Poker Tournament Results

39th World Series of Poker 2008

Frank Gary

Tournament Report

Tournament Notes: • 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. • Mixed Hold'em includes a rotation of two games - Limit Hold'em and No-Limit Hold'em. Each game is played for 30 minutes at a time. • Entries for this event increased 18 percent over last year when there were 620 participants. This was only the second year this event (Mixed Hold'em) has been offered. • The tournament was played over three consecutive days. The final table was played on the ESPN main stage and was broadcast live by Bluff Media on ESPN360. • Fred Goldberg, who won this event in 2007, did not enter this tournament. This brings the current streak to 41 straight non-cashes for defending champions in their respective events. • The final table included players from five different nations. Countries represented included - Canada, Germany, Ireland, Sweden, and the United States. • 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. • Gary was born in Fort Wayne, IN. He is single. • 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. • As part of his travel schedule, Gary decided to stop in Las Vegas and enter a few tournaments at this year's WSOP. • Gary is a man of strong personal faith and conviction. He stated that God made his victory possible in a post-tournament interview and wanted to make certain that he acknowledged the critical role of his faith in the victory. • 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. • The second-place finisher was Jonathan Tamayo, from Houston, TX. He recently graduated from Cornell University with a degree in hotel management. 'I'm still unemployed,' he said. • Michael Chu, who won a WSOP gold bracelet in 2007, finished in eighth place. • Nick Binger took third place. This was Binger's fifth cash in two years at the WSOP and first final table appearance. • Other former WSOP gold bracelet winners who cashed in this event included Todd Witteles (10th) and Alexander Borteh (20th). • 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. • Winner Frank Gary is officially listed as being from Fort Meyers, FL. Through the conclusion of Event #41 at this year's World Series of Poker, the gold bracelet count by nations and states reads as follows: 10 - Nevada 7 - California 4 - New York 2 - Canada 2 - Germany 2 - Italy 2 - Missouri 1 - Belgium 1 - Denmark 1 - Florida 1 - France 1 - Georgia 1 - Holland 1 - Maryland 1 - Michigan 1 - Pennsylvania 1 - Russia 1 - South Carolina 1 - Wisconsin • Nine different nations have produced a gold bracelet winner at this year's WSOP. This list now includes Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Russia, and the United States. • The Event #41 winner Frank Gary is to be classified as an amateur poker player since he retired recently and has no significant record of tournament finishes. Accordingly, the 'Pro-Am' gold bracelet scoreboard currently reads: Professionals - 32 wins Amateurs -- 7 wins Semi-Pros -- 2 wins • Jonathan Tamayo was the chip leader at the End of Day One for this event. He finished as the runner up. Hence, through Event #41, the End of Day One chip leaders have gone on to cash 77 percent of the time -- 30 of 39 occasions (the chip leader was not applicable on two events). Twelve of these same 39 chip leaders (31 percent) made it to the final table. Only one chip leader went on to win the event. That lone wire-to-wire winner was Vanessa Selbst in Event #19. • 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). • It should be noted that the Milwaukee's Best Light 'Player of the Year' rankings will now include points accrued from the $50,000 buy-in H.O.R.S.E. championship. • The Milwaukee's Best Light 'Player of the Year' standings currently shows Jacobo Fernandez as the current leader, with David Benyamine close behind. Here are the top five ranked players: 1. Jacobo Fernandez - 222 points 2. David Benyamine - 220 points 3. John Phan - 200 points 4. Barry Greenstein - 190 points 5. Erick Lindgren - 185 points For a complete 'Player of the Year' points list, see: http://www.worldseriesofpoker.com/players/2008.asp?sort=poypts • David Benyamine is now the leader on the 2008 prize money list, having won the most money at the WSOP, to date. His accrued winnings total $941,651.