Poker Tournament Results

39th World Series of Poker 2008

Matt Keikoan

Tournament Report

Tournament Notes: • The $2,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold'em championship attracted 1,592 entrants. This was an increase over last year's tournament size, which had 1,531 entries. The total prize pool amounted to $2,897,440. The top 153 finishers collected prize money. • The tournament was played over three days. On Day Three, the final table was dealt out on the ESPN stage, also known as the 'feature table.' The so-called 'secondary' final table, located adjacent to the main stage area, featured the conclusion of Event #8 in a scheduling overlap. This year, most days at the WSOP will include two final tables. • This was the first WSOP event of the year to be featured by Bluff Media on the ESPN360 website. Viewers around the world can log on at www.espn360.com and watch final tables live. Bluff will feature 23 more WSOP events to be held over the next month. The broadcasts begin daily at 2 pm PST. Note: On some days, events will begin later due to unforeseen tournament length times on the previous day. • This was only the fifth WSOP event in history ever to be carried in a live broadcast format. The last three Main Events were featured on Pay-Per-View. Last year's Pot-Limit Omaha championship was shown at the official WSOP website, www.worldseriesofpoker.com. Bluff Media's ambitions are considerably greater this year. All shows are free. • The World Series of Poker consistently draws the most diverse fields in the game, attracting players from all over the world. This event included players who cashed from Australia, Canada, Indonesia, England, Romania, Norway, Scotland, Holland, and Russia, and the United States. Furthermore, players cashed from 34 different U.S. states. • Five different nations were represented at the final table – including Canada, England, Indonesia, Romania, and the United States. • When the final table began, Theo Tran was the chip leader. In fact, he possessed nearly twice as many chips as the player in second place. Despite this, Tran ended up as the fourth-place finisher. Tran has developed a well-deserved reputation as a fearless No-Limit player. He dominated play during much of the tournament. However, Tran steamed off his entire stack late at the final table when he went to the felt in less than a dozen hands after having nearly 60 percent of the total chips in play. • The $2,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold'em champion is Matt Keikoan. He is a 40-year-old professional poker player from San Rafael, CA. Keikoan worked as a 'poker prop' for about eight years before phasing gradually into the life of a working poker pro. Keikoan started out playing at Casino San Pablo in the San Francisco Bay area. • While working as a poker prop, some of Keikoan's regular co-workers included Bill Edler, Erick Lindgren, Bill Gazes, Matt Lefkowitz, and others. The poor tourists in that joint must have gotten skinned alive. • Matt Keikoan is the brother of poker pro Todd Keikoan, who lives in Las Vegas. • Keikoan attended San Francisco State University, but did not graduate. His father was interviewed following his son's victory and commented: 'We were thoroughly pissed off because he left college and wanted to become a professional poker player. But, it turned out well.' • Keikoan collected $550,529 for first place. He also earned his first WSOP gold bracelet. To date, Keikoan now has seven World Series cashes. This was his first WSOP final table appearance. However, he has finished high in several other major events. • Keikoan finished 63rd in the 2007 Main Event. That cash was worth $154,194. • Keikoan was cheered on by several poker pros, including Gavin Smith and Erick Lindgren. While Keikoan was celebrating victory, Lindgren remarked that he has been playing golf with the new champ for several years. 'When we used to play golf, we would play for all the money in our pockets until the sun went down. Sometimes, we would be hitting golf balls when it was dark,' Lindgren said. 'Now, we can play a little higher.' • Bad Beat Story of the Year: This one is worth telling (and listening to). Down to three tables and 24 players on Day Two, Theo Tran was heads-up in a pot with Scott Montgomery. Tran was dealt A-A against Montgomery's 5-5. Incredibly, Montgomery flopped quad-fives, yet still ended up losing the hand. The flop came 5-5-4 with two spades. The turn brought the deuce of spades. The river delivered the three-of-spades, giving Tran a straight flush (A-2-3-4-5) with the ace-of-spades in his hand. Perhaps most incredible of all – Montgomery did not go broke on the hand. Tran bet the river for a modest number of chips, and Montgomery could only make the call (instead of raising), despite having four-of-a-kind. • After multiple final tables which lasted past midnight, this finale concluded in a lightning-fast 6 hours and 20 minutes. This was the shortest final table of year, thus far. • The second-place finisher was Shannon Shorr, from Las Vegas. He was fourth in the 2006 WSOP 'Player of the Year' race. • A 26-year-old student, Mihai Manole from Bucharest, Romania took sixth place. This marked the highest WSOP finish in history for a Romanian national. • Swedish-born Chris Bjorin, who now lives in London, finished in fifth place. This marked Bjorin's 39th career WSOP in-the-money finish. • Tournament pro J.C. Tran finished seventh. Tran, from Sacramento, CA has a number of major poker titles to his credit. However, he has yet to win a WSOP gold bracelet. Tran rightly deserves a place on the 'Best to Not Win' list. • Three former WSOP gold bracelet winners cashed in this event including Dustin 'Neverwin' Woolf (15th place). This was Woolf's second cash this year. Others were 'Minneapolis Jim' Meehan (81st) and Thomas 'Thunder' Keller (83rd). • The final table broadcast is archived at the official WSOP website and can be seen in its entirety at: www.worldseriesofpoker.com