Poker player wins gold after outlasting 2,828 players. The latest winner is Kirk Caldwell who took his first WSOP win. The 31-year-old is an amateur poker player who won his way into the World Series of Poker by winning a satellite tournament put together by himself and his friends. Caldwell's his first-ever WSOP cash means a $688,276 cash purse as well as a coveted gold bracelet. Caldwell is the fourth Canadian to win a title at the 2011 WSOP. Ben White took the 2nd place prize of $414,918.

Sam Stein continues to prove his worth at the WSOP. The 2011 World Series of Poker has served up a first win for Stein. While Stein is a poker player who has cashed a lot and made a lot of money playing live poker, he had yet to have a big win at the WSOP. This year changes all that as he claims his first bracelet. Event 31, the $3,000 Pot-limit Omaha, put up $1,870,050 in prize money, and after outlasting 3,752 player Stein walked with $420,802.

The latest WSOP winner is Andy Frankenberger. He won event 28 at the 2011 World Series of Poker for $599k. His biggest win prior to this victory was the $2,000 buy-in Venetian Deep Stack Extravaganza III in 2010, when he won $162,110. The 38 year old is not a poker pro despite his success, but rather is a Wall Street Equities Derivatives Trader. This year was running dry for Frankenberger in terms of poker games, as he had only banked $10,000 in live tournament winnings before joining the crowds at this summer's WSOP.

While many thought that the attendance would dip in the 2011 WSOP it turns out that is not the case. There is a good chance that the World Series of Poker will actually break attendance records this year. Last year there were a total of 72,000 attendees, and so far this year is on track to break that record. The Executive Director of the World Series of Poker, Ty Stewart, thinks they will crush that number. In fact attendance to date is up more than 10 percent from last year.

The $2,500 Six-Handed No-Limit Hold'em Event at this year's WSOP has it's winner. Oleksii Kovalchuk picks up his first WSOP victory and a lot of cash. The first place prize for this poker game was $689,739. It was Event 26 in the 2011 World Series of Poker, and the second time a player from the Ukraine won a gold bracelet (the first was Eugene Katchalov). In addition to the player from the Ukraine the country win breakdown is United States 13, Great Britain 3, France 2, Canada 2, Israel 1, Russia 1, Honduras 1 and Indonesia 1.

At the World Series of Poker Event 24 started with even chips for all players at the final table. The event was a shootout, which means that each player has to win his table before moving on. This means that at the start of each round all players have the same amount of chips. This WSOP event kicked off its final table with 1.5 million in chips for each poker pro. In the end it was Mark Radoja, who finished third in the $5,000 NL Hold'em Six-Max Event of 2010, who took the victory and $436,568.

One of the largest first place prizes of the season was won yesterday at the 2011 WSOP. The World Series of Poker Event 18 paid out $735,400 for first place. The winner was Foster Hays, who outlasted five tough players in the final day of play in the $1,500 no-limit hold’em event. Hays is an amateur poker player from Dallas, Texas where he works during the day as a medical researcher. Hays is only the second player to win a bracelet this season that is an amateur, with all the rest being poker pro

Hot on the heels of his countryman ElkY yet another French poker pro has won a WSOP event. World Series of Poker Event 22 went to Elie Payan. Payan beat out 1071 players, the largest field ever for a pot-limit Omaha tournament, in order to win his $292,825. Payan is a project manager from Orleans, France, and is 27 years old. The $1,500 pot-limit Omaha Event 22 was the first WSOP victory for the man who goes by "Punisher934" when playing online – and the first WSOP event he'd ever played.

The World Series of Poker $10k Stud event is over and done and has it's winner. Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier is the latest WSOP bracelet winner. ElkY, who once said he would retire from being a poker pro, beat out 126 players to win the prize and $331,639. This event was number 21, and ElkY has added its winnings to his total live tournament career earnings, which now approach eight million dollars. His furthest run in a WSOP event before this was a 9th place finish in 2007.

In one of the latest WSOP final matches Phil Hellmuth did not get his long sought after 12th bracelet. When day 3 of the $10,000 No-Limit 2-7 Lowball Championship the poker brat was poised to win. His march on his big day was halted by other poker pros hungry for the win, including John Juanda and Greg Raymer. Hellmuth went all the way to heads up with Juanda, but it wasn't to be. In the end John Juanda won his fifth WSOP bracelet and the $367,170 cash prize.