Bodog Beat

Team Bodog poker players took home just under $2 million in cash from the 2007 World Series of Poker and the Bellagio Cup III this past summer in Las Vegas. (Bodog Beat Image)

As 2007 comes to a close (we know, can you freakin' believe it?), we here at the Beat thought we'd take a look back on a few reasons why this past year was a memorable one for Team Bodog. To start with, we'll take a look at how Team Bodog combined to take home just under $2 million in prize money from Las Vegas this past summer at the 2007 WSOP, the Bellagio Cup III and a couple of other smaller tournaments.

During the 2007 WSOP preliminary events, Team Bodog earned $1,121,843 for their combined finishes. Three of Team Bodog's young Internet guns each had final table appearances with Michael Graves securing a WSOP bracelet in the $1,000 No Limit Hold'em with Rebuys event and Yuval Bronshtein and Justin "ZeeJustin" Bonomo finishing third and fourth in their respective events. Bodog poker pros David Williams, Josh Arieh and Evelyn Ng combined for five WSOP cashes in five separate preliminary events.

The 2007 WSOP Main Event saw the Black and Red continue their success with eight players reaching the money for a total of $524,142. Included in that count were the last two women standing: Kelly Jo McGlothlin finished in 95th place and Maria Ho in 38th place. Showing that poker skills runs in the family, Shirley Williams, mother of David Williams, outlasted 5,893 other entrants on her way to cashing.

Outside of the WSOP, Team Bodog racked up two Bellagio Cup III wins courtesy of David Williams and another Team Bodog online poker phenom, Johnathan "UFPokerStar" Westra, who also added a second-place finish to his tally at the Bellagio. Smith "nevertilt22″ Collins contributed his own fourth place finish to these for an impressive combined total of $305,023.

At the Binion's Poker Classic and Venetian Deep Stack Extravaganza, yet another young Team Bodog online poker pro, Jose "papadelpoker" de la Guardia, took home $13,782 for two deep runs, one in each tournament.

All in all, the total Team Bodog tally from Las Vegas was an impressive $1,921,497. Not too bad and a great goal to shoot for in just six months time when the summer poker tournaments – 2008 WSOP, Bellagio Cup IV – kick off in Las Vegas again. Oh, and in case we hadn't mentioned before, we will be stuck in the freezing cold media room while the 120 degree weather rages outside. It's like being caught between a rock and a hard place, but we really hate being cold.