U.S. residents typically dominate most events at the World Series of Poker (WSOP), for the simple reason that the WSOP takes place in the U.S. and is most accessible to those living there.

But that domination was taken to a new level at the 2008 WSOP in Event #32–the top 21 finishers were all from the U.S.!

One had to drop down to 22nd place before finding the first non-U.S. resident among the finishers–a Canadian resident.

And, after that, 10 of the next 11 finishers were also from the U.S.

Those results are especially stunning when you consider that of the top 100 finishers in the event, just 85–or 85%–were from the U.S.

Event #32 was a $1,500 buy-in, no-limit Texas hold ‘em tournament that had 2,304 entrants, 198 payouts and a total prize pool of about $3.1 million.

The winner was Luis Velador of Lake Elsinore, California, picking up $573,734.

It’s his first career WSOP championship gold bracelet.

The runnerup was Tony Signore of Boynton Beach, Florida, collecting $366,387.

Coming in third was Osmin Dardon of West Covina, California, earning $243,734.

Fourth was Jae Chung of Atlanta, Georgia, winning $204,422.

Fifth was Shane Stacey of Hyde Park, Vermont, copping $166,862.

Sixth was Dean Bui of Seattle, Washington, snagging $132,088.

Seventh was Dan Georges of Burbank, California, collecting $100,638.

Eighth was Utsab Saha of Fremont, California, taking home $77,051.

Ninth was Justin Hoffman of Alpharetta, Georgia, earning $53,464.

Tenth was Ken Hughes of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, picking up $34,594.

The highest finisher not from the U.S. was Scott Bergman of Canada, finishing 22nd.

The world’s greatest poker player, Phil “Poker Brat” Hellmuth Jr., who has won a record 11 WSOP championship gold bracelets in his career, finished in 71st place in this tournament.

It was his 65th career cash in a WSOP event, pulling him one ahead of T.J. Cloutier, whom he was tied with at 64, and giving him that record back.

(E-mail Tom Somach at tomsomach@yahoo.)