Update #11: Asian Winners & Leaders in the 2007 38th Annual World Series of Poker

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Event 26 - H.O.R.S.E, $5000 buy-in is now COMPLETE. Repeating from the last update since it was "heads up" the last time we wrote & Yuebin Guo had already won 3rd place for $99,264 in winnings just ahead of Phil Ivey in 4th and Alexander Jung in 6th taking home $37,901. [COMPLETE]

Having 4 players on the final table in Event 27 - No-Limit Hold'em, $1500 buy-in, we had a really good chance of getting another bracelet. Young Cho did get heads up, but got edged out by a non-Asian to take home $382,357 and runner up. David Woo took 5th ($115,339), Thai Ton 9th ($36,340) and Benjamin Kang took 10th ($28,124). Nevertheless, Young Cho did beat 2314 other players to receive that honor. [COMPLETE]

My friend Jason Song finally hit the big time. He taught me Baccarat last year & I lost touch with him wondering if he was still on the trail for a big win. Well, I was right, but didn't realize he honed his skills well enough to take 3rd. He took home $212,274.00 for his first big win of his life and I'm sure many more. He did it against 826 other players in Event 28 - No-Limit Hold'em, $3000 buy-in. Phil Hellmuth tried to get his 12th WSOP bracelet, but Jason and others prevented that from happening . By the way Jason, if you ever read this, comment below your latest contact info. I'd love to reconnect. [COMPLETE]

Phi Nguyen took 7th in the 341 player full Event 29 - Seven Card Razz, $1500 buy-in. [COMPLETE]

Another final table was chalked full of Asians. Event 30 - No-Limit Hold'em - Six Handed, $2500 buy-in, had 847 entries and 3 of the final table were Asians. Terrance Chan took 3rd ($287,345), William Lin took 3rd ($196,758) and Steve Wong took 7th ($47,339). [COMPLETE]

Heads up play is a unique brand of poker and in Event 31 - World Championship Heads-Up No-Limit Hold'em, $5000 buy-in with 392 people testing their metal, Kevin Song took 9th and his 2nd cash of the series. [COMPLETE]

Asians don't seem to be fans of 7 Card Stud and in Event 32 - Seven Card Stud, $2000 buy-in only 213 players entered showing that maybe most people aren't as interested in the game. It showed with us only getting 12th with David cashing for the 3rd time this series. [COMPLETE]

Still in Progress: Even 33, Pot Limit Omaha with Chau Giang in 4th (in chips) and the final table set. David Pham and Brandon Wong (seeking his 4th cash of the 2007 WSOP) made the final table of the Limit Holdem event #34. Pat Cheung and Nam Le made the final table in the 2541 player deep Event #35 NL Holdem event. Down to 57 players in the PL event #37.

Most popular Asian Poker Players on the web - criteria: number of webpages with references to them

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Good looks and history are probably the biggest reasons why the top Asian players on this list of top Professional Asian Poker Players appear on the Internet so much. For example, professional Evelyn Ng has only made $222k on the Poker Tournament circuit along with a very new face in Maria Ho who's barely made a dent earning $26k have tens of thousands of mentions on the Internet. At the same time poker professional Can Kim Hua has made over $2.5 million in only 6 years cashing 106 times and winning over 15 events while fellow poker pro Kevin Song has made over $2.75 million so far on the professional poker tournament circuit and even has a World Series of Poker bracelet in the 1997 Limit Hold'em event. While Kevin has history, perhaps if he looked good in a one piece bathing suit, he would have a few more pages on the Internet dedicated to him. Maybe at the same time, he may like the "under the radar" situation he has going on for him now.

Most popular on the Internet - Study #2
1. Johnny Chan 220,000 results
2. John Juanda 124,000 results
3. Scotty Nguyen 108,000 results
4. J.C. Tran 52,300 results
5. Evelyn Ng 53,600 results
6. David Pham 41,200 results
7. Liz Lieu 36,000 results
8. J.J. Liu ("JJ Liu" + "Joanne Liu") 31,050 results
9. Chau Giang 30,800 results
10. David Chiu 25,900 results

Honorable mention: Men Nguyen 27,400 results, Nam Le 23,500 results , "Mimi" Tran 18,400 results, Maria Ho 17,600 results, William Chen 16,100 results, Tuan Le 15,700 results, Hieu Ngoc "Tony" Ma 14,890 results ("Tony Ma" + "Hieu Ngoc"), Minh Nguyen 11,000 results, Minh Ly 10,800 results, Bernard Lee (poker) 10,600 results, Paul Lee 10,500 results

Other notables: Tim Phan 9210 results, Connie Kim 8760 results, Gioi Luong 5770 results, Hung La 3260 results, Yoshio Nakano 2580 results, Theo Tran 2560 results, Thang "Kido" Pham 1719 results ("Thang Pham" + "Kido Pham" + "Thang 'Kido' Pham"), Kenny Tran 1260 results, Anh Van Nguyen 940 results, Can Kim Hua 866 results, Sang Pham 831 results, Steve Sung 609 results, Kevin Song 606 results, John Hoang 578 results, Danny Wong (poker) 543 results

*Results based on the most used search engine on the Internet as of 6.5.07 through 6.6.07. Searches were conducted in a relatively unscientific manner, but were the number of results returned when conducting each search based on the names the players most commonly use in public.

Update #3: Asian Winners & Leaders in the 2007 38th Annual World Series of Poker

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In the 327 player $2500 buy-in Omaha/Seven Card Stud/Low 8/OB event (Event #5), John Phan placed 8th earning him $14,422 more than his $2500 buy-in. It was an incredibly tough field to beat out...so making the final table was an accomplishment in itself. He competed on the final table with the infamous Annie Duke, Chris "Jesus" Ferguson, Chris Bell and David Benyamine. Scotty Nguyen finished in 10th place. [COMPLETE]

In a huge turn of events, Brandon Wong was eliminated before the final table of 9. Brandon was the chip leader with 16 players to go in Event #6, the $1500 Limit Hold-em event. In the initial stages, Wong was in 2nd place, then ended the 2nd day in 7th with 90 players. Hansu Chu though is keeping our hopes alive for the first Asian WSOP bracelet being in 3rd place in chips. Dariush Imani is also on the final table, 8th in chips. Tommy Hang failed to keep his 1st place in chips moving into the final day and placed 42nd (not bad) earning him $5714. In the same position, Nhu Muynh earned the same amount. Micheal Sun (#14 in chips after day #2) and David Chiu (#17 in chips after day #2) unfortunately didn't cash despite their great efforts. [IN PROGRESS]

The above event was updated, but the following will be updated in #4 later today.
In Event #7, $5000 with multiple rebuys buy-in Pot-Limit Omaha, John Juanda (900,000 chips) was overtaken by David "Devil Fish" Ulliot barely (only 47,000 chips) to hold onto a 2nd place standing with 11 people to go. Minh Ly is also on the final table in 9th with 235,000 chips. Chau Giang finished 18th earning him $31,801. Johnny Chan placed 36th failing to cash. Joining these Poker Pros are David "Chip" Reese (7th) and Andrew Black (10th). [IN PROGRESS]