Poker Tournament Results

Big Poker Oktober

Place	Name	Prize
1	Andy Alzona AKA "Mike" (Rancho Santa Margarita, CA, USA)	$21,535
2	Elvis Toomas (Glendale, CA, USA)	$10,710
3	Brian Somerville AKA "dalmolition man" (Canyon Country, CA, USA)	$5,240
4	Rocky Enciso (Glendale, CA, USA)	$3,490
5	Jorge Garcia (W.Covina, CA, USA)	$2,620
6	Derek Kwan (Los Angeles, CA, USA)	$2,035
7	Robert Cramer (Woodland Hills, CA, USA)	$1,455
8	Aurelio Angeles (Cypress, CA, USA)	$1,165
9	Mickey "Mouse" Mills (Downey, CA, USA)	$875
10	Kevin Blakely AKA "The Snake" (La Crescenta, CA, USA)	$720
11	Craig Dualba (Irvine, CA, USA)	$720
12	Eric Chhor (Azusa, CA, USA)	$720
13	Nicole Alzona	$580
14	Bryan Bumpas (Los Angeles, CA, USA)	$580
15	Tony Nguyen (Long Beach, CA, USA)	$580
16	Alexi Yousefian	$495
17	Benjamin Chung (Los Angeles, CA, USA)	$495
18	Amir Vahedi (Sherman Oaks, CA, USA)	$495
19	Julian Chung (USA)	$410
20	Erika Weinstein (W Hollywood, CA, USA)	$410
21	Hyon So (Winnfield, LA, USA)	$410
22	Adam Bondy	$410
23	Michael Lai	$410
24	James Henesy AKA "DanaPointKid" (Northridge, CA, USA)	$410
25	Gideon Cross (Los Angeles, CA, USA)	$410
26	Chris Karagoulian (Glendale, CA, USA)	$410
27	Raul Rosales	$410
28	Stan Hackett (Valencia, CA, USA)	$410

Tournament Report

Pocket Jacks Help Mike Alzona Pull Away The 2008 Big Poker October continued with event #7, a $225 buy-in No Limit Hold'em tournament. A field of 300 played for a share of the $58,200 prize pool. All 300 players made the optional $5 bonus add-on giving them an extra 1,000 chips in addition to the 8,000 they started the tournament with. This brought the total chips in play to 2,700,000. Andy 'Mike' Alzona arrived to the final table as the chip leader with 852,000. We arrived to the final table at 5:30am after with 11 players left, Andy 'Mike' Alzona knocked out two players in one hand. His pocket Jacks held up against pocket 3's and A-Q. Alzona was the chip leader before that hand and then after the hand he pulled away. There was discussion of a chip count deal and the tournament floor staff ran the numbers. While the players waited for the result, a few of them were overheard calling home and making arrangements to get their children to school in case this final table were to play out. Mike Alzona did not have to make a call since his wife Nicole was already on her way home - from the Bike. Nicole Alzona finished 13th as we were very close to having a husband and wife at the final table. The tournament floor staff announced the numbers and each and every player at the final table was satisfied with their result. Andy 'Mike' Alzona was declared our winner of event #7. At this point it was close to 6am and with the early finish those who have kids can still take them to school in time. -- O.J. Alcaraz BIOGRAPHY Andy 'Mike' Alzona is a mechanical engineer by trade who works in industrial sales. Alzona is primarily a cash game player. You can see him playing 5-10 and 10-20 blind no-limit hold'em. Lately he has been playing a few more tournaments than usual to break up the monotony of cash games. Alzona normally plays in tournaments with a $500 or higher buy-in but decided to play tonight because of plenty of starting chips and good structure. This is his first tournament win and will be looking for more at this year's Big Poker October.