Event 41 at the WSOP. Poker Player

42 year-old retiree Frank Gary flies the flag for the amateurs with $1,500 Mixed Hold’em victory

World Series of Poker Event #41, Mixed Hold’em (Limit/No-Limit), 22-24 June 2008

Entrants: 238
Buy in: $1,500
Prize pool: $997,815

Final results:

1. Frank Gary, $219,562

2. Jonathan Tamayo, $140,093

3. Nick Binger, $84,814

4. Chris Rentes, $69,348

5. Alex Jalali, $56,875

6. David Machowsky, $44,901

7. Mats Gavatin, $34,923

8. Michael Chu, $27,439

9. David Sorger, $19,956

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

All WSOP images are supplied by “IMPDI for the 2008 WSOP”