First up is Event #27 the £1,500 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em tournamant which attracted a mammoth field of 2,126 players, supplying total prize money of $2,901,990.

This one saw the first Scandinavian win of 2006, with Mats Rahmn taking down the first place prize of $655,141 and the coveted gold bracelet.

After 2,117 players had been eliminated over two long days, nine players took the final table on the Rio stage. The nine finalists comprised a very tough lineup, although none had previously won a WSOP gold bracelet.

Of the nine players, the table was split along continental lines: six Americans and three Europeans, and it was the three players from the old world that prevailed.