EVENT #67: $10,000 buy-in Dealers Choice
ENTRIES: 108
PRIZE POOL: $1,015,200
FIRST PLACE PRIZE: $319,792
PLACES PAID: 12
DATES: July 3-5, 2015
Quin Do Does It Again
L.A. Poker Pro Scoops $319,792 and Second WSOP Gold Bracelet
Do Wins Inaugural $10K Dealers Choice Championship
MEET THE LATEST WSOP GOLD BRACELET CHAMPION
Name: Quin Do
Birthplace: Vietnam
Age: 39
Current Residence: El Monte, CA
Marital Status: Married
Children: 1
Number of WSOP Cashes: 17
Number of WSOP Final Table Appearances: 2
Number of WSOP Gold Bracelet Victories: 2
Best Previous WSOP Finish: 1st (2005)
Total WSOP Earnings: $707,507
[Note: All statistics above include the results of this tournament]
Quinn Do knows the secret to winning “Dealers Choice” tournaments.
According
to him the secret is as follows: Don’t pick the games you are best at;
Instead, pick the games your opponent(s) are the worst at.
That secret and strategy served him well. So is the latest gold bracelet winner at the 2015 World Series of Poker.
The
39-year-old poker pro from El Monte, CA topped one of the smallest, but
most concentrated fields at this year’s series, conquering a blistering
final table lineup of highly-accomplished adversaries on the way to
winning his second gold bracelet victory.
The
$10,000 buy-in Dealers Choice event was the last preliminary tournament
before the start of the 2015 World Series of Poker Main Event. A
modest-sized field of 108 entries made for a seemingly easy path to win a
WSOP victory, at least compared to the other much larger fields.
However, the tournament attracted a “Who’s Who” of tournament poker.
The highly-skilled lineup produced yet another prize pool in excess of
$1 million, with the top 12 finishers collecting a payout.
Do’s
share of the prize money came to $319,792, which wasn’t bad for three
days of work. The victory marked a second career gold bracelet win for
the poker pro from El Monte, CA. His first gold bracelet was won back
in 2005 in a Limit Hold’em tourney. He’s now posted 17 career cashes.
This victory nearly doubles his lifetime series’ earnings.
As
for his tournament strategy playing Dealers Choice, Do later admitted
that he stumbled into the idea of calling the worst games for opponents
rather than his own best games.
“On
Day One, I noticed that some of the players did not play some games
very well, so I called those games,” Do said. “I kept with that
strategy. It was working, so why change it?”
Do,
born in Vietnam regularly plays high-stakes mixed games. Hence, the
Dealers Choice format was something he was not just comfortable with,
but highly-experienced at. Do normally plays poker at the Commerce
Casino in Los Angeles and the Bellagio in Las Vegas.
“Winning
this gold bracelet was better than the first,” Do said. “This one was
for Mixed Games which is something I have worked on for a long time. I
spent ten years playing these games so to come here and win for this
event is really better for me.”
As
expected, the final table included a stacked lineup of well-known
players and former gold bracelet winners – including Do, Rep Porter (who
finished 2nd), Jeff Madsen, David Benyamine, Adam Friedman, and Paul
Volpe. Non-former winners included Jake Abdalla and Jussi Nevanlinna.
Among
the remaining players who finished in the money was David Chiu,
finishing 9th. The Chinese-born poker pro now living in Las Vegas is a
five-time gold bracelet winner, but he ended up bubbling the final
table.
Following Do’s finish in the top spot, the descending order of Top-8 results was as follows:
Second Place:
Rep Porter, from Woodinville, WA finished in 2nd place. He was short
stacked towards the end of the tourney and couldn’t put a dent in the
eventual winner’s huge chip stack. Porter, a two-time gold bracelet
winner making his seventh cash of this series, earned $197,608 as the
runner up.
Third Place:
Jeff Madsen, a four-time gold bracelet winner and the 2005 WSOP
“Player of the Year,” finished in 3rd place. The Los Angeles-area poker
pro earned $129,651.
Fourth Place:
Jake Abdalla, from Las Vegas, NV finished 4th. He collected a payout
of $89,114 in what was his third time to cash at the WSOP.
Fifth Place:
Adam Friedman, from Ohio, finished in 5th place. He earned $63,277.
Friedman won his gold bracelet back in 2012. This was his cash of the
summer.
Sixth Place:
Jussi Nevanlinna, from Helsinki, Finland took 6th place. He collected
$46,384 in prize money. This marked his fifth time to cash at the
series and second final table appearance.
Seventh Place:
David Benyamine, originally from France and now licingin Henderson, NV
finished in 7th place, which paid $35,065. Benyamine, now with 28
cashes and in excess of $2.1 million in WSOP earnings, won a gold
bracelet back in 2008.
Eighth Place:
Paul Volpe, from Philadelphia, rounded out the unofficial final table
as the 8th-place finisher. He collected $35,065. This marked his
sixth cash for the summer series and fourth final table appearance.
Volpe won his gold bracelet last year.
EVENT DIRECT LINKS:
For this event’s results, visit:
For Quin Do’s official player profile page, visit:
For the Live Reporting Log for this event, please visit:
For photos from this event, please visit:
(Note: Will appear 48 hours after event concludes)