WSOP 2008 Event #17, $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em Shootout, Final Results and Report

Number of Entries: 1,000
Total Net Prize Pool: $ 1,365,000
June 8-10, 2008

Jason Young

Final Results

Tournament Notes

The $1,500 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em Shootout attracted 1,000 entrants. The total prize pool amounted to $1,365,000. The top 100 finishers collected prize money.

Attendance for this event increased over last year’s number, when 900 players registered.

A “Shootout” means the objective is to win all the chips at a table in order to advance to the next round. On Day One, the tournament began with 1,000 players competing in what amounted to a ten-handed Sit n’ Go. One player from each table (the winner) progressed to play in the second round. On Day Two, those 100 winners were divided into ten tables, each playing a ten-handed Sit n’ Go. The ten winners from this round progressed to Day Three to take a seat at the final table – which was played ten-handed. Essentially, the winner of the tournament was required to win three consecutive Sit n’ Go rounds.

A Shootout emphasizes short-handed poker skills. This generally requires competitors to play cards out of the standard range of starting-hand requirements. It also makes post-flop skill paramount to victory. In a sense, each round is a “final table” for all the competitors since the objective is to accumulate chips and eliminate opponents.

The tournament was played over two consecutive days. Day One included the first and second rounds of play. On Day Two, the final table was dealt out on the final table adjacent to the ESPN main stage, which was featuring the conclusion of the Ladies Poker World Championship (Event #15). The Event #16 finale was also being played at a nearby table. This is expected to be the only day at this year’s WSOP which will feature three simultaneous final tables.

Day One ran a brutal 18 hours and 50 minutes in duration. Since rounds are not completed until the last table ends, players must wait until all tables have been completed before resuming play in the next round. Round One began at 12 pm and ended at 9 pm. Round Two began at 10 pm and finally ended at 6:50 am when the last table broke. Travis Roseberry and Kyle Bowker played for nearly nine hours before the winner (Bowker) was finally determined.

“Day Two” was nearly as long. Play began at 2 pm and finally ended 11 hours and 10 minutes later at 1:10 am. Technically, this tournament actually lasted three days. The 29-hour duration is one of the longest two-day events in WSOP history.

This is becoming a breakthrough year for Russian poker players. For the first time in history, Russians made it to the final table in five straight WSOP events (Event #14 – Alexander Kostritsyn; Event #15 – Svetlana Gromenkova; Event #16 – Ralph Perry; Event #17 – Sergey Rybachenko and Mike Schwartz).

The winner was Jason Young, from Suffern, NY. He is a 26-year-old aspiring professional poker player.

Young recently left his job to pursue playing poker for a living. In his prior job, he worked for six years for the Parks and Recreation Department, involved in various community projects.

Young collected $329,872 for first place. He remarked afterward: “When I worked as a recreation coordinator, I made $35,000 a year. Now, I just made ten years of my former salary in just two days!”

Young’s grandmother taught him how to play poker. He first learned Seven-Card Stud. Then a few years ago, he saw Hold’em played in television. Young began visiting Atlantic City’s poker rooms regularly with his father. “It was just a hobby,” he said. “It was something my dad and I could do together.”

“I always wanted a job where I didn’t have to work very hard. I mean, I want to work, but I wanted to (enjoy other things),” Young said. “So -- I found poker. (After playing 29 hours in two days), it looks like this is the wrong job to take it easy.”

Young admitted that he had only one hour of sleep the night/morning before playing on Day Two. “It was an adrenaline rush,” he answered when asked how he got through the marathon match.

This was unquestionably the most dramatic final table of the WSOP thus far. Young’s victory almost did not happen. In fact, his cagey opponent – Mike Schwartz – nearly pulled off the greatest recorded comeback in WSOP history. When playing heads-up Schwartz lost a huge pot and was down about 40 to 1 in chips. He had only 140,000 of the 10,000,000 chips in play (1.4 percent) with his big blind posted at 120,000. Incredibly, Schwartz won several hands over the next hour and was all-in down only about 7 to 3 in chips, holding the best hand. Had he won the final hand of the tournament, Schwartz would have been at a 3 to 2 advantage in heads-up play.

The final hand pitted Schwartz’ 4-4 against Young’s A-J. Schwartz was about to seize the chip lead, but an ace on the turn sealed the victory for the first-time WSOP gold bracelet winner.

The second-place finisher was Mike Schwartz, a 58-year-old Russian-born business executive.

The third-place finisher was John Strzemp III, who was making his first appearance at a WSOP final table. His father (John Strzemp II) finished second in the 1997 WSOP Main Event to the late Stu Ungar.

Several notable players cashed in this event, including two-time gold bracelet winner Thor Hansen, who cashed for the 41st time in his WSOP career. Hansen currently ranks 11th on the all-time list.

Former gold bracelet winner Minh Nguyen cashed for the 25th time in his WSOP career. Nguyen has now cashed at least twice at every single WSOP since 2002.

Former gold bracelet winner Ryan Hughes (2007 Seven-Card Stud High-Low Split) also finished in-the-money.

The curse on defending champions continues. Donald Baruch won this event in 2007. He entered the tournament this year, but did not cash. This marks the 17th straight time where a defending champion failed to cash in his or her respective event.

Through 17 events, the “Professionals versus Amateurs” WSOP gold medal scoreboard currently reads – Pros (12) and Amateurs (4) with one neutral semi-pro.