The Week that Was 6/30-7/04

This has been an eventful week: a poker legend passed away, Phil Hellmuth launched his own musical, Eric “Rizen” Lynch backed off his commitment with Ultimate Bet and the World Series Of Poker Main Event kicked off, promising lots of excitement in the coming week.

• WSOP Champion John Bonetti passed away at the age of 80. Bonetti excelled on the Deuce-to-Seven Draw Events at the WSOP, and also got a bracelet and several top three finishes in Hold’em events. He was a good friend of Phil Hellmuth, who supported him in his battle against cancer.
• Scotty Nguyen crowned himself king of the poker world by completing the first ever hat trick of the highest tournament championships: to his 1998 WSOP Main Event win and his 2006 WPT Championship he now adds the 2008 Chip Reese Memorial Award for the $50,000 HORSE World Championship. 
• Andy Black got over 20 years of blockage to finally win his first major tournament, Party Poker’s Premier League. Black took home $316,000 and the pride of beating 11 of the world’s top poker players including Annie Duke, Phil Hellmuth and Dave ‘The Devilfish’ Ulliott.
• Less than a month after making the controversial decision of becoming a member of Ultimate Bet’s “Star Player Team,” Eric “Rizen’ Lynch backed off, severing all ties with Ultimate Bet. Rizen explained in his blog that his concerns are not about the site’s security, but rather about his own personal feelings towards it, his dissatisfaction with the handling of press about his signing and the pace at which his suggestions were being implemented. 
• The first ever poker Broadway musical will debut at the Rio today: “All In: The Poker Musical” was created by Tim Molyneux with help from Phil Hellmuth and the World Series of Poker and it features Hellmuth as a character, singing “I can dodge bullets, baby, but I can’t dodge you.”
• The WSOP 2008 Main Event has started, but it will be a few days until we have a final head count and an idea of the prize pool. From the looks of day 1A it may be a larger Main Event than last year. After one day of play, Mark Garner is chip leader with $194,900 in chips, but he still has a good number of pros to worry about, including Scotty Nguyen, Vince Van Patten, Susie Isaacs, Blair Hinkle, Billy Baxter, Barry Greenstein and Noah Boeken. A number of pros have also been sent to the rail already, most notably Tom “Durrr” Dwan and three Davids: Benyamine, Ulliott and Pham.
• And here are the week’s bracelets as the WSOP slowly draws to an end:
• Young Canadian Max Greenwood won Event #44 ($1,000 No Limit Hold'em w/rebuys) and $693,444. He graduated from the University of Toronto with a degree in political science and philosophy just two weeks ago.
• Joe Commisso, 28, scored the largest cash prize so far in the WSOP by beating a field of 805 players and winning $911,855 in Event #46 ($5,000 No Limit Hold’em Six Handed). This was his first WSOP.
• Another young player has set a new record: 27-year-old Ryan Hughes is the first player to win two Seven Card Stud Eight-or-better bracelets. Last year Hughes won the $2,000 Seven Card Stud Eight-or-better event and this year he won Event #47 ($1,500 Seven Card Stud Eight-or-better) for his second bracelet and $182,997.
• Alexandre Gomes is the first Brazilian to win a World Series of Poker, taking $770,540 in Event #48 ($2,000 No Limit Hold'em). Gomes is only 25 and hails from Curitiba in Southern Brazil. 
• J.C. Tran was one of the best players in the world to have never won a bracelet, but not any more: he can now boast of having won Event #49 ($1,500 No Limit Hold'em) and $631,053. But he didn’t even know how much the prize was – all he wanted was the bracelet.
• Belfast-based Marty Smyth poker claimed another bracelet for Ireland in Event #50 ($10,000 Pot Limit Omaha World Championship.) He also took home a whopping $859,532.
• Semi-professional player James Schaaf survived a final table complete with Phil Hellmuth in full camera mode, and went on to win Event #51 ($1,500 H.O.R.S.E.) and $256,412 in prize money. 
• Dave Daneshgar took down Event #52 ($1,500 No Limit Hold'em) for his first bracelet and $625,443 in the last No Limit Hold'em event before the Main Event.
• Online pro Matt "mattg1983" Graham won his first bracelet and $278,180 in Event #53 ($1,500 Limit Hold'em Shootout.)