2007 WSOP Event #8

Event #8

No-limit Hold’em with Re-Buys

Buy-In: $1,000

Number of Entries: 844

Number of Re-Buys: 1,814

Total Prize Money: $2,533,062

Date of Tournament: June 5-7, 2007

Tournament Notes:

The winner was Michael Chu. He is a 27-year-old stock trader from Los Angeles, CA. He was born in Seoul, South Korea. Mr. Chu is currently single.

Chu holds a degree in political science from University of California – Berkley.

With this event, Chu cashed for the first time at the WSOP. This is his second year to play at the WSOP. He paid the $1,000 cash entry fee. First place paid a whopping $585,774.

This was a $1,000 re-buy tournament. That means players can re-enter and continue to play if they bust out – if they post another $1,000 entry fee. Most players re-buy at some point. Some players re-buy many times. One player made eight re-buys ($8,000). Last year in this same event, pro player (Daniel Negreanu) made 47 re-buys – which is $47,000 inversted. Incredibly, Michael Chu did not make a single re-buy in this event. He made his initial investment back 584 times over.

The runner-up was real estate mogul Tommy Vu. This is the same Tommy Vu who appeared in countless late-night infomercials back in the 1980s and 1990s touting his real estate seminars. His famous line was, “I make you rich! Come to my seminar!” In his TV spots, he was often surrounded by luxury cars and beautiful models. Vu brought the same flair to this final table. He enjoyed a vocal cheering section, but fell short of victory.

2003 main event finalist Amir Vahedi (and one-time gold bracelet winner) went out in seventh place.

The fourth-place finisher was Dolph Arnold, a longtime WSOP veteran from Houston, TX. Arnold has been coming to the WSOP since the 1980s and was seeking his first win.

So, far, this year’s WSOP has crowned champions from Russia, South Korea, Ireland, and the United States.

Place	Player	Prize
1.	Michael Chu	$585,774
2.	Tuan (Tommy) Vu	$364,761
3.	Barry Cales	$235,575
4.	Dolph Arnold	$157,050
5.	Shane (Shaniac) Schleger	$111,455
6.	Maciek (Michael) Gracz	$84,858
7.	Amir Vahedi	$63,327
8.	Robert Aron	$46,862
9.	Jan Christoph Von Halle	$34,196
10.	Todd Witteles	$23,811
11.	Marcello Del Grosso	$23,811
12.	Jason Strasser	$23,811
13.	Arnold Spee	$21,278
14.	Michael Binger	$21,278
15.	Kurt Paseka	$21,278
16.	Joshua Vanduyn	$18,745
17.	Sorel Mizzi	$18,745
18.	Mark Newhouse	$18,745
19.	Gioi Luong	$16,212
20.	Quoc Al (Vinnie) Vinh	$16,212
21.	Min Woo (Brandon) Lee	$16,212
22.	Ken Weiner	$16,212
23.	Kevin Peterson	$16,212
24.	Gavin Griffin	$16,212
25.	Glyn Banks	$16,212
26.	Paul Deng	$16,212
27.	Dario Minieri	$16,212
28.	Thanhdat Tran	$13,932
29.	Marc Naalden	$13,932
30.	Steve Paul-Ambrose	$13,932
31.	Kristy Gazes	$13,932
32.	Roger Teska	$13,932
33.	Bryan Berc	$13,932
34.	Joe Simmons	$13,932
35.	Young Ju	$13,932
36.	Bonnie Shaner	$13,932
37.	Brett Jungblut	$11,905
38.	Eric (Sheets) Haber	$11,905
39.	Antonio Esfandiari	$11,905
40.	Cesar Aburto	$11,905
41.	Jeff Shulman	$11,905
42.	Alex Melnikow	$11,905
43.	Matt Sterling	$11,905
44.	Michael Melkersen	$11,905
45.	Steve Billirakis	$11,905
46.	Mark Herm	$10,132
47.	Rocco Lazazzaro	$10,132
48.	Maxwell Greenwood	$10,132
49.	William Rhoton	$10,132
50.	Tim West	$10,132
51.	Hong Tran	$10,132
52.	Jordan Siegel	$10,132
53.	Tracy Miller	$10,132
54.	Charles (Chuck) Pacheco	$10,132
55.	Unknown	$8,232
56.	Shannon Shorr	$8,232
57.	Kester Solomon	$8,232
58.	Douglas Harrah	$8,232
59.	Duane Weum	$8,232
60.	Rich Salomon	$8,232
61.	Eugene Todd	$8,232
62.	Alex Prendes	$8,232
63.	Kyle Bowker	$8,232
64.	Alex Balandin	$6,839
65.	Michael Watson	$6,839
66.	32049">John Ferraro	$6,839
67.	Joshua Lee	$6,839
68.	David Stroj	$6,839
69.	Michael Martin	$6,839
70.	John Pazur	$6,839
71.	Kenneth Sienkiewicz	$6,839
72.	Jarrod Ankeniman	$6,839
73.	Vasili Buboi	$5,826
74.	Dong Suh	$5,826
75.	Khaled Lahnam	$5,826
76.	Philip Galfond	$5,826
77.	Rodney Corr	$5,826
78.	Don Holland	$5,826
79.	Jon Eaton	$5,826
80.	Terry Lankford	$5,826
81.	Dan Alspach	$5,826