From Curitiba, the largest city in Southern Brazil, 25 year old Alexander Gomes became the first Brazilian to win a World Series of Poker bracelet on Sunday as he closed the chapter on Event no. 48, the $2,000 No Limit Hold ‘em of the 2008 WSOP.

Alexander Gomes had no live tournament results to speak of before entering Event #48, but he outlasted 2,309 players and arrived at the final table with a healthy stack of just over 1 million chips, good for 4th place on the leaderboard.

Alexander Gomes got his first lucky break of the day when play was five-handed. Facing a pre-flop raise from chip leader Alan Cutler, Gomes moved all-in over the top and Cutler called with A-Q. Gomes turned over 7-6 and the flop of A-Q-J had Gomes with one foot out the door. Gomes needed running spades or running sixes or sevens to stay alive, and his large crowd of Brazilian supporters erupted when the turn and river came 6-6 to double up Gomes and rob Cutler of the elimination.

First Brazilian to win a WSOP bracelet

Finally after four days of poker, the $50,000 HORSE tournament is down to its nine players who will make up the final table of the World Series of Poker HORSE championship event.

The tournament is currently being lead by Erick Lindgren who has another chance of winning his second World Series of Poker bracelet. Lindgren currently possesses a chip stack of around 3.68 million.

Just 150k behind Erick Lindgren is another hugely recognizable player, Scotty Nguyen with 3.53 million who will be looking for WSOP bracelet number five and a little revenge for just barely missing the final table in last year’s Main Event.

Read more on Erick Lindgren leads the WSOP HORSE poker tournament

Martin Klaser scored one for Germany Thursday night, bringing their 2008 WSOP bracelet total to three. Martin Klaser dominated short-handed play en route to his first World Series of Poker title in event no. 43, the $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha Eight-or-Better tournament.

After besting a field of 720 players and a final table that included Team Full Tilts Erik Seidel. Martin Klaser entered heads-up play with a 3:1 chip lead over Casey Kastle and played an ultra-aggressive style that saw him win all but three of the 19 hands that were dealt.

Read more on Martin Klaser wins 2008 WSOP Bracelet event no. 43 $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha Eight-or-Better poker tournament

John “The Razor” Phan showed steel nerves as he faced a final table that was overflowing with poker talent. In the end, The Razor slashed his competition to bits as he picked up his second bracelet this year, inching closer to the title 2008 World Series of Poker Player of the Year.

After picking up his first WSOP bracelet in the $3,000 No Limit Hold’em tournament, Phan came out on top in the not-too-popular $2,500 Deuce-to-Seven Triple Draw Low Ball event. Not an easy feat considering the final table was graced with poker stalwarts David Slansky, who was desperately trying to end a 25-year WSOP bracelet drought, Robert Mizrachi and 2007 bracelet winner Ben Ponzio.

The competition got intense as Phan and Gioi Luong started to get on each other’s nerves after an incident where Phan accidentally posted his big blind after the gun. The incident passed after a few heated words but both players erupted again after the dealer discarded the wrong card. For a second it looked as though the players were going to come to blows but cooler heads, or rather the floor, intervened. In any case, Phan got the best of Luong this time as it was he who sent Luong to the rail.

Read more on Razor Picks up Second Bracelet in 2008 WSOP

After five long years, Layne Flack is back on top after winning his sixth World Series of Poker bracelet in the $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha w/ Rebuys Tournament. Dubbed “Back to Back Flack” for winning two consecutive World Series of Poker tournaments in 2002, Flack not only picked up $577,725 for first place but has also earned back people’s respect.

Flack’s battle with recreational drug use was well publicized. In fact, Daniel Negreanu (who incidentally picked up his own bracelet in this year’s WSOP) paid $60,000 to get him into rehab. It looks like it was money well spent as Flack has apparently put his past behind him and is now in top form. “I got off track pretty good for a while, I spent the last year regrouping and getting my life back together,” Flack related in an interview.

Don’t think that this win was a walk in the park for Flack. He was in for twenty-two rebuys which meant he had to finish in at least 12th place to make any sort of profit in this tournament. He was also facing a final table that had ten World Series of Poker bracelets among them.

Read more on Layne Flack Ends Five-Year WSOP Bracelet Drought

With two World Poker Tour titles, over $2,000,000 in live poker tournament winnings, there was only one thing missing in David Benyamine’s poker career—a World Series of Poker bracelet. Finally, Benyamine puts his critics to rest by winning his first World Series of Poker bracelet in the 2008 $10K Omaha Hi/Lo Split event.

No stranger to the WSOP, Benyamine had to settle for three WSOP final tables and two top 15 finishes in the past. This year, however, is a different story as he dominated a final table full of poker pros to win the $535,687 first place prize. This win edged Benyamine in second place at the 2008 WSOP Player of the Year standings.

Poker aficionados have been calling the 2008 WSOP the “Year of the Pros.” True to form, the final table of Event # 34 was graced with luminaries Mike Matusow, Toto Leonidas, David Chiu and Tony Ma. When the dust cleared, Benyamine found himself with a 3-to-1 chip advantage against Greg Jamison in heads up play.

Read more on David Benyamine Finally Snags WSOP Bracelet

Who’d have thought that someone with a handle like OMGClayAiken can kick serious poker butt? Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond has built a solid reputation as an accomplished online high stakes poker player, winning almost a million dollars on one site alone. Now, he has crossed over and faced off with the toughest final table so far at the 2008 World Series of Poker and has come out ahead.

The Final Table of Event #28 at the 2008 WSOP Pot-Limit Omaha w/ Rebuys looked like a Who’s Who list of professional poker. Johnny Chan was there trying to win his 11th bracelet. Phil Helmuth was trying to put a damper on Chan’s plan by trying to win his 12th. Fresh from his WSOP $2,000 Limit Hold’em win, Daniel Negreanu was determined to get his second bracelet of the year. Add John Juanda, David Benyamine, and Kirill Gerasimov to the list and you’ll gain a new respect for OMGClayAiken.

It all came down to heads up with OMGClayAiken facing off with fellow online poker player Adam “the_houdini” Hourani. Galfond had a 3 to 2 chip advantage and he slowly but surely chipped away at Hourani’s stack. In the end, Hourani had to settle for second place and a still massive $493,748 payday.

Read more on Online Phenomenon OMGClayAiken Picks Up First WSOP Bracelet

If this is what good karma does to you, every poker player should start donating to charity more often. Or at least, that is what Barry Greenstein has led us to believe after collecting his third championship WSOP bracelet at Event #26, the $1,500-buyin, Razz tournament at the 2008 World Series of Poker.

Greenstein has simply been flexing his muscles at this year’s WSOP. This is his second final table, having finished in third place at the $5,000 with re-buy No Limit Deuce to Seven Lowball Draw Event. The former Symantec software developer has now accumulated around $6 million in career winnings. With that kind of money, it is no wonder that the so-called Robin Hood of poker can afford to donate his tournament winnings to charities.

The Razz tournament attracted a total of 413 players and a $618,345 prize pool. As with other less known poker games, meaning NOT Texas Hold’em, players found themselves facing a relatively small but tough field peppered with poker pros including Andy Bloch, Men “The Master” Nguyen, Vanessa Rousso, Doyle Brunson, defending champion Katja Thater, Greg Raymer and Huck Seed.

Read more on Greenstein Dominates WSOP Razz Event to Win Third Bracelet

It took Mike Matusow 12 hours to outlast a stellar poker line-up to win his third World Series of Poker bracelet at Event #18, the $5,000 No-Limit 2-7 Draw with Rebuys. Every seat at the final table held a poker star and the players held eight WSOP bracelets between them. For his hard work, Matusow earned $537,862 for first place.

In one of the toughest final tables ever, Matusow found himself facing recent WSOP bracelet winner Erick Lindgren, two-time WSOP bracelet winner Barry Greenstein, 2007 WSOP Player of the Year Tom Schneider and fellow bad boy of poker Tony ‘G’ Guoga.

Event #18 was one of the obscure games with a large enough buy-in to attract only an elite field of 85 players including Doyle Brunson, Johnny Chan, Erik Seidel and Phil Hellmuth.

There were 272 rebuys and add-ons, building a massive $1,735,020 prize pool. After his win, Matusow ran up to the crowd screaming as his supporters applauded his achievement. “I never gave up, I played with the greatest patience I could. I’m really proud of myself,” said Matusow after his phenomenal win.

Read more on Mike “The Mouth” Matusow Claims Third WSOP Bracelet

Who would have thought that a guy with the name Huckleberry can terrorize the pants off opponents in a poker table? It doesn’t help that he stands an ominous 6 ft and 7 inches tall. It is probably a relief that four-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner Huck Seed is actually one of the quietest players in poker, rarely speaking at the table. No surprise there. Someone as poker savvy as Huck can let his skills do the talking.

Born in 1968, in Corvallis, Montana, Huck Seed showed an early interest in mathematics and sports. Seed was a member of the 1987 Montana All-State basketball team and was a star player on Caltech’s basketball team where he was an electrical engineering student. Seed took a leave of absence in 1989 to start playing poker and ended up turning his back on college all together.

As of 2007, Seed’s tournament winnings exceed $3,500,000. He won the 1996 World Series of Poker main event, taking home the $1,000,000 first prize. He also came in 6th place at the 1999 WSOP. At the 2007 Main Event, Seed finished 73rd out of a staggering 6,358 players.

Read more on Poker Player Profile: Huck Seed