Some of the top players in the world beat out huge pools of players and emerged victorious this week while adding gold bracelets to their collection.  Todd Brunson finally made a name for himself with his first WSOP bracelet.  Mark Seif became the first player to win two bracelets this year.  Allen Cunningham became the first player to accumulate more than $1 million in prize money.  I also witnessed WSOP history when Johnny Chan won his record 10th bracelet.  And Phil Ivey woke up just in time to win his fifth bracelet.

Brian Wilson from Florida was ill and he almost didn’t play in the $5,000 Pot-Limit Holdem event.  He gathered up enough strength to beat out a final table that included several bracelet winners such as Allen Cunningham and Cyndy Violette.  Wilson came from behind to beat John Gale heads up.  John  “Gentleman”  Gale of London, England won an event on the World Poker Tour and he was seeking his first bracelet.

Todd Brunson,  who has lived his entire life primarily as  “Doyle Brunson’s son,”  finally had the chance to prove that he’s an excellent poker player himself after a victory in the $2,500 Omaha 8 or Better event.  Todd survived a final table that included two bracelet winners,  and he outlasted a difficult field of 359 of the best Omaha 8 players.  Doyle Brunson was playing in a tournament at the same time,  but that did not prevent him from taking frequent breaks away from his table to check up on the status of his son.  Doyle stood in the crowd and beamed with pride after Todd beat Allen Kessler heads up.

Mark Seif is a former attorney who won his first bracelet in the Limit Holdem shootout.  He took a few days off and went out of town for business.  As soon as he returned,  he signed up for the $1,500 NL event and ended up winning the third-largest tournament in WSOP history.  Technically,  he won back-to-back events to make his feat of winning two WSOP bracelets this year a special one.  Winning one bracelet seems like an almost impossible task due to the large number of players entering each event.  Winning two bracelets is extremely impressive especially because he had to beat out a final table that included last year's main event champion Greg  “Fossilman”  Raymer,  Devilfish Ulliot,  Bill Gazes,  and Minh Nguyen.  Inside of one week,  Mark Seif won two bracelets and $799,950 in prize money.

Jan Sorensen is probably the best poker player from Denmark not named Gus Hansen.  The former professional soccer player is from Odwese,  which is the same hometown as Hans Christian Andersen.  He has one bracelet  (Pot-Limit Omaha in 2002)  and added another when he won the $5K Seven Card Stud event.  He beat out Chip Jett along with up-and-coming star John Phan.  He also outlasted last year’s champion Joe Awada,  who was trying to become the first player this year to defend his title.  Jan Sorenson came from behind and played an intense two-and-a-half-hour heads up battle before he won his second bracelet.

Farzad Bonyadi won his third bracelet after he took first place in the $2,500 NL event.  The Iranian born professional poker player came from behind to beat out Lars Bonding to clinch his third WSOP win.  Unfortunately not too many people were paying attention to his event because every one in the room was focused on Johnny Chan’s final table.

Johnny Chan made history after he won his 10th bracelet.  He was tied with Phil Hellmuth and Doyle Brunson,  who both held nine each.  He caught a lot of cards at the final table to capture the chip lead.  He survived two crucial all in attempts when he cracked pocket Aces with the Hilton Sisters and also rivered a runner runner straight.  His final table included Humberto Brenes and Phil Laak,  both excellent players.  Only Phil Laak stood in the way of Johnny Chan's attempt to make history by becoming the first player to win ten bracelets.  Unfortunately,  Phil Laak was out chipped when they began their heads up battle,  which only lasted 16 hands.

The Ladies Event is one of the most popular tournaments held at the World Series of Poker.  This year the format was changed from Limit Holdem to No Limit.  The field also tripled from last year.  601 players were competing for the largest all-female prize pool in the history of the WSOP.  Actress Jennifer Tilly,  who is also the girlfriend of poker pro Phil  “The Unabomber” Laak,  played great poker for two days and won her first bracelet.  She outlasted some of the top female players from around the world and beat a final table that included Cecilia Mortensen,  who is the wife of the 2000 WSOP main event champion Carlos Mortensen.  Moments after Jennifer won,  she shouted out to the crowd,  “This is way better than an Oscar!”

One of my favorite stories about this year’s WSOP had to be Phil Ivey winning his fifth WSOP bracelet.  He was sleeping at the time the event started and his friend Barry Greenstein called to wake him up.  Barry knew that Pot Limit Omaha is one of Phil’s best games.  However,  Phil had been reluctant to play too many tournaments and decided to focus on playing in lucrative cash games instead.  It’s a good thing that Phil answered his phone because he made the final tale and proceeded to win bracelet #5.  He also beat out one of the best Pot Limit Omaha players in the world in Robert Williamson.  Phil Ivey also prevented Phil Hellmuth from tying Johnny Chan with ten bracelets.  Although Hellmuth did not win his 10th bracelet,  he set a record for most WSOP cashes with 49.