2012 World Series of Poker

The 2012 World Series of Poker was the 43rd annual World Series of Poker (WSOP). It was held at the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino in Paradise, Nevada, between May 27 and July 16, 2012, with the final table of the Main Event delayed until late October.

There were 61 bracelet events, culminating in the $10,000 No Limit Hold'em Main Event beginning on July 7. From 2008 through 2011, Main Event final tables were delayed until November. However, due to the 2012 U.S. presidential election, this year's final table was delayed until October 29, with heads-up play commencing the following day.

New tournament formats introduced in the 2012 WSOP included a re-entry tournament, an ante only tournament, a mixed max tournament (in which the number of players per table changes at set times during the tournament), and a four-handed tournament.

Event schedule # Event Entrants Winner 1st Prize Runner-up Results Reference 1 $500 Casino Employees No Limit Hold'em 732 Chiab Saechao (1/1) $70,859 Patricia Baker Results 2 $1,500 No Limit Hold'em 2,101 Brent Hanks (1/1) $517,725 Jacob Bazeley Results 3 $3,000 Heads Up No Limit Hold'em/Pot Limit Omaha 317 Leif Force (1/1) $207,708 Jason Koon Results 4 $1,500 Seven Card Stud Hi-Low 8 or Better 622 Cory Zeidman (1/1) $201,559 Chris Bjorin (0/2) Results 5 $1,500 Pot Limit Hold'em 639 Nick Jivkov (1/1) $189,818 Bryan Pellegrino Results 6 $5,000 No Limit Hold'em Mixed Max 409 Aubin Cazals (1/1) $480,564 Joseph Cheong Results 7 $1,500 Seven Card Stud 367 Andy Bloch (1/1) $126,363 Barry Greenstein (0/3) Results 8 $1,500 Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better 967 Herbert Tapscott (1/1) $264,400 Gavin Griffin (0/1) Results 9 $1,500 No Limit Hold'em Re-entry 3,404 Ashkan Razavi (1/1) $781,398 Amanda Musumeci Results 10 $5,000 Seven Card Stud 145 John Monnette (1/2) $190,826 Huu Vinh Results 11 $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha 970 Vincent van der Fluit (1/1) $265,211 Charles Tonne Results 12 $10,000 Heads Up No Limit Hold'em 152 Brian Hastings (1/1) $371,498 Jason Mo Results 13 $1,500 Limit Hold'em 730 David Arsht (1/1) $211,921 Stephen Hung Results 14 $1,500 No Limit Hold'em Shootout 1,138 Brandon Schaefer (1/1) $311,174 Jonathan Cohen Results 15 $5,000 Seven Card Stud Hi-Low Split-8 or Better 212 Adam Friedman (1/1) $269,037 Todd Brunson (0/1) Results 16 $1,500 No Limit Hold'em Six Handed 1,604 Matt Matros (1/3) $454,835 Mark Radoja (0/1) Results 17 $10,000 Pot Limit Hold'em 179 Andy Frankenberger (1/2) $445,899 Phil Ivey (0/8) Results 18 $2,500 Seven Card Razz 309 Phil Hellmuth (1/12) $182,793 Don Zewin Results 19 $1,500 No Limit Hold'em 2,302 Clifford Goldkind (1/1) $559,514 Kennii Nguyen Results 20 $5,000 Limit Hold'em 166 Benjamin Scholl (1/1) $206,760 Andrew Prock Results 21 $1,000 No Limit Hold'em 2,799 Michael Gathy (1/1) $440,829 Jamie Armstrong Results 22 $2,500 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball (Limit) 228 Randy Ohel (1/1) $145,247 Benjamin Lazer Results 23 $3,000 No Limit Hold'em Six Handed 924 Simon Charette (1/1) $567,624 Artem Metalidi Results 24 $5,000 Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better 256 Joe Cassidy (1/1) $294,777 Scotty Nguyen (0/5) Results 25 $1,500 Limit Hold'em Shootout 366 Brian Meinders (1/1) $116,118 Darin Thomas Results 26 $3,000 Pot Limit Omaha 589 Austin Scott (1/1) $361,797 Brett Richey Results 27 $1,500 H.O.R.S.E. 889 Ylon Schwartz (1/1) $267,081 David Chiu (0/4) Results 28 $2,500 No Limit Hold'em Four Handed 750 Timothy Adams (1/1) $392,476 Brendon Rubie Results 29 $1,000 Seniors No Limit Hold'em Championship 4,128 Allyn Jaffrey Shulman (1/1) $603,713 Dennis Phillips Results 30 $1,500 2-7 Draw Lowball (No Limit) 285 Larry Wright (1/1) $101,975 Brandon Cantu (0/2) Results 31 $1,500 No Limit Hold'em 2,811 Carter Phillips (1/2) $664,130 Joe Cada (0/1) Results 32 $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. 178 David "Bakes" Baker (1/2) $451,779 John Monnette (1/2) Results 33 $1,000 No Limit Hold'em 2,795 Max Steinberg (1/1) $440,238 Samuel Gerber Results 34 $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha Six Handed 419 Naoya Kihara (1/1) $512,029 Chris DeMaci Results 35 $2,500 Mixed Hold'em 393 Chris Tryba (1/1) $210,107 Erik Cajelais (0/1) Results 36 $3,000 No Limit Hold'em Shootout 587 Craig McCorkell (1/1) $368,593 Jeremiah Fitzpatrick Results 37 $2,500 Eight Game Mix 477 David "ODB" Baker (1/1) $271,312 Greg Mueller (0/2) Results 38 $1,500 No Limit Hold'em 2,534 Dung Nguyen (1/1) $607,200 Theo Tran Results 39 $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha 293 Jan-Peter Jachtmann (1/1) $661,000 Andrew Brown Results 40 $2,500 Limit Hold'em Six Handed 302 Ronnie Bardah (1/1) $182,088 Marco Johnson Results 41 $3,000 No Limit Hold'em 1,394 Greg Ostrander (1/1) $742,072 Jackie Glazier Results 42 $2,500 Omaha/Seven Card Stud Hi-Low 8 or Better 393 Oleksii Kovalchuk (1/2) $228,014 George Danzer Results 43 $1,500 No Limit Hold'em 2,770 Henry Lu (1/1) $654,380 Neil Channing Results 44 $1,000 No Limit Hold'em 2,949 Rocco Palumbo (1/1) $464,464 Nelson Robinson Results 45 $50,000 Poker Players Championship 108 Michael Mizrachi (1/3) $1,451,527 Chris Klodnicki Results 46 $2,500 No Limit Hold'em 1,607 Joey Weissman (1/1) $694,609 Jeremy Quehen Results 47 $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better 978 Steven Loube (1/1) $267,345 Timothy Finne Results 48 $3,000 Limit Hold'em 247 Kenny Hsiung (1/1) $165,205 Robert Hwang Results 49 $1,500 Ante Only No Limit Hold'em 939 Greg Hobson (1/1) $256,691 Mike Sowers Results 50 $5,000 No Limit Hold'em 1,001 Pete Vilandos (1/3) $952,694 Kyle Julius Results 51 $1,000 Ladies No Limit Hold'em Championship 936 Yen Dang (1/1) $170,587 Debbie Pechac Results 52 $2,500 10-Game Mix Six Handed 421 Vanessa Selbst (1/2) $244,259 Michael Saltzburg Results 53 $1,500 No Limit Hold'em 3,166 Neil Willerson (1/1) $737,248 Vladimir Mefodichev Results 54 $1,000 No Limit Hold'em 3,221 Will Jaffe (1/1) $500,075 Luis Campelo Results 55 $1,000,000 The Big One for One Drop 48 Antonio Esfandiari (1/2) $18,346,673 Sam Trickett Results 56 $1,500 No Limit Hold'em 2,798 Tomas Junek (1/1) $661,022 David Borg Results 57 $10,000 No Limit Hold'em Six Handed 474 Greg Merson (1/1) $1,136,197 Keith Lehr (1/2) Results 58 $3,000 Pot Limit Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better 526 Viacheslav Zhukov (1/2) $330,277 Roch Cousineau Results 59 $1,000 No Limit Hold'em 4,620 Dominik Nitsche (1/1) $654,797 Jonathan Hilton Results 60 $10,000 2-7 Draw Lowball (No Limit) 101 Nick Schulman (1/2) $294,321 Mike Wattel (0/1) Results 61 $10,000 No Limit Hold'em Main Event 6,598 Greg Merson (2/2) $8,531,853 Jesse Sylvia Results

Event 55: The Big One for One Drop

The 2012 WSOP also hosted an event with the largest buy-in in poker history, a $1 million tournament benefiting the One Drop Foundation. The WSOP waived its normal 10% rake of the entry fees, and 11.1% of each buy-in (precisely $111,111) went to the foundation. All 48 seats available for the event were filled, resulting in a first prize of $18.3 million, breaking the record of $12 million won by Jamie Gold at the 2006 WSOP. One Drop initially received US$5.44 million, including a 49th/personal $111,111 donation from Caesars Interactive Entertainment CEO Mitch Garber, who was ineligible to play because of his role with the company. Guy Laliberté, the founder of the One Drop Foundation, finished in fifth place; he donated his entire winnings of US$1,834,666 to the foundation, for a total donation of US$7.28 million from this single tournament game.

Results + Place Name Prize 1st Antonio Esfandiari (1/2) $18,346,673 2nd Sam Trickett $10,112,001 3rd David Einhorn $4,352,000 4th Phil Hellmuth (1/12) $2,645,333 5th Guy Laliberté $1,834,666 6th Brian Rast (0/2) $1,621,333 7th Bobby Baldwin (0/4) $1,408,000 8th Richard Yong $1,237,333 9th Mike Sexton (0/1) $1,109,333

Main Event The $10,000 No Limit Hold'em Main Event began on July 7. In a change from previous years, which featured four starting days, there were only three starting days at this year's event. The players from days 1A and 1B then played on days 2A and 2B, which were held the same day in separate rooms, while the players from Day 1C played on Day 2C. After reaching the final table of nine players on July 16, the remainder of the tournament was delayed until October 29.

The Main Event attracted 6,598 entrants, creating a prize pool of $62,021,200. The top 666 finishers placed in the money, with the top nine players guaranteed at least $754,798. The winner earned $8,531,853.

Two women almost made the final table. Norwegian Elisabeth Hille finished at 11th place while Gaelle Baumann finished in tenth place. Her finish marked the best performance by a woman at the Main Event since Barbara Enright finished fifth in 1995 (Annie Duke finished tenth in 2000, but the total number of tournament entrants was lower).

Performance of past champions Name ChampionshipYear(s) Day ofElimination Doyle Brunson 1976, 1977 2C Tom McEvoy 1983 2C Berry Johnston 1986 1A Johnny Chan* 1987, 1988 4 (353rd) Phil Hellmuth 1989 1A Jim Bechtel 1993 1A Dan Harrington 1995 3 Huck Seed* 1996 4 (527th) Scotty Nguyen 1998 1B Carlos Mortensen 2001 1B Robert Varkonyi 2002 3 Chris Moneymaker 2003 1C Greg Raymer 2004 1B Joe Hachem 2005 1A Jamie Gold 2006 2C Jerry Yang 2007 3 Peter Eastgate 2008 3 Joe Cada 2009 2C Jonathan Duhamel 2010 1C Pius Heinz 2011 3 * Indicates a player who finished in the money

Other notable high finishes NB: This list is restricted to top 100 finishers with an existing Wikipedia entry.

Place Name Prize 20th Paul Volpe $294,601 23rd Yuval Bronshtein $294,601 56th David ODB Baker $128,384 69th Jason Somerville $106,056 73rd Vanessa Selbst $88,070 96th Gavin Smith $62,021

November Nine NameNumber of chips(percentage of total)WSOPBraceletsWSOPCashes*WSOPEarnings* 43,875,000 (22.2%) 0 2 $36,372 29,375,000 (14.8%) 0 2 $39,371 28,725,000 (14.5%) 1 5 $1,253,501 24,800,000 (12.5%) 0 3 $126,796 16,860,000 (8.5%) 1 4 $480,822 16,260,000 (8.2%) 0 3 $27,311 15,155,000 (7.7%) 0 0 0 13,115,000 (6.6%) 0 1 $3,531 9,805,000 (5.0%) 0 13 $114,623 *Career statistics prior to the beginning of the 2012 Main Event.

Final Table + Place Name Prize 1st Greg Merson $8,531,853 2nd Jesse Sylvia $5,295,149 3rd Jacob Balsiger $3,799,073 4th Russell Thomas $2,851,537 5th Jeremy Ausmus $2,155,313 6th Andras Koroknai $1,640,902 7th Michael Esposito $1,258,040 8th Robert Salaburu $971,360 9th Steve Gee $754,798

Coverage Televised coverage of the 2012 World Series of Poker could be found on ESPN. On Tuesday nights from July 3 through October 30, episodes of the WSOP would air on ESPN, with two one-hour episodes airing each week. The prior year, the WSOP Main Event was aired with near-live coverage on a brief delay, but that near-live coverage was done away with for the 2012 WSOP. In addition to the 2012 WSOP Main Event coverage on ESPN, the $1 million buy-in Big One for One Drop aired on a 15-minute delay on ESPN and ESPN3 on July 3 during a five-hour time slot. On July 31, an edited two-hour show of the Big One for One Drop aired. On August 7, the WSOP National Championship was on offer, then coverage of the WSOP Main Event started on August 14. The 2012 WSOP bracelet event broadcasts are archived in the on-demand section of PokerGO.com.

The final table of the 2012 WSOP Main Event aired on a 15-minute delay on Monday, October 29, on ESPN2 and ESPN3 and on Tuesday, October 30, on ESPN and ESPN3. Lon McEachern, Norman Chad, Antonio Esfandiari, and Kara Scott were the on-air talent and the event was produced by Poker PROductions, headed by Mori Eskandani. The 2012 WSOP Main Event broadcasts are archived in the on-demand section of PokerGO.com.

Live reporting coverage of the 2012 World Series of Poker was provided by PokerNews.com. PokerNews provided hand histories, chip counts, results, photographs, podcasts, videos, interviews, and more from the 2012 WSOP.

References

External links Tournament results at the World Series of Poker