Event #41
Seniors World Poker Championship
No-Limit Hold’em
Buy-In: $1,000
Number of Entries: 1,882
Total Prize Money: $1,712,620
Date of Tournament: June 25-26, 2007
WSOP GOLD BRACELET WINNER
EVENT # 41 – ERNEST BENNETT
The winner of the 2007 Seniors Poker World Championship was Ernest Bennett. He is a 55-year-old former business owner from Encino, CA. This was his first WSOP victory.Bennett was born in Canada. He moved to the U.S. at a young age. Bennett attended college and earned a B.S. in civil engineering. He owned a successful chain of dry cleaners and recently sold off his businesses. Bennett started playing seriously about five years ago. He learned the game mostly through playing with friends. He has a very impressive string of cashes in recent years. In fact, Bennett has cashed over 30 times in tournaments since 2004. However, he has yet to win a major tournament, until this event.Bennett arrived at the final table with a significant chip advantage. It took him just over five hours to achieve victory. This was Bennett’s first time ever to cash at the WSOP. First place paid $348,423.“Aggressive poker – that’s the only way I know how to play,” Bennett said in a post-tournament interview. “I’m always raising. Sometimes I have to try and slow it down, but I think the aggressive style works for me.”The age requirement to play in the Seniors World Poker Championship was 50 years or higher. Player ages at the final table ranged from 51 (youngest) to 71 (oldest). This was the largest seniors poker event of all time. The 1,882 entries destroyed the previous record that was set last year (1,184) by more than 30 percent.
