The 2008 World Series of Poker was the 39th annual World Series of Poker (WSOP). Held in Las Vegas, Nevada at the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino, the 2008 series began on May 30 and featured 55 poker championships in several variants. All events but the $10,000 World Championship No Limit Texas hold 'em Main Event, the most prestigious of the WSOP events, ended by July 15. The final table, known as the November Nine, of the Main Event was suspended until November, to allow for better television coverage. As a WSOP custom since 1976, each of the event winners received a championship bracelet in addition to that event's prize money ranging from US$87,929 for the $500 Casino Employees No-Limit Hold'em to US$9,119,517 for the Main Event.

Most of the tournaments played at the WSOP are variants of Texas Hold 'em. Hold 'em is a community card game where each player may use any combination of the five community cards and the player's own two hole cards to make a poker hand, in contrast to poker variants such as stud or draw in which each player holds a separate individual hand. Between 2000 and 2009, hold'em has surpassed seven-card stud as the most common game in U.S. casinos, almost totally eclipsing the once popular game. Seven-card stud is a poker variant wherein each player is dealt two hole card, followed by four face up cards, and then another hidden card, with betting after each round. Another poker variant played is Omaha. Omaha is a version of poker wherein each player is dealt four hole cards and must use two of them in conjunction with three community cards to make the best possible five card hand. Other games played at the 2008 tournament included Razz, HORSE, and Deuce-to-Seven.

Within each of these poker variants a myriad of options exist. For example, depending on the betting structure, a tournament might be described as no limit, limit or pot-limit. Games may also include other variations on the rules governing the execution of the specific game such as shootout, eight or better, or heads up.

Highlights of the 2008 series include the selection of Erick Lindgren as the Player of the Year. Before the 2008 WSOP, Lindgren, who won a bracelet and made three final tables, was widely considered to be the "best player to never win a WSOP bracelet”. Phil Hellmuth, a Poker Hall of Famer, set new records for the most WSOP career cashes (68) and most WSOP career final tables (41). Nikolay Evdakov led all players with a record 10 money finishes. The Main Event, which began with 6,844 participants (a level exceeded only by the number of participants at the 2006 event), was suspended once the event was down to the nine players needed for the final table; the Main Event was resumed on November 9 and concluded with the heads-up final between Peter Eastgate and Ivan Demidov the next day. This year was the first in which the Main Event was suspended in this fashion, a change introduced at ESPN's request to allow the television network to do a same-day Main Event broadcast.

Key *Elected to the Poker Hall of Fame (#/#)This denotes a bracelet winner. The first number is the number of bracelets won in the 2008 WSOP. The second number is the total number of bracelets won. Both numbers represent totals as of that point during the tournament. Place What place each player at the final table finished Name The player who made it to the final table Prize (US$) The amount of money awarded for each finish at the event's final table

Results

Event 1: $10,000 World Championship Pot-Limit Hold'em

3-Day Event: Friday May 30, 2008 to Sunday June 1, 2008 Number of Entries: 352 Total Prize Pool: $ Number of Payouts: 36 Winning Hand: ReferencesThe results from the 2008 WSOP can be found on numerous websites. The ones used in compiling this list are:

+ Final Table Place Name Prize 1st Nenad Medic (1/1) $ 2nd Andy Bloch $ 3rd Kathy Liebert (0/1)$ 4th Mike Sexton (0/1)$ 5th Amit Makhija $ 6th Chris Bell $ 7th Patrik Antonius $ 8th Mike Sowers $ 9th Phil Laak $

Event 2: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em

4-Day Event: Saturday May 31, 2008 to Tuesday June 3, 2008 Number of Entries: 3929 Total Prize Pool: $ Number of Payouts: 378 Winning Hand: Other: Broke the record for largest field in a tournament that was not the WSOP main event. ReferencesThe results from the 2008 WSOP can be found on numerous websites. The ones used in compiling this list are:

+ Final Table Place Name Prize 1st Grant Hinkle (1/1) $ 2nd James Akenhead $ 3rd Chris Ferguson (0/5) $ 4th Theo Tran $ 5th Mike Ngo $ 6th Aaron Coulthard $ 7th Melvin Jones $ 8th David Bach $ 9th Joe Rutledge $

Event 3: $1,500 Pot-Limit Hold'em

3-Day Event: Monday June 2, 2008 to Wednesday June 4, 2008 Number of Entries: 714 Total Prize Pool: $ Number of Payouts: 72 Winning Hand: ReferencesThe results from the 2008 WSOP can be found on numerous websites. The ones used in compiling this list are:

+ Final Table Place Name Prize 1st David Singer (1/1)$ 2nd Jacobo Fernandez $ 3rd Gregory Alston $ 4th Robert Lipkin $ 5th Russ Harriman $ 6th Joe Tehan $ 7th Zachary King $ 8th Al Barbieri $ 9th Glen Bean $

Event 4: $5,000 Mixed Hold'em (Limit/No-Limit)

3-Day Event: Monday June 2, 2008 to Wednesday June 4, 2008 Number of Entries: 332 Total Prize Pool: $ Number of Payouts: 36 Winning Hand: ReferencesThe results from the 2008 WSOP can be found on numerous websites. The ones used in compiling this list are:

+ Final Table Place Name Prize 1st Erick Lindgren (1/1) $ 2nd Justin Bonomo $ 3rd Andrew Robl $ 4th Roland De Wolfe $ 5th David Rheem $ 6th Howard Lederer (0/2)$ 7th David Williams (0/1) $ 8th Pat Pezzin $ 9th Isaac Haxton $

Event 5: $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em with Rebuys

3-Day Event: Tuesday June 3, 2008 to Thursday June 5, 2008 Number of Entries: 766 Number of Rebuys/Add-ons: 2,258 Total Prize Pool: $ Number of Payouts: 72 Winning Hand: ReferencesThe results from the 2008 WSOP can be found on numerous websites. The ones used in compiling this list are:

+ Final Table Place Name Prize 1st Michael Banducci (1/1) $ 2nd Jeff Williams $ 3rd Peter Gould $ 4th Lyric Duveyoung $ 5th Alan Jaffray $ 6th Jonathan Aguiar $ 7th Michael Binger $ 8th Jamie Rosen $ 9th Steve Gross $

Event 6: $1,500 Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better

3-Day Event: Tuesday June 3, 2008 to Thursday June 5, 2008 Number of Entries: 833 Total Prize Pool: $ Number of Payouts: 81 Winning Hand: ReferencesThe results from the 2008 WSOP can be found on numerous websites. The ones used in compiling this list are:

+ Final Table Place Name Prize 1st Thang Luu (1/1)$ 2nd Spencer Lawrence $ 3rd George Guzman $ 4th James Pritchard $ 5th Chris Falconer $ 6th Greg Jamison $ 7th Craig Sabel $ 8th Mark Wilds $ 9th Scott Clements (0/2) $

Event 7: $2,000 No-Limit Hold'em

3-Day Event: Wednesday June 4, 2008 to Friday June 6, 2008 Number of Entries: 1592 Total Prize Pool: $ Number of Payouts: 153 Winning Hand: ReferencesThe results from the 2008 WSOP can be found on numerous websites. The ones used in compiling this list are:

+ Final Table Place Name Prize 1st Matt Keikoan (1/1)$ 2nd Shannon Shorr $ 3rd Carter Gill $ 4th Theo Tran $ 5th Mihai Manole $ 6th Chris Björin (0/2)$ 7th J. C. Tran $ 8th Alex Bolotin $ 9th Mike Lisanti $

Event 8: $10,000 World Championship Mixed Event

3-Day Event: Wednesday June 4, 2008 to Friday June 6, 2008 Number of Entries: 192 Total Prize Pool: $ Number of Payouts: 24 Winning Hand: (No-Limit Hold'em) ReferencesThe results from the 2008 WSOP can be found on numerous websites. The ones used in compiling this list are:

+ Final Table Place Name Prize 1st Anthony Rivera (1/1)$ 2nd James Mackey (0/1)$ 3rd Matt Glantz $ 4th Michael DeMichele $ 5th Eli Elezra (0/1) $ 6th Sam Farha (0/2)$ 7th Tom Dwan $ 8th Jeff Madsen (0/2)$

Note: This event comprised eight poker variants played on a rotating format with one-hour long levels. Every eight hands the game alternated in the following order: Limit Deuce-to-Seven Triple Draw, Limit Hold'em, Limit Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better, Razz, Seven-Card Stud, Seven-Card Stud-8 or Better, No-Limit Hold'em, Pot-Limit Omaha.

Event 9: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em (Six-Handed)

3-Day Event: Thursday June 5, 2008 to Saturday June 7, 2008 Number of Entries: 1,236 Total Prize Pool: $ Number of Payouts: 126 Winning Hand: ReferencesThe results from the 2008 WSOP can be found on numerous websites. The ones used in compiling this list are:

+ Final Table Place Name Prize 1st Rep Porter (1/1)$ 2nd Nathan Templeton $ 3rd Devin Porter $ 4th John Conkright $ 5th Anatoly Shilyuk $ 6th Michiel Brummelhuis $

Event 10: $2,500 Omaha/Seven-Card Stud Hi-Low Split-8 or Better

3-Day Event: Thursday June 5, 2008 to Saturday June 7, 2008 Number of Entries: 388 Total Prize Pool: $ Number of Payouts: 40 Winning Hand: ReferencesThe results from the 2008 WSOP can be found on numerous websites. The ones used in compiling this list are:

+ Final Table Place Name Prize 1st Freddy Rouhani (1/1)$ 2nd Tom Chambers $ 3rd John Cernuto (0/3)$ 4th Yueqi Zhu $ 5th Greg Pappas $ 6th John Racener $ 7th Daniel Mowczan $ 8th Michael Mizrachi $

Event 11: $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em Shootout

3-Day Event: Friday June 6, 2008 to Sunday June 8, 2008 Number of Entries: 360 Total Prize Pool: $ Number of Payouts: 36 Winning Hand: ReferencesThe results from the 2008 WSOP can be found on numerous websites. The ones used in compiling this list are:

+ Final Table Place Name Prize 1st Phil Tom (1/1)$ 2nd Greg Mueller $ 3rd Leo Wolpert $ 4th Sirous Jamshidi $ 5th Tim West $ 6th Thomas Roupe $

Event 12: $1,500 Limit Hold'em

3-Day Event: Friday June 6, 2008 to Sunday June 8, 2008 Number of Entries: 881 Total Prize Pool: $ Number of Payouts: 81 Winning Hand: ReferencesThe results from the 2008 WSOP can be found on numerous websites. The ones used in compiling this list are:

+ Final Table Place Name Prize 1st Jimmy Shultz (1/1)$ 2nd Zac Fellows $ 3rd Vinny Vinh $ 4th Brendan Taylor $ 5th Teddy Monroe $ 6th Markus Golser $ 7th Ali Eslami $ 8th Christoph Niesert $ 9th Chung Law $

Event 13: $2,500 No-Limit Hold'em

3-Day Event: Saturday June 7, 2008 to Monday June 9, 2008 Number of Entries: 1,397 Total Prize Pool: $ Number of Payouts: 99 Winning Hand: ReferencesThe results from the 2008 WSOP can be found on numerous websites. The ones used in compiling this list are:

+ Final Table Place Name Prize 1st Duncan Bell (1/1)$ 2nd Steve Merrifield $ 3rd Nathan Doudney $ 4th Shawn Buchanan $ 5th Brent Hanks $ 6th Jason Sanders $ 7th Ariel Soffer $ 8th Brent Ditzik $ 9th Nicolas Levi $

Event 14: $10,000 World Championship Seven-Card Stud

3-Day Event: Saturday June 7, 2008 to Monday June 9, 2008 Number of Entries: 158 Total Prize Pool: $ Number of Payouts: 16 Winning Hand: ReferencesThe results from the 2008 WSOP can be found on numerous websites. The ones used in compiling this list are:

+ Final Table Place Name Prize 1st Eric Brooks (1/1)$ 2nd Fu Wong $ 3rd Alexander Kostritsyn $ 4th Minh Ly $ 5th Erik Seidel (0/8)$ 6th Jim Paluszek $ 7th David Oppenheim $ 8th Vassilios Lazarou $

Event 15: $1,000 Ladies No-Limit Hold'em World Championship

3-Day Event: Sunday June 8, 2008 to Tuesday June 10, 2008 Number of Entries: 1,190 Total Prize Pool: $ Number of Payouts: 99 Winning Hand: ReferencesThe results from the 2008 WSOP can be found on numerous websites. The ones used in compiling this list are:

+ Final Table Place Name Prize 1st Svetlana Gromenkova (1/1)$ 2nd Anh Le $ 3rd Patty Till $ 4th Christine Priday $ 5th Marla Crumpler $ 6th Debbie Mitchell $ 7th Roslyn Quarto $ 8th Yesenia Garcia $ 9th Sue Porter $

Event 16: $2,000 Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better

3-Day Event: Sunday June 8, 2008 to Tuesday June 10, 2008 Number of Entries: 553 Total Prize Pool: $ Number of Payouts: 54 Winning Hand: