppi, Allen Cunningham, Daniel Nefreanu, Annet Obrestad, Scoty Nguyen, Theo Jorgensen and Doyle Brunson.
The nine competitors at the final table were comprised of an equal mix of new and seasoned players, Daniel Negreanu, Scott Fischman, Chris Elliot, Toni Hiltunen, Stanislav Alekhin and Juanda. In the end, Juanda went heads-up with Stanislav Alekhin, who left with 533,950 GBP in an eight hour long round of 242 hands, and bringing him his fourth WSOP bracelet.
“Today there are so many young excellent tournament players from all over the world. Like the two young Russians and Scandis. Much more than it used to be,” commented Juanda. This referred to Ivan Demidov, who took home a third placeprize of 335,850 GBP.
Other event winners this year were Jesper Hougaard (1,500 GBP buy-in No Limit Hold’em), Sherkhan Farnood (2,000 GBP buy-in H.O.R.S.E), and Theo Jorgensen (5,000 GBP buy-in Pot Limit Omaha.
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