Ben Ponzio from Illinois wins the WSOP $2,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em championship
The winner of the $2,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em championship was 32-year-old Ben Ponzio, from Elmwood Park, IL.
Ponzio works for Chicago’s WBBM-FM which is a hits and hip hop station. He was scheduled to work the morning after the tournament, but his WSOP victory will cause him to miss a day at the office. "I didn’t want to take an extra vacation day until I knew I would get this far," Ponzio explained later.
"Sure, I’m going back to work," Ponzio said in a post-tournament interview. "Six-hundred thousand (dollars) is a lot of money. But it’s not enough to live on the rest of my life."
This is the third time Ponzio has attended the WSOP. He cashed one time previously – with a 122nd place finish two years ago. His combined tournament winnings coming into this event totaled just $9,000. First place in this tournament paid a whopping $599,109.
Adam Ross, from Dallas, TX finished in 7th place. The Stanford University graduate who also received his law degree from the University of Texas Law School was once the Texas State Wrestling Champion.
Ken Einiger, a native New Yorker who now resides in Las Vegas, finished in 8th place. He won the world blackjack championship last year.
In terms of well-known names, Rolf Slotboom, Dutch writer and poker theorist, took 51st, and budding poker player and actress Shannon Elizabeth, best-known from her role in the "American Pie", finished 150th.
Final results:
1. Ben Ponzio, Elmwood Park, IL, $599,109
2. David Hewitt, Greer, SC, $373,985
3. Justin Rollo, Boston, MA, $244,415
4. Evan Schwartz, Oakland, CA, $164,907
5. Travis Rice, Fort Worth, TX, $111,901
6. Danny Noam, Phoenix, AZ, $82,453
7. Adam Ross, Dallas, TX, $61,840
8. Ken Einiger, Las Vegas, NV, $45,644
9. Darryl Ronconi,, Naperville, IL, $34,748
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