News

Event #8
No-Limit Hold’em with Re-Buys
Buy-In: $1,000
Number of Entries: 844
Number of Re-Buys: 1,814
Total Prize Money: $2,533,062
Date of Tournament: June 5-7, 2007

WSOP GOLD BRACELET WINNER EVENT #8 – MICHAEL CHU

The winner of the $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em Re-Buy Championship was Michael Chu. He is a 27-year-old stock trader from Los Angeles, CA. Chu was born in Seoul, South Korea. He is currently single.

Chu holds a degree in political science from University of California – Berkley. However, he has been playing a lot of poker lately, an investment of time and money that paid off in the amount of $585,774 for first place. Perhaps just as, if not more meaningful was the WSOP gold bracelet he received, designed by Corum -- which was latched to Chu’s wrist at the conclusion of the tournament. The gold bracelet was presented by WSOP Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack. The entire final table event and ceremony was record for later broadcast on ESPN.

With this in-the-money finish, Chu cashed for the first time at the WSOP. This was a $1,000 re-buy tournament, which meant players could re-enter and continue to play if they busted out – provided they posted another $1,000 entry fee. Most players made re-buys at some point. Some players re-bought many times. One player made eight re-buys ($8,000). Incredibly, Michael Chu did not make a single re-buy in this event. He made his initial investment back 584 times over.

Chu, the stock trader in his day job, was quite pleased with the return on this WSOP investment.