Keeping up with the World Series of Poker's fifty-five different event is a little more daunting then I could imagine. Good thing the excellent reporting team at PokerNews has some of the best reporters surfing the huge waves of bracelet hopefuls in order to bring those of us that could not attend, a great taste of the chips and money flying at the Rio Hotel and Casino leading up to the Main Event to be played next month.

Event numbers eight and nine allowed a few more poker players to add on to their bankrolls by large amounts with the huge fields that are coming out nightly to play in these events.

Rebuy events are well-known for their large prize pools due to the gambling nature of first few hours where a player can merely shout out "REBUY!" and "only" a $1,000 buy in they managed to put together $500,000+ to give to the winner. Despite road blocks with names like Shane "Shaniac" Schleger, Amir Vahedi, and 90's infomercial icon Tommy Vu, 27 year old Michael Chu walked away with the $585,744 first prize.

Here's the final hands from PokerNews:

Chu chipped away at Vu and took control on Hand 132. After Vu limped from the button, Chu raised to 280K and Vu called. On a 9-8-3 rainbow flop, Vu casually waved his hands at the table and said, "All in." Chu put his tournament life on the line in an instant, showing his J-10 for an open-ended straight draw. Vu was ahead at this point with his , but Chu had fourteen outs twice to take the hand and stay alive. The turn brought a blank, but a river filled Chu's jack-high straight for the pivotal pot.

The end came six hands later. Vu moved all in pre-flop and Chu called. Vu's was slightly behind the A-3 off-suit of Chu and, when the board came , he had fifteen outs to return the favor to Chu. This time, though, there would be no spade on the turn or river and Michael Chu earned the $585,744 first-place money for his first World Series triumph.

Omaha High/Low Eight or Better was spread for 690 hopefuls in event nine. Jordan "imsOLucky" Morgan fresh off his 2nd place standings at the US Poker Championships came in hoping for a little more luck in this split game variation. Unfortunately for Morgan his wrap flush draws didn't come in for him allowing Alex Kravchenko to take home the bracelet over a table of lesser "known" pros.

PokerNews was there once again with the final table call:

Heads up, Kravchenko (1,375,000) held a nearly 2:1 lead over Devonshire (695,000). The two pushed chips back and forth and skipped their scheduled dinner break, and soon afterwards, Kravchenko was able to take the tournament. Devonshire was all in with a board of 4-Q-Q-4-8 and tabled A-A-8-5 for aces up. Kravchenko, however, showed A-10-9-4 for a set of fours to take the championship bracelet in the $1,500 Omaha Hold 'Em Hi/Lo event.

PLAYERS - EARNINGS

1. Alex Kravchenko - $228,446
2. Bryan Devonshire - $140,336
3. John Varner - $92,301
4. J. R. Reiss - $60,749
5. Bryan Andrews - $43,796
6. Yueqi 'Rich' Zhu - $33,907
7. Jordan Morgan - $25,430
8. Jeffrey Calkins - $18,837
9. Richard Ashby - $13,657*