The man everyone is talking about again this week has been the legend Phil Ivey, who racked up his eighth bracelet of his relatively short career. Following on from cashes in the $1,500 Stud-8 event and making twelfth in the $2,500 Pot-Limit Hold’em /Omaha mixed, the great man finally conquered another event.

In the H.O.R.S.E event he effortlessly swept through to a heads-up battle with Bill Chen, although Ivey was considerably behind in the chip count. The cool as a cucumber Ivey overcame his opponent with his usual unflustered persona, whilst the packed rails were overawed with excitement at the Rio Hotel in Vegas. The emotionless Ivey barely flinched, as he simply ground down his opponent to clinch a quite remarkable eighth bracelet in such a short space of time. One can only imagine how many World Series bracelets Mr. Ivey will end up with, but he looks certain to break all previous records if the interest remains.

Good pal and team member Howard Lederer may not be celebrating as much as some might think, for it is rumoured that Lederer has laid some pretty hefty side bets with Ivey not winning two bracelets between 2010-12 totaling $5 million in fact. Part one done!

Elsewhere, after a short interruption for a power cut in $2,500 Seven Card Razz tournament Frank Kassela became the first person this year to win two World Series bracelets. Kassela was struggling to hold his position before the lights went out, but the electrical power surge certainly shocked Kassela into action. After a swift move to a brighter spot of the hall, Kassela took no prisoners in eliminating the final competitors to pick up the $214,085 prize.

Speaking to the WSOP news teams afterwards he seemed more concerned about an Ocean Elevens style heist "It was startling,"Kassela said referring to the power cut. "All we did was cover our chips. I was just sitting in my chair in the darkness and lowered my hands and covered my chips. We had an emergency light from someone's cell phone. The tournament director told us to pull back our antes and we sat there and waited until the lights came back on. Then, the lights came back on enough for us to play four more minutes until the end of the level. After that we moved to the main table. It was a good thing."   It most certainly was for Kassela, who has now joined an immortal group in winning two WSOP events in the same tournament. The tournament promotion team have been quick to jump on the power cut issue, turning it into a comical tale after labeling the winner Frank ‘Lights out’ Kassela.

Tournament director Jack Effel has revealed that WSOP 2010 contrary to earlier predictions has been a huge success, with attendance figures actually up on the previous year. Actual figures including 40 tournaments played showed an increase of 11.4%, with a total figure of 43,832 participants so far.

Bracelet count per country:
United States– 27
United Kingdom– 4
Others - 9