WSOP Event #8

The winner of Event 8, the $1,000 No-limit Hold’em with Re-Buys was Michael Chu, a 27-year-old stock trader from Los Angeles, CA, who was born in Seoul, South Korea.

The event featued 844 competitors who made a total of 1,814 rebuys to create a prizepool of $2,533,062.

With this event, Chu cashed for the first time at the WSOP,in his second year playing at the WSOP. He paid the $1,000 cash entry fee, which he parlayed to a first place prize of 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.

Final resluts:
1. Michael Chu, Los Angeles, CA, $585,774
2. Tommy Vu, Miami, FL, $364,761
3. Barry Cales, Kihei, HI, $235,575
4. Dolph Arnold, Houston, TX, $157,050
5. Shane Schleger, New York, NY, $111,455
6. Maciek Gracz, Raleigh, NC, $84,858
7. Amir Vahedi, Encino, CA, $63,327
8. Robert Aron, Boca Raton, FL, $46,862
9. Jan Von Halle, Hamburg, Germany, $34,196