News

Event #18
Limit Hold’em World Championship
Buy-In: $5,000
Number of Entries: 257
Total Prize Money: $ 1,207,900
Date of Tournament: June 10-13, 2007

WSOP GOLD BRACELET WINNER
EVENT #18 – SARO GETZOYAN

Saro Getzoyan won the $5,000 buy-in "Limit-Hold'em World Championship" at the 2007 World Series of Poker. He is a 27-year-old software developer from Lexington, MA. He is single.

Getzoyan's parents came to the U.S. from their native Armenia. He attended undergraduate school at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and earned a Masters Degree from New York University.

This was Getzoyan's first time to cash at the WSOP. He has been playing in this tournament since 2005, but had not done much in the previous two years. First place paid $333,379.

Getzoyan's trip to and from the WSOP took an unforeseen detour. He was concerned that making it to this final table might cost him his job. Just three weeks ago, he took a new position as a software developer for a hedge fund firm in Massachusetts . The previous night, Getzoyan was looking into changing his flight itinerary so that if he busted out of the final table, he could make it to work the next day. Unfortunately, or fortunately perhaps, Getzoyan would be forced to miss that flight. He was seen in front of a computer an hour after his victory, looking for the best cross-country airfare back to Boston. "Money doesn't change anything. That's just the way I am," he reportedly commented.

Getzoyan arrived at the table low on chips and was sixth in the chip count. It took him about seven hours to achieve victory. This was the official "Limit Hold'em World Championship." The tournament has the highest buy-in of any such tournament in the world. This was the most cosmopolitan final table of this year's World Series. The final nine players originated from seven different nations – including Canada, China, France, Iran, Norway, Sweden, and the United States.