NEWS FLASH: Marcel Vonk Wins WSOP Gold Bracelet in Event 54
Dutch Physicist Wins Relatively Tough WSOP Victory and $570,960 Marcel Vonk was the winner of the $1,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em championship at the 2010 World Series of Poker. This marked his first career WSOP gold bracelet victory. Vonk collected a whopping $570,960 in prize money in what was only his second time to cash at the WSOP. He has played in four WSOP tournaments during his lifetime, yet with this victory he has achieved the game’s premier prize.
Vonk is 36-years-old. He is originally from Utrecht, Holland. Vonk currently lives in Lisbon, Portugal, where he is a researcher at a major university. Vonk works as a theoretical physicist. His primary focus is on something called String theory, which is an advanced concept in quantum mechanics and general relativity. Vonk also plays poker recreationally. He first saw poker played on television, and became interested in the game. He first attended the WSOP last year, cashing in his first-ever event.
With this victory, Vonk became the third Dutch player in the 41-year history of the WSOP to win a gold bracelet, following in the footsteps of fellow countrymen Noah Boeken and Rob Hollink.
The runner up was David Peters, from Toledo, OH. This marked his second time to cash this year, which paid a very respectable $350,803 in prize money.The top 396 finishers collected prize money. Former WSOP gold bracelet finishers who cashed in this event included – Jesse Rockowitz (33rd), Al Krux (118th), James Dempsey (277th), and Toto Leonidas (358th).Nikolay Evdakov cashed for only the second time at this year’s WSOP. Evdakov holds the record for most in-the-money finishes in a single year – with ten which was set in 2008. Two players at this year’s WSOP have eight cashes each, which means Evadakov’s record could still be reached/broken with the Main Event plus five WSOP Europe events still to be played. Evdakov now has 18 cashes in the last three years at the WSOP, which is the most of any player in that time span.A full report of this event will be posted shortly.For official tournament results and additional details, please CLICK HERE.