Event #52
No-Limit Hold’em (with Re-Buys)
Buy-In: $1,000
Number of Entries: 1,048
Number of Re-Buys: 2,336
Total Prize Money: $ 3,226,609
Date of Tournament: July 2-4, 2007
The winner of the $1,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em (with re-buys) championship was Michael Graves. He is a 23-year-old college student from Dallas, TX. This was his first victory at the World Series of Poker.
Prior to winning three quarters of a million dollars at the World Series, Graves had two previous tournament cashes on his record. One was at the Reindeer Games Poker Tournament. The other was at the Ozark Poker Championship. Those two cashes were worth a combined $4,621. This payday was a bit higher as first place paid $742,121.
Graves is originally from Austin, TX. He is a medical student at the University of Texas-Southwestern.
Graves has been playing pokier seriously for about three years. This was his first time to play in the World Series of Poker.
The runner up in this event was Theo Tran. He is the “World Series of Checkers” champion.
With his cash in this event (56th place) Michael Binger has tied a WSOP record. He now has eight cashes this year, which is the most times in-the-money at a single World Series. He is currently tied with Humberto Brenes and Phil Hellmuth, Jr. who both set the record in 2006. There are still two events on the schedule to play for Binger to get his ninth cash.
Hold’em icon Phil Hellmuth, Jr. continues to pad his lead as the all-time “most cashes” leader. He finished in 95th place, which represented his 63rd career in-the-money finish at the WSOP. Men “the Master” Nguyen is a relatively distant second in cashes, currently with 57.
1986 world champion Berry Johnston, who is also a member of the Poker Hall of Fame, took 62nd place. He now has 52 lifetime cashes, which ranks fourth on the all-time WSOP list.
Carolyn Gardner, who won the Ladies World Poker Championship in 1983, finished in 63rd place.
Reigning world poker champion Jamie Gold made his third WSOP career cash and second this year with his 84th-place finish in this event.
2005 WSOP champion Joe Hachem cashed in this event, with his 98th-place finish.
Other former WSOP gold bracelet winners who cashed in this tournament included – David Williams (15th), Daniel Alaei (21st), Steve Billirakis (33rd), and Lee Watkinson (60th).
