WSOP Event #18

27-year-old software developer from Lexington, MA Saro Getzoyan won Event #18 the $5,000 buy-in Limit-Hold’em World Championship at the 2007 World Series of Poker.

Brainbox Getzoyan’s parents came to the U.S. from their native Armenia, and he attended undergraduate school at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and earned a Masters Degree from New York University.

This was Getzoyan’s first time to cash at the WSOP. He has been playing in this tournament since 2005, but had not done much in the previous two years, this breakthrough first place paid $333,379.

Getzoyan was concerned that making it to this final table might cost him his job. Just three weeks ago, he took a new position as a software developer for a hedge fund firm in Massachusetts. The previous night, Getzoyan was looking into changing his flight itinerary so that if he busted out of the final table, he could make it to work the next day.

Unfortunately, Getzoyan would be forced to miss that flight. He was seen in front of a computer an hour after his victory, looking for the best cross-country airfare back to Boston. "Money doesn’t change anything. That’s just the way I am," he reportedly commented.

Getzoyan arrived at the table low on chips and was sixth in the chip count. It took him about seven hours to achieve victory.

Fourth-place finisher Thor Hansen has been playing very well at this year’s WSOP. This event marked his third time to cash. He also moved up into 15th place on the all-time "Number of Lifetime Cashes" list, with 36. Hansen is now tied with Mickey Appleman and Jay Heimowitz.

Former WSOP gold bracelet winners in-the-money included Hansen (4th), Max Pescatori (15th), and Eric Frohlich (20th).

This was the official "Limit Hold’em World Championship." The tournament has the highest buy-in of any such tournament in the world. Interestingly, as recently as five years ago limit hold’em tournaments used to outdraw no-limit tournaments, sometimes as much as 2 to 1. However, no-limit games have far surpassed limit in popularity, especially in tournaments.

This was the most cosmopolitan final table of this year’s World Series. The final nine players originated from seven different nations – including Canada, China, France, Iran, Norway, Sweden, and the United States.

Final results:
1. Saro Getzoyan, Lexington, MA, $333,379
2. Geoff Sanford, Halifax, Nova Scotia, $200,511
3. William Thorson, Sweden, $136,493
4. Thor Hansen, Los Angeles, CA, $93,008
5. David Gee, Gilbert, AZ, $68,850
6. Tom Koral, Skokie, IL, $54,356
7. Raymond Dehkharghani, Huntington Beach, CA, $41,069
8. Don Todd Davie, FL, $30,198
9. Gabriel Nassif, Paris, $21,742