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WSOP report: Event #1, Casino Employees, June 2
Casino Employees World Poker Championship
Location: Rio, Las Vegas
Buy-in: $500
Number of Entries: 662
Total Prize Money: $297,900
Every year, the World Series of Poker starts off with the Casino Employees World Championship. To be eligible to enter, players must be active employees at a casino. The winner of the event receives a gold bracelet and bragging rights as the "world champion" among casino employees.
The 2005 World Series of Poker began with a record-setting parade of poker players who jammed into the Rio in Las Vegas. The number of entries (662) smashed the previous all-time record for this event, when 279 players entered. It took 14 long hours for the final table to begin, as 653 players had been eliminated by 2 am. The final nine players assembled around the final table and were eliminated as follows:
9th Place: Justin Porter, $5,960
Porter is a poker dealer from the Isle of Capri Casino in Kansas City.
8th Place: David Slowik, $8,935
Slowik is a poker dealer from the Bellagio Casino in Las Vegas.
7th Place: Todd Dakake, $11,915
Dakake is a poker dealer at the Palms Casino in Las Vegas.
6th Place: Dustin West, $14,895
West is a poker dealer at Casino Morongo near Palm Springs, CA.
5th Place: Steven Cuti, $17,875
Cuti is a poker dealer at the Casino Real in Stockton, CA.
4th Place: Simon Matthews, $20,855
Matthews is a poker dealer at Great Canadian Casinos in Victoria, British Columbia.
3rd Place: Thang Luu, $23,830
Luu is a craps dealer at Harrah's Las Vegas.
Runner up: Danilo Flores, $43,195
Flores is a poker dealer at the Oaks Card Club in Emeryville, CA.
1st Place: Andy Nguyen, $83,390
Nguyen, a poker dealer at Binion's Casino in Las Vegas, is a 43-year-old native of Vietnam. He has been in the U.S. for 20 years and has worked at Binion's since 2001.
Tournament reporting by Nolan Dalla / worldseriesofpoker.com
