The World Series of Poker is the longest-running, largest, richest, and most prestigious gaming event in the world. This year marks the 40th anniversary of the WSOP which takes place at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino from May 27th through July 15th, with the Main Event final table played November 7-10, 2009.



Final Results for Event #XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX:



-- EXCEL results

-- MS WORD report

-- PHOTO of winner



Please note that all material in the attachments, including statistics, facts, and quotes may be freely used by media.



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Thank you for your support of the 2009 World Series of Poker.





-- Nolan Dalla



2009 World Series of Poker Presented by Jack Link’s Beef Jerky
Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino

Las Vegas, Nevada



Official Report

Event #10

$2,500 Mixed – Pot-Limit Hold’em / Pot-Limit Omaha

Buy-In: $2,500

Number of Entries: 453

Total Net Prize Pool: $1,041,900

Number of Places Paid: 453

First Place Prize: $244,862

June 3-5, 2009





Tournament Highlights:



The Winner



· The 2009 World Series of Poker $2,500 Mixed – Pot-Limit Hold’em / Pot-Limit Omaha event champion is Rami Boukai, from San Diego, CA.



· Boukai is a 26-year-old professional poker player.



· Boukai was once a student at UC-San Diego.



· Boukai was born in Dammam, Saudi Arabia. He is believed to be the only Saudi Arabian-born WSOP gold bracelet winner in history. Previous WSOP winners have come from the Middle East, including Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, and Israel.



· It should be noted that although Boukai was born abroad, he came to the United States at the age of one. Boukai’s father was Lebanese. His mother is a native-born American. Boukai has never visited Saudi Arabia. His father worked there in the 1980s on construction projects.



· Nevertheless, Boukai’s online poker player screen name is “Arabian Night.”



· Boukai has played in three WSOP events so far this year, making the third time a charm (victory).



· This marked Boukai’s seventh time to cash at the WSOP. His best previous finish was a 14th-place showing in 2007. This was his first final table appearance.



· Boukai collected $244,862 for first place. He was also awarded his first WSOP gold bracelet.



· Boukai’s combined career tournament winnings now total about $570,000.





The Players



· The final table was comprised of no former WSOP gold bracelet winners. This was the fourth event of ten held this year which guaranteed a first-time winner.



· This was one of the more cosmopolitan final tables played so far this year. The nine finalists represented five different nations, including:



Austria

England (3)

Poland

Switzerland

United States (3)



· Consistent with the “cosmopolitan” theme, two of the Americans were born abroad – one in Romania and the other in Saudi Arabia.



· The runner up was N. Shaun Bennani (sometimes listed as Najib Bennani). He is a 26-year-old former accountant-turned-poker pro.



· The third-place finisher was Ben Grundy, from London, England.



· The fourth-place finisher was Romanian-born Cornel Andrew Cimpan, who now lives in League City, TX.



· The fifth-place finisher was Daniel Makowsky, from Zurich, Switzerland. He finished as the runner up in a WSOP event held last year.



· The sixth-place finisher was Paul Parker, from London, England.



· The seventh-place finisher was Pawel Andrzejwski, from Park Ridge, IL. This marked his fifth cash at the WSOP.



· The eighth-place finisher was another Englishman, John Kabbaj, from London. He also finished as a runner up in a WSOP event, back in 2004. Kabbaj won the European No-Limit Hold’em Championship in 2006.



· The ninth-place finisher was Sigi Stockinger, from Salzburg, Austria.



· Former gold bracelet winners who cashed in this event included – Jan Sorensen, David Sklansky (3 wins), Rob Hollink, Daniel Negreanu (4 wins), and Hoyt Corkins (2 wins).



· The defending champion in this event was Max Pescatori, from Milan, Italy. He entered this tournament, but did not cash.





Odds and Ends



· This is only the second time this event has been included on the WSOP schedule. While many “mixed game” tournaments have taken place in the 39-year history of the WSOP, these two games had not been combined together exclusively until 2008.

· Pot-Limit poker is more popular in Europe than the United States and elsewhere. Many of the top players in England, Ireland, France, and elsewhere specialize in this form of poker. Not surprisingly, 6 of the 9 finalists were Europeans. In fact, 14 of the 45 players who cashed in this tournament were Europeans.

· The tournament was played over three consecutive days. On Day Three, the final table action took place on the secondary stage, near the ESPN feature table area, which was simultaneously dealing out the conclusion of the $1,500 buy-in Six-Handed No-Limit Hold’em event.





The Event



· The $2,500 Mixed – Pot-Limit Hold’em / Pot-Limit Omaha event attracted 453 entrants. This created a prize pool totaling $1,041,900. The top 45 finishers collected prize money.



· Last year’s Mixed event, played in the identical schedule slot, attracted 457 players.



· The final hand of the night came when Boukai had the best hand pre-flop, lost the lead on the flop, then improved on the turn and dragged the final pot of the tournament. Boukai had pocket nines. His tough adversary N. Shaun Bennani had Q-J. Bennani was in the lead when the flop came A-K-Q. But a nine on the turn gave Boukai a set of nines, which held up.



· The tournament officially began on Tuesday, June 2nd, at 12:00 noon. The tournament officially ended on Friday, June 5th, at 2:02 am.





WSOP Statistics



· Through the conclusion of Event #10, the 2009 WSOP has attracted 13,804 entries. $24,180,105 in prize money has been awarded to winners.



· Through Event #10, nine Americans have won gold bracelets. One Russian player has won. No other nations have been represented at the WSOP gold bracelet ceremony so far, which takes place on the day following the winner’s victory. The ceremony takes place on at center stage of the main tournament room and begins during the break of the noon tournament. The ceremony usually starts around 2:20 pm.



· Here is a list of all entrants into WSOP events so far, through Event #14. Note that each entry is counted. So, if one player from Nevada enters two events, that is counted as two entries – even though it is the same player. Also note that Canadian provinces are listed:



STATE/COUNTRY
ENTRIES

CA
3306

NV
1649

TX
987

FL
896

NY
819

AZ
597

IL
552

WA
422

CO
410

MI
381

NJ
381

ON
355

OH
350

PA
295

UK
269

GA
262

NC
237

BC
221

VA
219

WI
209

MO
196

MD
174

MA
172

Germany
170

MN
154

OR
148

TN
141

IN
128

OK
120

HI
117

France
113

QC
112

Russia
111

CT
110

KS
100

AB
98

UT
96

KY
93

Netherlands
83

LA
79

NM
61

SC
61

IA
58

MS
54

AL
52

Italy
49

AK
45

WV
45

ID
44

Australia
41

Hungary
41

Switzerland
40

MT
35

Sweden
35

AR
34

NE
33

SD
30

WY
29

ND
27

NH
26

Finland
24

Brazil
23

Denmark
23

DC
22

Mexico
21

MB
20

Belgium
18

NS
17

ME
16

Ireland
14

NB
14

Spain
14

Czechoslovakia
13

Norway
13

Venezuela
12

VT
12

Austria
11

Japan
11

Argentina
10

Israel
10

RI
10

PR
9

DE
8

China
7

Scotland
7

South Africa
7

SK
6

YT
6

Dominican Republic
5

NL
5

PEI
5

Slovenia
5

Poland
4

Portugal
4

Chile
3

Romania
3

United Kingdom
3

VI
3

Belize
2

Bermuda
2

Cayman Islands
2

Lithuania
2

New Zealand
2

Philippines
2

QB
2

Senegal
2

Turkey
2

Bavaria
1

Belarus
1

CI
1

Corsica
1

Costa Rica
1

Honduras
1

India
1

Korea
1

Liechtenstein
1

Morocco
1

Slovakia
1

TACHIRA
1

Trinidad
1

UAE
1

VE
1






Errors and Omissions (Previous Reports):



· The following text appeared in yesterday’s final report (Event #6):



Freddie Ellis, the new champion, is African-American. He became the fifth African-American in WSOP history to win a gold bracelet -- joining Walter Smiley, Carolyn Gardener, Phil Ivey, and David Williams. What is relevant about cultural heritage is that all of these champions won their WSOP gold bracelets in Seven-Card Stud events (Note: Ivey actually has five WSOP titles, but one came in Seven-Card Stud, another came in Seven-Card Stud High-Low Split, and another came in a Mixed game with Seven-Card Stud). Smiley won the Seven-Card Stud title in 1976. Gardener won the Seven-Card Stud championship in 1982. Williams won his gold bracelet in Seven Card Stud in 2006.



The name of one additional player was omitted. PAUL DARDEN is another African-American former WSOP gold bracelet winner. Consistent with the point of the previous text, Mr. Darden won his gold bracelet in the $2,500 buy-in Seven-Card Stud championship held in 2001.



· END





Note: All results are now official and may be reprinted by media.



__________________________________



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For statistics and historical information from the 2009 World Series of Poker, contact Nolan Dalla at: nolandalla@aol.com or nolandalla@gmail.com



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The 2009 World Series of Poker’s title sponsor is Jack Link’s Beef Jerky. For more information, visit: www.jacklinks.com







World Series of Poker President and Commissioner – Jeffrey Pollack



Vice President of Sponsorship and Licensing -- Ty Stewart



Vive President of Broadcasting and New Media – Craig Abrahams



Director of Communications – Seth Palansky



Regional Vice President of Specialty Gaming -- Howard Greenbaum



WSOP Events Manager -- Angele Marshall



WSOP Marketing Manager – Elizabeth Anne Hill



WSOP Tournament Director – Jack Effel







About the World Series of Poker
The World Series of Poker (WSOP) is the largest, richest, and most prestigious gaming event in the world awarding millions of dollars in prize money and the prestigious gold bracelet, globally recognized as the sport’s top prize. Featuring a comprehensive slate of tournaments in every major poker variation, the WSOP is poker’s longest running tournament, dating back to 1970. In 2008, the event attracted 58,720 entrants from 124 different countries to the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas and awarded over $180 million in prize money. The creation of the new delayed Main Event final table more than doubled ratings on ESPN over the previous year. In December 2008 the WSOP was named the 7th most admired sports brand in North America by the Turnkey Sports Survey, trailing only the older and more established NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, NASCAR and PGA Tour among sports properties. In addition, the WSOP has experienced groundbreaking alliances in broadcasting, digital media and corporate sponsorships, while successfully expanding the brand internationally with the advent of World Series of Poker EuropeSM in 2007.

1 Boukai, Rami $244,862 San Diego CA
2 Bennani, Najib $151,335 Ridgefield NJ
3 Grundy, Ben $99,574 London United Kingdom
4 Cimpan, Cornel $69,546 League City TX
5 Makowsky, Daniel $51,313 Zurich Switzerland
6 Parker, Paul $39,904 London United Kingdom
7 Andrzejwski, Pawel $32,653 Park Ridge IL
8 Kabbaj, John $28,006 London United Kingdom
9 Stockinger, Sigi $25,151 Linz Austria
10 Do, Gary $18,170 Denver CO
11 Khan, Hevad $18,170 Las Vegas NV
12 Collado, Jan $18,170 Oyten Germany
13 Makhija, Amit $13,534 Brookfield WI
14 Sunar, Surinder $13,534 Wolverhampton United Kingdom
15 Entin, Jonas $13,534 Granada Hills CA
16 Rosen, Jamie $10,293 Boca Raton FL
17 Chang, Chris $10,293 Kelowna BC, Canada
18 Cousineau, Anthony $10,293 Las Vegas NV
19 Boyce, George $7,918 Silver Spring MD
20 Devlin, Stephen $7,918 Omagh Co Ireland
21 Sklansky, David $7,918 Las Vegas NV
22 Corkins, Hoyt $7,918 Las Vegas NV
23 Velador, Jose $7,918 Lake Elsinore CA
24 Solomon, Jarred $7,918 Johannesburg South Africa
25 Abdallah, George $7,918 Houston TX
26 Tamayo, Jonathan $7,918 Humble TX
27 Littlefield, Jeff $7,918 Greenville TX
28 Filippi, Amnon $6,293 New York NY
29 Grospellier, Bertrand $6,293 Vandozurve France
30 Vega, Alfredo $6,293 Aachen Germany
31 Arfa, David $6,293 Elmwood Park IL
32 Hollink, Rob $6,293 Groningen The Netherlands
33 Verbakel, Bjorn $6,293 Beek en Donk The Netherlands
34 Pickering, Jaime $6,293 Queens Land Australia
35 Soulier, Fabrice $6,293 Barbentane NV
36 Bhasin, Rohit $6,293 Brisbane Australia
37 Boyd, Craig $5,074 Manchester MO
38 Ingles, Jared $5,074 Baton Rouge LA
39 Fisher, Paul $5,074 Chicago IL
40 Seth, Andy $5,074 Urbana IL
41 Sorensen, Jan $5,074 Odense Denmark
42 Williams, Jeff $5,074 Dunwoody GA
43 Negreanu, Daniel $5,074 Las Vegas NV
44 Lehmann, Markus $5,074 Mauren Liechtestein
45 Bauerlein, Eugene $5,074 St. Petersburg FL