Las Vegas, NV (June 17, 2011) – Chris Viox won the most recent World Series of Poker tournament, played at the Rio in Las Vegas. He earned his first gold bracelet by coming out on top in the $1,500 buy-in Seven-Card Stud Hi-Low Split 8 or Better championship.The tournament attracted 606 entrants and lasted three days.Viox is a 35-year-old married father of two young children. He's originally from Houston, Texas but now resides in Glen Carbon, Illinois.
The competition was filled with interesting people and personalities.
For instance, the 49th-place finisher in any tournament would not normally receive much attention. But Artie Cobb, 49th this year, won this same event in 1983. He also took second place in this event back in 1976, which was the first year it was added to the WSOP schedule. The 35-year span between Artie Cobb’s first cash in this event (1976) and most recent cash in the same event (2011) represents the longest time span in WSOP history. Cobb owns four WSOP gold bracelets, all earned in variants of Seven-Card Stud. No player in history has more Seven-Card Stud accomplishments than Artie Cobb.David Warga was the defending champion of this event. He ended up finishing in ninth place. Warga was only the third player so far at this year’s WSOP to make a deep run and make a top-ten finish. The only previous players to accomplish were David Baker in the No-Limit Deuce-to-Seven Draw Lowball World Championship and Sean Getzwiller in the $1,500 buy-in Eight-or-Better event.As play whittled down to two tables, poker media and spectators anticipated what might have been a dream potential matchup between two very well-known television personalities, still alive at the time. ESPN’s Norman Chad (co-star of most WSOP coverage) and Mike Sexton (commentator for the World Poker Tour) made for an interesting matchup. But Chad was eliminated in 12nd place, leaving Sexton alone to represent televised poker. Sexton was ultimately eliminated in second place. The former WSOP gold bracelet winner, Tournament of Champions winner, and Poker Hall of Fame inductee (Class of 2009) crossed the $1 million threshold in career WSOP winnings with his cash in this tournament.For a comprehensive recap of Event #25, please visit WSOP.com.