DON McDERMOTT / PVT Doug Gregory, above, Tony Desmoni, middle and Skip Woodland, bottom, all from Pahrump, played in a $1,500 buy-in no-limit hold'em tournament at the World Series of Poker Saturday at the Rio All-Suites Hotel and Casino. That tournament was won by Phil Hellmuth Jr., who earned his record 11th WSOP bracelet by outlasting 2,619 opponents. Tony Desmoni Skip Woodland Advertisement

LAS VEGAS -- Skip Woodland, Doug Gregory and Tony Desmoni represented the Pahrump Valley in a $1,500 buy-in no-limit hold'em tournament at the World Series of Poker that began Saturday and ended Monday. But, by playing in that tournament, they became part of poker history.

The tournament -- the 15th in a series of 55 -- attracted 2,620 players and generated a prize pool of $3,587,220; it was won by Phil Hellmuth Jr. It was a record 11th WSOP bracelet for Hellmuth, who earned $637,254 for his victory.

The Pahrump players were eliminated on the first of three days in the tournament that ended Monday in the Rio All-Suites Hotel and Casino.

Several more Pahrump-area players are scheduled to compete this season, including Rollie Batayola, Rob Lisull and Jim Robertson. Butch Dole, who did not place in the Casino Employees tournament June 1, was knocked out of another $1,500-buy-in event without cashing.

Pahrump Valley players shouldn't feel disheartened, considering that through the first 12 events, few of the so-called giants of the game had made it to final tables, and none had won.

That streak ended in Event 13, won by Las Vegas pro Allen Cunningham. A final table player in the 2006 WSOP Championship event, Cunningham won the $5,000 pot-limit hold-em title, earning $487,287 out of a prize pool of $1,870,600.

The winners through 14 events included Steve Ballivikis, Ciaran O'Leary, Tom Schneider, Gary Styczynski, Burt Boutin, Michael Chu, Alexander Kravchenko, William Durkee the Fifth, Chris Reslock, Jason Warner and Michael Keiner, hardly household names in poker.

Boutin was the big winner, pocketing a payoff of $825,956 in a $5,000 buy-in pot-limit Omaha tournamnent that drew 145 players, who made 421 rebuys to balloon the final prize pool to $2,891,000.

O'Leary received $727,012 out of a $4.5 million prize pool in a $1,500 no-limit buy-in tournament. Chu earned $585,774 in a $1,000 buy-in (with rebuys) no-limit tournament. Ballivikis's payoff was $536,287 after winning the $5,000 mixed hold'em title. Warner made $481,698 after winning a no-limit hold-em six-handed tournament which had a $1,500 buy-in.

The $1,000 buy-in WSOP Women's championship tournament started Sunday, with more than 1,000 entries. The $1,000 Seniors championship is June 25-26-27.

Through 12 events, a total of 12,122 men and women had entered, with the total prize pool at $22,287,487.

In the Pahrump Nugget's series of free-roll no-limit hold'em tournaments to decide area representatives in the 2008 World Series of Poker, Buzz Busbee won the June event Saturday.

Busbee earned 10 points and the winner's share of a $2,100 prize pool. He now has 11 points in the series, which concludes in February 2008, when five $2,000 seats for the World Series of Poker will be awarded.

Rob Reddick was second, earning five points. Rupert Hodnett picked up three points for finishing third. Completing the top five were Barry Moffett and Rollie Batayola, who has 16 points and leads the standings after five tournaments.

Hodnett has 15 points; at 11 are Busbee, Jim Robertson and Rob Lisull; Terry Ferrington has 10; Tom Duke 6; Walter Mellon and Reddick, 5 each; Rene Soto and Jason Earnest, 3 each; Ray Guin, Gary Horvitz, Moffett, and Dave V 2 each, and Joe Beaupre, 1.

The next free roll is July 14; to qualify, players must record at least 40 hours of live play in the Nugget poker room.

The new poker room, incidentally, is scheduled to open in last June or early July. The new room is located in the space formerly occupied by the food court. The present poker room and sports book will be expanded, according to reliable sources.