World Series of Poker Event #34, Pot-Limit Omaha w/Re-Buys, 18-20 June 2008

Entrants: 320
Buy in: $1,500
Prize pool: $2,407,125

Final results:
1. Layne Flack, $577,725
2. Daniel Makowsky, $355,050
3. Jacobo Fernandez, $222,659
4. Dario Alioto, $180,534
5. Ted Forrest, $144,427
6. Kyle Kloeckner, $114,338
7. Michael Guzzardi, $90,267
8. Tim West, $72,213
9. Frank Vizza, $54,160

The 2008 $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha with Re-Buys champion is Layne Flack, from Las Vegas, NV. This was Flack’s sixth career WSOP gold bracelet victory.

This event attracted 320 entries. A huge number of Re-Buys (1,350) swelled the prize pool to $2,407,125, and the top 36 finishers (final four tables) collected prize money.

Flack collected $577,725 for first place, which was his largest poker payday ever. With six gold bracelets, he is now tied with Jay Heimowitz, Men “the Master” Nguyen, and T.J. Cloutier for seventh on the all-time WSOP wins list. All six wins have come within an 11-year span. Flack’s lifetime earnings at the WSOP total $2,268,357.

It has been five long years since Flack’s last WSOP victory. During his personal and professional abyss, Flack admits to going through many troubles. He now says those troubles are behind him and he has focused on his craft as a poker player.

Flack credits his “life coach” for helping him to recover from his personal problems. His life coach is none other than Ed Walters, who was allegedly the inspiration for the fictional “Fast Eddie” Felson, Paul Newman’s legendary character in two classic gambling movies, “The Hustler” and “The Color of Money.”

Flack’s final table record is phenomenal. He has appeared at 12 WSOP final tables during his career, and won half of them (6 wins).

After his victory, Flack conveyed that he had given away his other five WSOP gold bracelets as gifts, mostly to family members. One was stolen, he says.

Flack invested $33,000 in this tournament, including 21 re-buys. “When we made the money, everybody was cheering,” Flack stated. “Everybody was a winner but me. I still had to get to at least 12th place just to get my money back.” “It’s not like I outplayed everybody,” Flack admitted after his victory. “I mean, I did catch some cards.”

Former WSOP gold bracelet winner Dario Alioto finished in fourth place. Last September, Alioto made poker history by becoming the first player ever to win a WSOP title in an event played outside the United States. In 2007, Harrahs Entertainment launched the first “World Series of Poker – Europe” tournament series which scheduled three gold bracelet events which were played in London, England. The first tournament, the Pot-Limit Omaha championship, was won by Alioto.

Five-time WSOP gold bracelet winner Ted Forrest finished in fifth place. This was Forrest’s second final table appearance at this year’s World Series. He finished second in the Omaha High-Low Split event.

Eight-time WSOP gold bracelet winner Erik Seidel finished 21st. This marked his 50th career WSOP in-the-money finish, which ranks seventh on the all-time list.

Through Event #34, only one player has made three final table appearances – Jacobo Fernandez. Sixteen players have made two WSOP final table appearances. This list includes – Chris Bjorin, Andy Bloch, David Benyamine, Alex Bolotin, Scott Clements, Chris “Jesus” Ferguson, Ted Forrest, Barry Greenstein, Fu Wong, Erick Lindgren, Minh Ly, Daniel Negreanu, David Singer, J.C. Tran, Theo Tran, and Tim West.

All WSOP images are supplied by "IMPDI for the 2008 WSOP"