Lets take a moment to acknowledge those who are excelling at the 2009 World Series of Poker. Starting with The Champions Invitational which saw Tom McEvoy drive home in 1970 Corvette. All the other winners will have to settle for cash and a bracelet.

Andrew Cohen, a Las Vegas bartender was the first to capture a bracelet when he won the Casino Employees No-Limit Hold’em tournament. The Lady’s No-Limit Hold’em World Championship was won by Lisa Hamilton another Las Vegas native. The Seniors No-Limit Hold’em World Championship event awarded its bracelet to 58 year old Michael Davis.

Phil Ivey was the first player to win multiple bracelets when he won the Omaha/Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo Mixed event. Just nine days earlier he dominated the Duce to Seven Lowball event. Jeffrey Lisandro one-upped Phil by winning Seven Card Stud, Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo and Seven Card Razz this year. John Brock Parker won his 2 bracelets in back to back events. First in Limit and then in No-Limit Hold’em 6 Handed poker tournaments.

6 handed table are popular online poker games and this year there are 4 events dedicated to this game. Ken Aldridge won the first of these events. John Brock Parker won the next two and the fourth hasn’t been played yet.

No-Limit Hold’em is the biggest game in town and the WSOP features the game prominently in the lineup. Vitaly Lunkin won the first of 14 No-Limit Hold’em tournaments. Steve Sung, Travis Johnson, Anthony Harb, Kevin Stammen, Brian Lemke, Pete Vilandos, Mike Eise, Angel Guillen, Eric Baldwin, Jordan Smith and Ray Foley won the next 11. There are still two more No-Limit Hold’em tournaments to be played in addition to the main event. Jeff Carris and Peter Traply took bracelets in the No-Limit Hold’em Shootout tournaments. Leo Wolpert won the Heads-Up Championship event.

Tomas Alenius, Marc Naalden and Greg Mueller came out on top of the only Limit Hold’em tournaments.

Thang Luu and Matthew Graham won the 2 Omaha Hi/Lo events. Pot-Limit Omaha Hi/Lo awarded bracelets to Roland De Wolfe and Derek Raymond. Pot Limit Omaha handed bracelets to Jason Mercier, J. C. Tran and Richard Austin.

The Mixed poker events awarded bracelets to Ville Wahlbeck, Jerrod Ankenman and Bahador Ahmadi. Rami Boukai came out on top of Pot-Limit Hold’em/Omaha mixed tournament. So far HORSE has been won by Zachary Fellows and James Van Alstyne.

Freddie Ellis took the seventh bracelet in, fittingly enough, Seven Card Stud.

This has been an exciting start to the 2009 WSOP. There are still 10 bracelets to be awarded this year. That includes the main event which won’t conclude until sometime in early November. I am sure the rest of the WSOP will be equally exciting.