Bracelets for Omaha Hi/Lo and a Shootout Claimed

Event #16 Report
Event #16 was a $2k Omaha Hi/Lo Event. It was won by 25 year old Andrew Brown, who bested super pro Ted Forrest heads-up. Andrew wins $226k for first place in addition to the awesome WSOP bracelet, while Forrest won $143k for his 2nd place finish. Before the tournament started, Andrew told the press he was "The best PLO player that nobody knows," although this was Omaha Hi/Lo, Andrew is now a well known player with his first WSOP bracelet.

553 players entered this tournament, and the final day actually started at 18 players. Perhaps the most amazing event of the day was the 'chip and a chair' story of third place finisher Jim Pechac. He started the day with 2000 chips, and managed to roll that into third place through an amazing string of double ups. Jim had resigned himself to winning $8k for 18th or so, but ended up walking off with 11 times that, $88k in total.

The winner Andrew Brown showed a lot of skill and a lot of heart taking down experienced pro Ted Forrest.

To read the excellent live reporting report about this tournament from our team on the floor in Vegas, click this link to get the full scoop.

This is how the final table paid out for Event #16:
1 $ 226,483 Andrew Brown
2 $ 143,420 Ted Forrest
3 $ 88,065 Jim Pechac
4 $ 71,961 Soheil Shamseddin
5 $ 58,877 Kia Hooshmand
6 $ 46,297 Ralph Perry
7 $ 36,232 Scott Clements
8 $ 28,684 Allan Enciso
9 $ 21,135 Jimmy Fricke

Event #17
Event #17 of the 2008 WSOP was a $1500 NL Holdem Shootout Tournament. The winner of the bracelet and $335k is Jason Young. He eliminated Michael Schwartz in second place who won $209k for his 2nd place finish.

The final hand was a coin flip for a bracelet essentially, as both guys had almost equal stacks. Schwartz had pocket fours against the AJ of young. An ace hit on the turn, and the tournament was done. No one was more relieved than Young due to prior events in the heads-up battle.

Young was almost made to look very sheepish, as he won a huge pot earlier in the heads-up that rendered him with around 95% of chips.
Young was rejoicing, kissing the dealer, and whooping it up as if he had already won it. Schwartz had other ideas however and managed to chip up to over a million in the next three hands. The crowd was obviously going crazy cheering the underdog against the arrogance of the eventual winner. If Young had ended up finishing 2nd, he would be having nightmares of his premature celebrations forever.

The highest European finish was by another Russian. The Russians seem to be doing pretty good so far in this WSOP. Sergey Rybachenko finished 7th, and was the only European on the final table.

This is how the final table paid out:
1 $ 335,565 Jason Young
2 $ 209,527 Mike Schwartz
3 $ 129,675 John Strzemp III
4 $ 82,582 Rory Monahan
5 $ 40,267 Matthew Giannetti
6 $ 23,887 Kyle Bowker
7 $ 15,697 Sergey Rybachenko
8 $ 12,421 Thomas West
9 $ 9,828 Alex Triner
10 $ 7,507 Casey Coleman