The 2012 World Series of Poker has just completed its second week and while attendance may be down year-over-year, there has still been a lot of exciting action and numerous big moments. Let’s take a quick look at some of the highlights for the first two weeks.
Hellmuth and Bloch Highlight Winners
This year’s WSOP has seen its share of breakthrough and repeat winners. No winner was bigger than now 12-time bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth. Hellmuth finally took down his first bracelet in a non-hold’em event after winning the $2,500 razz event on Sunday. This is his first bracelet win in five years and has to be extra special after finishing runner-up three times in 2011.
Andy Bloch finally lost the title of "best poker player to have never won a bracelet" after winning the $1,500 seven-card stud event on June 2. He defeated Barry Greenstein heads-up for the title and finally ended a long period of frustration at WSOP final tables.
Matt Matros won his third bracelet in as many years after taking down the $1,500 no-limit hold’em six-handed event. Matros defeated a field of 1,604 players to take down the title, adding to his $1,500 limit hold’em win in 2010 and his $2,500 mixed hold’em title last year.
Down Year For the Pros? They Didn’t Get the Memo
Going into the 2012 WSOP, there were numerous predictions stating that the pros may not far that well this year. Someone forgot to share that information with them as the pros continue to dominate this year.
In addition to wins from Hellmuth, Bloch, and Matros, bracelets were taken down by Andy Frankenberger, John Monnette, Leif Force, Brian Hastings, and Brent Hanks. Pros have taken down nearly half of the events so far and several others have played heads-up for titles including Gavin Griffin, Chris Bjorin, and Joseph Cheong.
Year of the Woman
Starting with the first event, women have made a huge impact on the 2012 WSOP thus far. Three out of the first four events saw women make the final table and Annette Obrestad made the Elite Eight of the $3,000 heads-up hold’em event.
So far, five women have made final tables at the 2012 World Series of Poker and two of those women have made it heads-up for the bracelet. Patricia Baker lost to Chiab Saechao in the Employee’s Event and Amanda Musumeci fell to Ashkan Razavi in the $1,500 no-limit re-entry event.
With the frequency that women have made final tables this year, it seems a matter of time before a woman grabs another open event title. Vanessa Selbst was the last woman to win an open event after taking the $1,500 pot-limit Omaha event in 2008.
There’s still over a month worth of action to look forward to and 38 events still to kick off including the $1 million buy-in Big One for One Drop, the $50,000 Poker Players Championship and the main event.
For more news on WSOP 2012, please visit PokerListings.com.
