The 38th event of the 2008 WSOP would start off with some domination by Michael Binger as he bolted out to the lead in the $2,000 buy-in event. 

He was quickly eyeing the top prize out of the $1,101,100 available.  But his day 1 lead wasn’t totally secure as a host of other players challenged for the bracelet as well.

Players such as Lee Watkinson, Marco Traniello, Clonie Gowen, and Vannessa Rousso would all battle their way into the upper echelon of the chip leaders.

Others who would quickly bow out of the tourney included Kathy Liebert, John “The Razor” Phan, Tom Schneider and Marcel Luske.  Here’s how the day 1 leaderboard looked:

Rank/Player/Chips
1. Michael Binger 146,100
2. Davidi Kitai 97,600
3. Ayaz Mahmood 97,600
4. David Chicotsky 94,100
5. Ben  Roberts 81,900
6. Chris Bell 80,200
7. Shane Schleger 79,400
8. George Shahrezay 76,500
9. Lee Watkinson 74,500
10. Eric Lupovich 73,500

The second day started with 63 players left from the original 605.  The day would not go well for certain people such as Clonie Gowen, Marco Traniello, and Vanessa Rousso who all had quick exits. 

The aforementioned Michael Binger decided to try and make a big move even though he was sitting quite comfortably in the final two tables.  Then he bowed out to Chris Bell’s pocket jacks and left the table visibly angry.

Here’s how the final table looked going into day 3:

Seat/Player/Chips
Seat 1: David Kitai – 274,000
Seat 2: Ben Roberts – 82,000
Seat 3: Ayaz Mahmood – 314,000
Seat 4: Michael Greco – 120,000
Seat 5: Chris Bell – 260,000
Seat 6: Jan Von Halle – 485,000
Seat 7: Robert Cheung – 352,000
Seat 8: Keith Greer – 238,000
Seat 9: Lee Watkinson – 357,000

The eliminations started quickly with Chris Bell’s pocket aces one-upping Michael Greco’s pocket kings on a board that only turned up a 10 pair.

Then Robert Cheung got some help from the board to pair J’s against Ben Roberts’ pocket 7’s putting Roberts out.  Ayaz Mahmood could only show J-9 for his all-in call against Chris Bell who flopped the top pair of queens.

The 6th place finisher would be Robert Cheung as Chris Bell dished out another elimination when he rivered a straight against pocket 9’s.

Lee Watkinson, who’s been doing well in tournament all year, would have his day end next when Chris Bell rivered a flush against him.  Jan Von Halle would take 4th place as he was eliminated by David Kitai.

Chris Bell would knock out the final player before heads-up play in Keith Greer with pocket queens.  This set up the David Kitai and Chris Bell match-up. 

Despite all the people he took all-in chips from, Bell only led by 425,000 chips going in.  And Kitai would chip away at this lead with numerous small victories until he was far ahead of Bell.

The last hand saw Bell go all-in with suited A-J only to be beaten by an A-K kicker combo on a 10-high board.  Kitai won the bracelet and $244,583 for the win.

Here’s some more results:

Rank/Player/Money
1. Davidi Kitai $244,583 
2. Chris Bell $155,805 
3. Keith Greer $94,694 
4. John Von Halle $77,077 
5. Lee Watkinson $63,313 
6. Robert (RCW) Cheung $50,100 
7. Ayaz Mahmood $39,089 
8. Benjamin (Ben) Roberts $30,830 
9. Michael Greco $22,572 
10. Benjamin Zamani $14,314 
11. Michael Binger $14,314 
12. Charles Lehr $14,314 
13. Jeff Sluzinski $11,561 
14. Amato Galasso $11,561 
15. Chris Dombrowski $11,561 
16. Neil Channing $8,808 
17. Davood Mehrmand $8,808 
18. Eugene Todd $8,808 
19. Daniel Quinn $6,606 
20. Robert Perry $6,606 
21. Al Adler $6,606 
22. Philip Lowery $6,606 
23. David Brooker $6,606 
24. Jonathan Tamayo $6,606 
25. Blake Stepp $6,606