2008 WSOP FINAL RESULTS for Event 41

2008 World Series of Poker
Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino
Las Vegas, Nevada

Official Report
Event # 41
Mixed Hold’em (Limit/No-Limit)
Buy-In:  $ 1,500
Number of Entries:  731
Number of Re-Buys:  NA
Total Net Prize Pool: $ 997,815
June 22-24, 2008

Final Results:

1    Frank Gary    $219,562     Fort Myers     Florida
2    Jonathan Tamayo    $140,093     Humble    Texas
3    Nick Binger    $84,814     Las Vegas    Nevada
4    Chris Rentes    $69,348     Kinnegad    Ireland
5    Alex Jalali    $56,875     Bochum    Germany
6    David Machowsky    $44,901     Dayton    Ohio
7    Mats Gavatin    $34,923     Stockholm    Sweden
8    Michael Chu    $27,439     Los Angeles    California
9    David Sorger    $19,956     Toronto    Ontario, Canada
10    Todd Witteles    $12,472     Las Vegas    Nevada
11    Justin St. John    $12,472     Pittsburgh    Pennsylvania
12    Samuel Hiatt    $12,472     Dekalb    Illinois
13    Elliot Smith    $9,978     Richmond    British Columbia, Canada
14    Hien Tran    $9,978     Sacramento    California
15    Klein Bach    $9,978     Las Vegas    Nevada
16    Daniel Kraus    $7,483
17    Jeffrey Norman    $7,483     Encinitas    California
18    Anh Nguyen    $7,483     Mississauga    Ontario, Canada
19    Michael Rosenthal    $5,687     Las Vegas    Nevada
20    Alexander Borteh    $5,687     Lewis Center    Ohio
21    Ricky Sanders    $5,687     Wolfforth    Texas
22    Peter Rho    $5,687     Las Vegas    Nevada
23    Nicolas Ragot    $5,687     Remmes    France
24    Michele Guzzardi    $5,687     Melbourne    Australia
25    Jason Ruffinelli    $5,687     Oxnard    California
26    Daniel Deveau    $5,687     Henderson    Nevada
27    John Keefe    $5,687     Fayetteville    North Carolina
28    Jan Von Halle    $4,689     Hamburg    Germany
29    Greg De Bora    $4,689     Thornhill    Ontario, Canada
30    Mitchell Schock    $4,689     Bismarck    North Dakota
31    Marc Goldman    $4,689     Irvine    California
32    Dmitry Levi    $4,689     Staten Island    New York
33    John Sidoni    $4,689     Saint Mary’s    Pennsylvania
34    Lorenzo Bosforo    $4,689     San Diego    California
35    Otto Richard    $4,689         France
36    Duane Graff    $4,689     Hickory Hills    Illinois
37    Edwin Kim    $3,691     Las Vegas    Nevada
38    Jose Tavares    $3,691     Northridge    California
39    Christopher Podlewski    $3,691     Las Vegas    Nevada
40    Marc Levy    $3,691     Boynton Beach    Florida
41    Ronnie Hofman    $3,691     Dordrecht    Netherlands
42    Cynthia Graflund    $3,691     Las Vegas    Nevada
43    David Levi    $3,691     Las Vegas    Nevada
44    John Parker    $3,691     Silver Springs    Maryland
45    Millie Shiu    $3,691     Las Vegas    Nevada
46    Zhehao Zhang    $3,392     Las Vegas    Nevada
47    Alan Adler    $3,392     Bakersfield    California
48    Nam Le    $3,392     Huntington Beach    California
49    Kengo Ito    $3,392     Tokyo    Japan
50    Richard Redmond    $3,392     London    England
51    Rolf Slotboom    $3,392     Amsterdam    Holland
52    Corey Parpart    $3,392     Henderson    Nevada
53    Fabrice Soulier    $3,392     Las Vegas    Nevada
54    Kevin Wilson    $3,392     North York    Ontario, Canada
55    Benjamin Landowski    $3,093     Hartland    Wisconsin
56    Stuart Rutter    $3,093         United Kingdom
57    Brandon Lee    $3,093     Atlanta    Georgia
58    Matthew Shepsky    $3,093     Skokie    Illinois
59    David Plastik    $3,093     Las Vegas    Nevada
60    Michael Reed    $3,093     Export    Pennsylvania
61    Chris Hughes    $3,093     Portland    Oregon
62    Stuart Paterson    $3,093     Boca Raton    Florida
63    Davood Mehrmand    $3,093     Frankfurt    Germany
64    Olivia Boeree    $2,793     West Dulwich    England
65    Heung Yoon    $2,793     Woodbridge    Virginia
66    Luigi Esposito    $2,793     Glendale    New York
67    Samrane Siharath    $2,793     Las Vegas    Nevada
68    Wasyl Berezansky    $2,793     Brigantine    New Jersey
69    Kyle Carlston    $2,793     Las Vegas    Nevada
70    Vimy Ha    $2,793     Brooklyn    New York
71    Joshua Mammon    $2,793     Richmond    British Columbia, Canada
72    Andreas Adolfsson    $2,793     Las Vegas    Nevada

Tournament Notes:

· The $1,500 buy-in Mixed Hold’em championship (Event #41) attracted 731 entries, creating a prize pool totaling $997,815. The top 72 finishers collected prize money.

· Mixed Hold’em includes a rotation of two games – Limit Hold’em and No-Limit Hold’em. Each game is played for 30 minutes at a time.

· Entries for this event increased 18 percent over last year when there were 620 participants. This was only the second year this event (Mixed Hold’em) has been offered.

·        Fred Goldberg, who won this event in 2007, did not enter this tournament.  This brings the current streak to 41 straight non-cashes for defending champions in their respective events.

·        The final table included players from five different nations.  Countries represented included – Canada, Germany, Ireland, Sweden, and the United States.

·        The 2008 Mixed Hold’em champion is Frank Gary, from Fort Meyers, FL.  He is a 42-year-old retiree.  Gary sold off his small high-tech company a few years ago.  He worked as a software engineer for many years.

·        Gary was born in Fort Wayne, IN.  He is single.

·        Since retiring, Gary has traveled around the country in his RV, mostly spending his time playing poker.  He tends to travel about half the year, going off to travel and play poker in three-month intervals.

·        As part of his travel schedule, Gary decided to stop in Las Vegas and enter a few tournaments at this year’s WSOP.

·        Gary is a man of strong personal faith and conviction.  He stated that God made his victory possible in a post-tournament interview and wanted to make certain that he acknowledged the critical role of his faith in the victory.

·        Gary won $219,562 for first place.  He stated that he will invest most of the prize money.  However, he plans to play in a few more events at this year’s WSOP.

·        The second-place finisher was Jonathan Tamayo, from Houston, TX.  He recently graduated from Cornell University with a degree in hotel management.  “I’m still unemployed,” he said.

·        Michael Chu, who won a WSOP gold bracelet in 2007, finished in eighth place.

·        Nick Binger took third place.  This was Binger’s fifth cash in two years at the WSOP and first final table appearance.

·        Other former WSOP gold bracelet winners who cashed in this event included Todd Witteles (10th) and Alexander Borteh (20th).

·        Through Event #41, only two players have made three final table appearances – Jacobo Fernandez and David Benyamine.

·        Nikolay Evdakov, from Moscow, Russia is the only player at this year’s WSOP who has cashed seven times – just one off the all-time record mark.  Evdakov is positioned to break the record set for “Most WSOP Cashes in a Single Year,” shared by five players — Michael Binger (2007), Chad Brown (2007), Phil Hellmuth (2006), Richard Tatalovich (2006), and Humberto Brenes (2006), with eight.

·        Winner Frank Gary is officially listed as being from Fort Meyers, FL.  Through the conclusion of Event #41 at this year’s World Series of Poker, the gold bracelet count by nations and states reads as follows:
10 – Nevada
7 – California
4 – New York
2 – Canada
2 – Germany
2 – Italy
2 – Missouri
1 – Belgium
1 – Denmark
1 – Florida
1 – France
1 – Georgia
1 – Holland
1 – Maryland
1 – Michigan
1 – Pennsylvania
1 – Russia
1 – South Carolina
1 – Wisconsin

·        Nine different nations have produced a gold bracelet winner at this year’s WSOP.  This list now includes Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Russia, and the United States.

·        The Event #41 winner Frank Gary is to be classified as an amateur poker player since he retired recently and has no significant record of tournament finishes.  Accordingly, the “Pro-Am” gold bracelet scoreboard currently reads:
Professionals – 32 wins
Amateurs — 7 wins
Semi-Pros –          2 wins

·        Jonathan Tamayo was the chip leader at the End of Day One for this event.  He finished as the runner up.  Hence, through Event #41, the End of Day One chip leaders have gone on to cash 77 percent of the time — 30 of 39 occasions (the chip leader was not applicable on two events).  Twelve of these same 39 chip leaders (31 percent) made it to the final table.  Only one chip leader went on to win the event.  That lone wire-to-wire winner was Vanessa Selbst in Event #19.

·        Mats Gavatin was the chip leader at the start of this final table.  He ended up as the seventh-place finisher.  Through Event #41, seventeen of 39 chip leaders at the start of the final table (44 percent) went on to win the event.  Twenty-three of 39 chip leaders (60 percent) went on to finish in the top three spots.  Two events did not have a chip leader (Heads-Up and Shootout tournaments).

·        It should be noted that the Milwaukee’s Best Light “Player of the Year” rankings will now include points accrued from the $50,000 buy-in H.O.R.S.E. championship.

·        The Milwaukee’s Best Light “Player of the Year” standings currently shows Jacobo Fernandez as the current leader, with David Benyamine close behind.