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
The winner was Michael Chu. He is a 27-year-old stock trader from Los Angeles, CA. He was born in Seoul, South Korea. Mr. Chu is currently single.
Chu holds a degree in political science from University of California – Berkley.
With this event, Chu cashed for the first time at the WSOP. This is his second year to play at the WSOP. He paid the $1,000 cash entry fee. First place paid a whopping $585,774.
This was a $1,000 re-buy tournament. That means players can re-enter and continue to play if they bust out – if they post another $1,000 entry fee. Most players re-buy at some point. Some players re-buy many times. One player made eight re-buys ($8,000). Last year in this same event, pro player (Daniel Negreanu) made 47 re-buys – which is $47,000 inversted. Incredibly, Michael Chu did not make a single re-buy in this event. He made his initial investment back 584 times over.
The runner-up was real estate mogul Tommy Vu. This is the same Tommy Vu who appeared in countless late-night infomercials back in the 1980s and 1990s touting his real estate seminars. His famous line was, “I make you rich! Come to my seminar!” In his TV spots, he was often surrounded by luxury cars and beautiful models. Vu brought the same flair to this final table. He enjoyed a vocal cheering section, but fell short of victory.
2003 main event finalist Amir Vahedi (and one-time gold bracelet winner) went out in seventh place.
The fourth-place finisher was Dolph Arnold, a longtime WSOP veteran from Houston, TX. Arnold has been coming to the WSOP since the 1980s and was seeking his first win. So, far, this year’s WSOP has crowned champions from Russia, South Korea, Ireland, and the United States.
