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Event 25, No-Limit Hold'em

Buy-In: $2,000
Entrants: 1,619
Final Table: June 17, 2007
Bracelet Winner: Ben Ponzio wins $599,467

Ben is a graduate of the University of Illinois with a degree in Speech and Communications and currently works as an advertising sales manager for WBBM-FM in Chicago. This is his fourth World Series including a cash finish in 2005 ($2,000/No-Limit Hold’em).

Event 26, H.O.R.S.E.

Buy-In: $5,000
Entrants: 192
Final Table: June 17, 2007
Bracelet Winner: Ralph Schwartz wins $275,683

Ralph works as a money manager on Wall Street and comes to this year's WSOP with about four years of serious poker experience to his credit. Fighting his way back from $2,000 in chips on Day 1 of the $5k H.O.R.S.E. event Schwartz dominated the final Omaha round, beat his heads-up with Bill Gazes, and took his first WSOP gold jewelry.

Event 27, No-Limit Hold'em

Buy-In: $1,500
Entrants: 2,315
Final Table: June 18, 2007
Bracelet Winner: Dave Stucke wins $603,069

A physics professor from Henderson, Nevada, Dave received his degree from Carnegie-Melon University and advanced degrees from Iowa State and Penn State. Whether that background helps his game or not he hasn't said but either way he's demonstrated that a guy with a head for higher maths can appreciate, and win, a serious game of No-Limit Hold'em.

Event 28, No-Limit Hold'em

Buy-In: $3,000
Entrants: 827
Final Table: June 19, 2007
Bracelet Winner: Shankar Pillai wins $527,829

One of this years Cinderella stories Shankar not only entered the WSOP for the first time this year but this event was his first WSOP event. That gold bracelet will make a nice souvenir for a guy that Phil Hellmuth described as "an animal at the poker table."

Event 29, Seven-Card Razz

Buy-In: $1,500
Entrants: 341
Final Table: June 19, 2007
Bracelet Winner: Katja Thater wins $132,653

This 40-something player from Hamburg, Germany is a pretty tough character. She's got no time for the "women in poker" chats that the WSOP media keep trying to engage her in and she describes the WSOP bracelet she won as "ugly."

What does she care about? Her performance at the table, her husband's thoughts on her play, and the couple dozen other German players that she hangs with at the tournament. After tanking at the final table of a PokerStars ladies event a few days previously she was out for blood and found it in this Razz event, even though she calls it "the sickest game."

"Holding the worst hand?," she says laughing, "That's really sick."

Event 30, No-Limit Hold'em/Six Handed

Buy-In: $2,500
Entrants: 847
Final Table: June 18, 2007
Bracelet Winner: Hoyt Corkins wins $515,065

Hoyt has been in the game a long time: "I only play poker and have been for 27 years," he says in his trademark "no bull" style. Raised in rural Alabama he learned poker from his father at an early age, crediting him with his astute ability to read the table.

Phil Hellmuth has nicknamed him "Mr. All-In" but others call him "Nightmare". He's a long-time table rival of T.J. Cloutier who busted him out in Event 27 this year: "T.J. has been my nemesis for many years and we go way back." This is his first WSOP win and by his own standards -- "First of all, I want to make money," he says -- he should be pretty.

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