The World Razz Championship was won by Katja Thater, from Hamburg, Germany. She is a 40-year-old professional poker player who in recent years has become one of the top poker players in Europe. This was Thater’s first win at the World Series of Poker.

Thater’s victory is the first for a woman in an open WSOP event in over three years. Annie Duke was the last female winner, achieving her victory on May 9, 2004.

Thater’s win also marked the first female winner ever to be crowned at the Rio in Las Vegas. Duke, and all prior female WSOP winners achieved their victories at Binion’s Horseshoe.

Thater became the second woman ever to win this event. Ten years ago, Linda Johnson (then editor of Card Player magazine) won the World Razz Championship.

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Prior to becoming a poker pro, Thater specialized in horse breeding.

Thater now has five WSOP cashes, and two final tables. She also made it to the final table in the Ladies Poker Championship last week, finishing fifth. In March, Thater also made it to the final table at the European Poker Tour’s championship event in Warsaw, Poland.

At one point in the tournament, with 16 players remaining, Thater was down to just 8,000 in chips, which meant she only had a few more hands to play before possible elimination. Then, Thater went on a rush and survived, making it all the way to the final table. It took her about seven hours to achieve victory.

Four of the final eight players were former WSOP gold bracelet winners – with a combined 13 titles between them.

O’Neil Longson, a three-time gold bracelet winner, won this event two years ago in one of the longest final tables in WSOP history. He took third place in this event.

Three-time WSOP gold bracelet winner Paul “Eskimo” Clark finished fourth.

Australia’s Mark Vos, who won $800,000 and a gold bracelet at last year’s WSOP finished in 6th place.

Six-time WSOP gold bracelet winner Men “the Master” Nguyen finished seventh. This marked the 55th lifetime cash for Men the Master, second only to Phil Hellmuth.

This tournament was originally scheduled as a two-day event. However, Day Two ran long and it was agreed that a third day would be added. This was caused in part by a medical emergency involving one of the participants. He recovered and the tournament was played to conclusion without further incident.

Four–time WSOP gold bracelet winner Mickey Appleman finished in 11th place. Appleman won his first WSOP title 37 years ago, in 1980.

Noted poker theorist David Skalnsky cashed again. The man who has arguably educated more poker players than anyone else in history took a very respectable 30th place.

Through 29 (of 55) events, only one player has cashed five times – Mike Binger, from Atherton, CA. Several players have cashed four times. Only one player has made three final table appearances thus far – Humberto Brenes, from San Jose, Costa Rica.