45 remaining...

...of 8,773. Except for Allan Cunningham and Humberto Brennes all the others are more or less so called no-names. But are they "donks", too? Surely not. After re-reading my last blog entry I felt it sounds like I think that way about the possible winner (if it's a non-pro). But that isn't the case.

I may like or dislike some of those 45 players left (and I think I like Jamie Gold and route for him) but nobody can survive over 8,000 poker players just with luck. Of course there's luck involved - otherwise Phil Helmuth would have won ;-)) but all of them proofed to be great poker players. Maybe so far they never got the opportunity to show how great they are or maybe they played the best poker in their live in the last few days. It doesn't matter ... belonging to the last 45 is a great accomplishment.

Are they the best in the world? Most probably not. As said before there's luck involved and luck is closely connected to the "bad beat". Some better players may have been just unlucky at an important moment ... but hell, that's poker. That happens in a 10-player sng as well as in the biggest tournament of the world.

One of those 45 will step out of the dark and become a well known name. Great for him! Give him a bow (even if you don't like him). He deserved it. But the sad part is that most of the other 44 and many others behind them (who played great poker) will be soon forgotten. The poker world only loves the winners.

There's no way you can honor all of them but being from Germany I like to mention a few german players (as well as fellow austrians and swiss players) finishing in the money:

Marc Friedmann - Zurich, Switzerland, placed 39th and received $247,399
Sebastian Zavarsky - Reckendorf, Germany, placed 81st and received $65,973
Markus Golser - Salzburg, Austria, placed 239th and received $42,882
George Danzer - Germany, placed 305th and received $38,759

Congratulations! Hope I didn't forget anybody.