David Woo Wins World Series of Poker Event 39

In what turned out to be the second largest field of a 2008 World Series of Poker event thus far, Event 39, a $1,500 buy-in No-Limit Hold'em tournament attracted a total of 2,720 participants. It was the largest three day event so far, only eclipsed by Event 1, also a No-Limit Hold'em event, which played out over four days and attracted 3,929 players. The 2,720 players in Event 39 created a total prize pool of $3,712,800 paying 270 players with a first place finish payday of $631,550.

Coming into the final day of play, Thom Werthmann held the chip leader with 1,600,000 chips. Werthmann, a 2005 Pot-Limit Omaha bracelet winner, was unable to carry that advantage to the title, eventually finishing in fifth place.

Eventual champion, David Woo, came into the final table with 1,090,000, good for fourth largest stack. The South Korean-born resident of Atlanta was able to impose his will and ended up taking home the first bracelet of his poker career.

Runner-up Matt Wood, from Canada, came to the final table with a mid-sized stack and played solid game in coming up short of the bracelet. But in the end he wasn't able to overcome Woo and ended up taking home $389,844.

Previous to this, his first WSOP bracelet, David Woo had three other WSOP cashes including one in the 2006 Main Event. Woo took 132nd place that year and was even chip leader going into Day 4 of play.

The WSOP passed a milestone with the finish of Event 35. In the 2008 Series so far 12,000 players have cashed and 117 players have won over a million dollars.

Winner David Woo is officially listed as being from Atlanta, GA. Through the conclusion of Event #39 at this year's World Series of Poker, the gold bracelet count by nations and states reads as follows:

The Event #39 winner David Woo is to be classified as a professional since he left his job as a business owner and has supported himself by playing poker for about five years. Accordingly, the "Pro-Am" gold bracelet scoreboard currently reads:

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