The winner of the $2,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em championship was Ben Ponzio, from Elmwood Park, IL. He is 32-years-old and married. He has one daughter. Ponzio works for a major Chicago area radio station as the advertising sales manager.

Ponzio’s full name is Alessandro Ben Ponzio. He took his first and middle name from his grandfather and great grandfather. In addition to playing poker, Ponzio enjoys fantasy sports.

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Ponzio is a graduate of the University of Illinois. He earned his degree in speech and communications.

Ponzio works for Chicago’s WBBM-FM which is a hits and hip hop station. He was scheduled to work the morning after the tournament, but his WSOP victory will cause him to miss a day at the office. “I didn’t want to take an extra vacation day until I knew I would get this far,” Ponzio explained later.

“Sure, I’m going back to work,” Ponzio said in a post-tournament interview. “Six-hundred thousand (dollars) is a lot of money. But it’s not enough to live on the rest of my life.”

This is the third time Ponzio has attended the WSOP. He cashed one time previously – with a 122nd place finish two years ago. His combined tournament winnings coming into this event totaled just $9,000. First place in this tournament paid a whopping $599,109.

Ponzio developed and was credited with a math theorem in high school. It is a formula designed to measure the size of circles. Adam Ross, from Dallas, TX finished in 7th place. The Stanford University graduate who also received his law degree from the University of Texas Law School was once the Texas State Wrestling Champion.

Ken Einiger, a native New Yorker who now resides in Las Vegas, finished in 8th place. He won the world blackjack championship last year.

Rolf Slotboom, Dutch writer and poker theorist, took 51st.

Card Player magazine editor-in-chief Jeff Shulman finished 69th.

Actress Shannon Elizabeth, best-known from her role in the “American Pie” series of hit movies, finished 150th.