TOURNAMENT HEADLINES:
WSOP Offering $18,385 an Hour Temp Jobs
First-Time Player Foster Hays Wins First WSOP Gold Bracelet
New Poker Champion Turns $1,500 Investment into $735,400
New Record Set for Largest Single-Day Field Size of any $1,500 buy-in Tournament – 3,157 Starters
A Full House at the 2011 WSOP-- Tournament Attendance Remains 10% Ahead of Last Year
Nineteen Gold Bracelets Won – 39 More Still Up For Grabs
OVERVIEW
Help Wanted.
The 2011 World Series of Poker is currently offering temporary positions for poker players. Players may earn up to $18,385 per hour. Applicants must be willing to work up to 12 hours per day. No experience is necessary.
Today, one additional player was hired. His name was Foster Hays, from Dallas, TX.
Hays would be the first to admit that he didn’t have much of an employment resume. He had never done this kind of work before. For instance, Hays had absolutely no previous WSOP experience. Nevertheless, he managed to be a quick learner on the job. Hays' primary duties and responsibilities included sitting around a series of poker tables and playing cards the entire time.
Hays worked just four days at the Rio Las Vegas, assigned to a specific poker tournament designated as the $1,500 buy-in No-Limit Hold'em Championship. He put in 40 total hours. He was granted several breaks, including one hour each day for dinner. He was able to wear shorts, a sweatshirt, and flip flops to work. He even got to sleep until noon during each of the four days he was employed.
Hays collected a nice-sized paycheck totaling $735,400. His salary was calculated based on working three 12-hour shifts, plus one 4-hour shift on his final day. His 40 combined hours amounted to a net income of $18,385 per hour. Hays was even permitted to bring along many of his friends to work on his final day. The friends spent most of their time at Hays' place of employment shouting encouragement, celebrating exciting hands and drinking beer.
Interested players are encouraged to show up at the Rio, and apply. There were 58 positions available this summer – 19 of which have already been filled. That leaves 39 positions still open. Applications are being taken now through July 19th.
For a comprehensive recap of Event #18, please click here.
EVENT #18 CHAMPION – FOSTER HAYS
The 2011 World Series of Poker $1,500 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em champion is Foster Hays, from Dallas, TX.
Hays is a 25-year-old medical researcher. He works at a major hospital in Dallas as a research coordinator, which means he works with patients in research studies.
Hays was born in Dallas and has lived there most of his life, except for the four years he spent in New Haven, CT while in college.
Hays is an alum of Yale University, Class of 2008. He earned a degree in chemistry.
This was the first time Hays had ever attended the WSOP. This was the first tournament he had ever played.
Hays’ only previous live poker tournament cash was a 15th-place finish in a preliminary tournament held at the Venetian, in Las Vegas, 16 months ago. He earned $1,861 for that in-the-money finish.
For this remarkable victory in this tournament, Hays collected $735,400 for first place.
According to official records, Hays now has 1 win, 1 final table appearance, and 1 in-the-money finishes at the WSOP.
Hays currently has $735,400 in career WSOP winnings.
Hays was cheered on to victory at the final table by his girlfriend Julia and sister, Kim. Other friends were also in the crowd.
Hays is to be regarded as an amateur poker player, since he has another occupation. He is only the second outright amateur player to win a gold bracelet at this year’s WSOP. Oddly enough, the other amateur champion also works in the medical field and lives in Texas. Houston doctor Geffrey Klein won Event #10.
WINNER QUOTES (Note: The winner was interviewed at tableside moments after the victory)
What brought you to Las Vegas?
"It was a goal of mine to play in a World Series of Poker event. I decided on the $1,500 and it was between this and the $1,000 event. I figured that playing the $1,500 event would give me time to play on the weekend. It was just a standard Vegas weekend for me."
Are you going back to work tomorrow?
"I am on the red eye flight tonight. I believe I should keep my commitments. I have a meeting at 8 am on Wednesday morning."
How were you introduced to poker?
“I played when I was 18. I started playing online poker -- nothing serious just like a $100 (in my account at a time). I really didn't like playing Internet poker and been playing live poker for the past five years.”
Is the $735,400 that you won, life changing?
“Well life-changing -- yes and no. I 'm not going to change any of my plans for the fall. But I’m going to buy a new car.”
You were all-in a couple of times on Day Three. Tell us what happened.
"I got really lucky in the tournament. At the end of Day One, I had only one-third of the average chip stack. I had 9,700 going into Day Two. Then, I got lucky. Some guys tried to make moves when I had them drawing dead. That was a good feeling. I was the chip leader after Day Two. On Day Three, I maintained the chip lead until the final table, where I sort of went back and forth and got lucky a few times. I got very lucky. I don’t think I was a top-five in skill. There were a lot of good players. All the young guys were very tough. Tristan Wade and Jordan Young were the toughest opponents and they were on my left and I was really sweating that. I know they probably feel really bad about busting but I was glad to see them go."
Was it difficult emotionally to go through all this during the final two days?
"Definitely, when we did not have a player bust during the first 4 or 5 levels….we were 9-handed and nobody really had a super short stack. Everyone had 1.5 (million in chips) I think was the average…..Mentally it was very tough to just try get through that 5-hour stretch. The big crowd really helped. I thought they were really funny. One of Jordan's fans said ‘Foster -- Australian for Awesome,” (mimicking the beer commercial slogan). I thought that was pretty funny. I got a good kick out of that."
THE FINAL TABLE
The official final table was comprised of nine players.
The final table contained no former gold bracelet winners.
Only two nations were represented at the final table – France (1 players) and the United States (8 players).
When play began, the final table chip leader was Allan Le. The starting chips counts of the nine finalists were as follows:
Allan Le -- 2,800,000 in chips
Foster Hays -- 2,680,000 in chips
Tristan Wade -- 2,360,000 in chips
Stanley Tavanese -- 1,845,000 in chips
Jeffrey Lavelle -- 1,615,000 in chips
Philippe Vert -- 905,000 in chips
Casey Kelton -- 830,000 in chips
Robert Koss -- 830,000 in chips
Jordan Young -- 800,000 in chips
It took more than four hours (four complete levels) to bust the first player from the final nine.
When heads-up play began, Foster Hays enjoyed about a 3 to 1 chip advantage over Casey Kelton. He increased his advantage to about 8 to 1 at one point. But Kelton went on a heater and doubled up several times. Kelton took the chip lead, but Hays fought back and ultimately won.
The runner up was Casey Kelton, from Wickenburg, AZ. He sells supplies used for gold mining (seriously). Kelton almost mined his very own WSOP gold bracelet. He played magnificently over four days. Kelton managed to overcome a big chip advantage at one point and even held the chip lead by a 2 to 1 margin. But Hays won the final few key hands and ended up as the victor. Kelton accepted his consolation prize totaling $454,920.
Remarkably, neither of the top two finishers has ever cashed before at the WSOP. Their combined total winnings amounted to $1,190,320.
The third-place finisher was Jeffrey Lavelle, from Lakeview, NY. He is a police officer and recreational poker player. This was his second time to cash at the WSOP, which was worth $321,947 in prize money.
The fourth-place finisher was Allan Le, from Huntington Beach, CA. Le began the final table as the chip leader.
The fifth-place finisher was Stanley Tavanese, from Oldsmar, FL.
The sixth-place finisher was Robert Koss, from Macomb, MI.
The seventh-place finisher was Tristan Wade, from Orlando, FL. He previously went deep in two WSOP Main Events – finishing 116th in 2010 and 163rd in 2007.
The eighth-place finisher was Phillippe Vert, from Marseille, France.
The ninth-place finisher was Jordan Young, from Twin Lake, MI.
Final table play began at 9 pm on a Monday night. Play was suspended at 2:30 am due to the 10-level maximum playing time being reached. Play resumed at 2:30 pm on Tuesday afternoon and ended at 5:20 pm. The finale lasted about 8 hours and 50 minutes.
The final table was played on ESPN’s so-called secondary stage. The main stage hosted the Six-Handed Limit Hold’em finale. The new final table set is getting raves in terms of design and appearance.
Action was streamed live over WSOP.com. Viewers can tune in and watch most of this year’s final tables. Although hole cards are not shown, viewers can follow an overhead camera as well as a pan-shot of the table. The floor announcer provides an official account of the action.
OTHER IN-THE-MONEY FINISHERS
The top 324 finishers collected prize money.
Tony Cousineau, from Daytona Beach, FL cashed for the 47th time at the WSOP. His 32nd-place finish means he has now extended his record as the all-time leader in player cashes without a WSOP gold bracelet.
Tournament results are to be included in the WSOP official records. Results are also to be included in the 2011 WSOP “Player of the Year” race.
“WSOP Player of the Year” standings can be found at WSOP.com HERE.
At the time of this report, the current leader in the WSOP “Player of the Year” standings is Amir Lehavot. He holds a slight lead over Viacheslav Zhukov, who is in second place.
ODDS AND ENDS
This is the 911th gold bracelet awarded in World Series of Poker history. This figure includes every official WSOP event ever played, including tournaments during the early years when there were no actual gold bracelets awarded. It also includes the 16 gold bracelets awarded to date at WSOP Europe (2007-2010). Moreover for the first time ever, one gold bracelet was awarded for this year’s winner of the WSOP Circuit National Championship.
This was the largest single-day start for any poker tournament held in poker history. What this means is, of all the tournaments which had only one starting day (unlike the WSOP Main Event, which has four starting days), this was the biggest field of all-time. The previous record had been set at the 2007 WSOP.
NBA star Paul Pierce (Boston Celtics) played in this tournament. He did not cash. NHL star Phil Kessel (Toronto Maple Leafs) played in this tournament. He did not cash.
The official WSOP gold bracelet ceremony takes place on the day following the winner’s victory (or some hours later when the tournament ends very late). The ceremony takes place inside The Pavilion, which is the expansive main tournament room hosting all noon starts this year. The ceremony begins at the conclusion of the first break of the noon tournament. The ceremony usually starts around 2:20 pm. The national anthem of the winner’s nation is played. The entire presentation is open to the public and media. Video and photography is permitted by both the public and members of the media.
Hays’ gold bracelet ceremony is set to take place sometime after July 4th. He departed the tournament following his victory due to work responsibilities back home. The national anthem of the USA will be played in honor of his victory when he returns.
TOURNAMENT PLAY
The tournament was originally-scheduled to be played over three consecutive days. However, a fourth day was added due to the large field size and excessive length of the finale.
The tournament officially began on Saturday, June 11th at noon. The tournament officially ended on Tuesday, June 14th, at 5:20 pm.
2011 WSOP STATISTICS
Through the conclusion of Event #19, the 2011 WSOP has attracted 19,206 entries. $35,338,210 in prize money has been awarded to winners, so far.
Through the conclusion of this tournament, the breakdown of nationality of gold bracelet winners has been:
United States (14)
Great Britain (3)
Russia (1)
Canada (1)
Through the conclusion of this tournament, the national origin (birthplace) of winners has been:
United States (10)
Great Britain (3)
Ukraine (1)
Israel (1)
Russia (1)
Honduras (1)
Canada (1)
Indonesia (1)
Through the conclusion of this event, the home-states of the 14 American winners have been:
Nevada (3)
California (2)
Texas (2)
Illinois (1)
New York (1)
New Jersey (1)
Florida (1)
Tennessee (1)
Connecticut (1)
Indiana (1)
Through the conclusion of this tournament, the breakdown of professional poker players to semi-pros and amateurs who won gold bracelets has been:
Professional Players (15): Jake Cody, Cheech Barbaro, Eugene Katchalov, Allen Bari, Harrison Wilder, Matt Perrins, Sean Getzwiller, Viacheslav Zhukov, David Diaz, Andrew Badecker, Tyler Bonkowski, Brian Rast, John Juanda, Aaron Steury, Darren Woods
Semi-Pros (2): Sean R. Drake, Amir Lehavot
Amateurs (2): Geffrey Klein, Foster Hays
Through the conclusion of this tournament, the victories of 6 of the 19 winners (31.5 percent) represented the first time the player had ever cashed at the WSOP.
Every WSOP held over the past 11 years has included at least one multiple gold bracelet champion (meaning two or more wins within the same year). The last year the WSOP was comprised exclusively of single-event winners was back in 1999. The record for most multiple gold bracelet winners within a single year was in 2009, when five players managed to win two or more titles. So far, no player has yet won two gold bracelets (this year).
The streak of male WSOP gold bracelet winners has now reached 180 consecutive events. Aside from the annual Ladies Championship, the last female player to win a WSOP tournament open to both sexes was Vanessa Selbst, in 2008. The longest “cold” streak for female players occurred between years 1982 and 1996, when 221 consecutive open events passed without a female champion.
The highest finish by a female player (open events) at this year’s WSOP were by Maria Ho, who finished second ($5,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em) and Kim Nguyen, who also finished as the runner up ($1,500 buy-in Six-Handed Limit Hold’em).
NEW RECORDS SET AT THIS YEAR’S WSOP (to date):
Biggest Heads-Up tournament prize pool in history ($3,040,000) – Event #2
Largest live Omaha High-Low Split Tournament in history (925 entries) – Event #3
Largest live Six-Handed tournament in poker history (1,920 entries) – Event #10
Biggest Deuce-to-Seven tournament prize pool in history ($1,184,400) – Event #16
Largest live $1,500 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em tournament in history with single starting day (3,157 entries) – Event #18
Largest consecutive-days starting field sizes in poker history (combined 6,238 entries) – Event #18 and Event #20
Note: Various categories and statistics will be updated with each gold bracelet event as they are completed.
Note: All results are now official and may be reprinted by media. If you are posting these results on a website, we would appreciate providing a link back to: WSOP.com
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For official news and the latest updates from the 2011 World Series of Poker, visit: WSOP.com