2008 WSOP Gold Bracelet Winner Event #35

2008 World Series of Poker
Event #35 Final Report
$1,500 Seven Card Stud

Tournament Notes

WSOP GOLD BRACELET WINNER
EVENT #35 – Mike Rocco

The $1,500 buy-in Seven-Card Stud championship attracted 381 entries,
creating a prize pool totaling $520,065. The top 40 finishers (final five tables)
collected prize money.

Seven-Card Stud first debuted at the WSOP back in 1973. Puggy Pearson
was the very first champion.

Six players in WSOP history own two gold bracelets in Seven-Card Stud.
They are Johnny Moss, Bones Berland, Marty Sigel, Ted Forrest, Mel Judah,
and Men “the Master” Nguyen.

Artie Cobb is the only player in WSOP history who has won three gold
bracelets in Seven-Card Stud. Cobb played in this year’s event, but did not
cash. Note: Cobb’s fourth gold bracelet came in Seven-Card Stud High-Low
Split – which more precisely gives him four wins in Stud.

Other former Seven-Card Stud winners include two poker legends, Stu Ungar
and Chip Reese.

Last year’s champion Michael Keiner, from Germany, played in this event. But
he did not cash. This brings the current streak to 35 straight non-cashes for
defending champions in their respective events.

The 2008 $1,500 buy-in Seven-Card Stud champion is Mike Rocco, from Las
Vegas, NV. He is a 48-year-old professional poker player, who by his own
admission has been going through some rough times lately. Rocco was born
in Cleveland, OH.

Incredibly, Rocco won his way into this event by winning a $215 single-table
satellite.

Rocco collected $135,753 for first place. He also earned his first WSOP gold
bracelet.

Rocco has been playing professionally since 1997. He mostly concentrates on
middle limit cash games in the Los Angeles area. Rocco prefers Seven-Card
Stud to Hold’em and for that reason tends to play more in California, where
there is more Seven-Card Stud action.

Rocco first came to Las Vegas in the early 1980s. He began working as a
blackjack dealer at the Dunes Casino and Hotel (the site where the Bellagio
now stands).

Rocco had tears in his eyes in a post-tournament interview when he was
asked about his 5-year-old son, Oliver. “He means everything to me,” Rocco
said. “This (gold bracelet) is for him.”

“I can’t say enough about my friends,” Rocco said as he pointed to fellow
poker pros Jeffrey Lisandro and Cycndy Violette who watched the entire final
table match. “I got more phone calls from my friends in the last two days
than the last two months – and I don’t even owe them money!”

The second-place finisher was Al Barbieri, a.k.a. “Sugar Bear.” Barbieri is a
heavy sports gambler. His poker mentor is three-time WSOP gold bracelet
winner John Bonetti.

The final table lasted nearly nine hours. The heads-up match went for about
three hours.

At age 79, Jack D’Agostino became the oldest player to make it to a WSOP
final table in an open event since Pete Kaufman (age 80) accomplished the
feat in 2004. D’Agostino ended up as the fifth-place finisher.

Former WSOP gold bracelet winner Andre Boyer finished in seventh place.

Sabyl Cohen-Landrum finished in 12th place. She was the highest female
finisher in the 2006 WSOP Main Event (56th). Note: All records should be
corrected to reflect that Sabyl Cohen-Landrum has previously been listed as
Sabyl Cohen, before her marriage. She has also been listed as “Susan
Cohen” and Sabyl Landrum” in various poker archives. She prefers this to be
changed at all sites and records to: SABYL COHEN-LANDRUM.

Former WSOP gold bracelet winner John “World” Hennigan finished in 35th
place.

Nikolay Evdakov, from Moscow, Russia cashed again (in Event #34). He is
now the only player this year who has cashed seven times – just one off the
all-time record mark. Evdakov is positioned to break the record set for “Most
WSOP Cashes in a Single Year,” shared by four players -- Michael Binger
(2007), Chad Brown (2007), Phil Hellmuth, Jr. (2006), and Humberto Brenes
(2006), with eight.

The Milwaukee’s Best Light “Player of the Year” standings currently shows a
dead heat between two top poker pros -- Erick Lindgren and Barry
Greenstein. However, upset-minded Jacobo Fernandez is expected to move
into the points lead following his cash in another event on this day. For a
complete list of the leaders, see: http://www.worldseriesofpoker.
com/players/2008.asp?sort=poypts

Through Event #35, only one player has made three final table appearances
– Jacobo Fernandez. Fifteen players have made two WSOP final table
appearances, to date. This list includes – Chris Bjorin, Andy Bloch, David
Benyamine, Alex Bolotin, Scott Clements, Chris “Jesus” Ferguson, Barry
Greenstein, Fu Wong, Erick Lindgren, Minh Ly, Daniel Negreanu, David Singer,
J.C. Tran, Theo Tran, and Tim West.

Through the conclusion of Event #35 at this year’s World Series of Poker, the
gold bracelet count by nations and states reads as follows:

10 – Nevada
6 – California
4 – New York
2 – Canada
2 – Germany
2 – Italy
2 – Missouri
1 – Holland
1 – Maryland
1 – Michigan
1 – Pennsylvania
1 – Russia
1 – South Carolina
1 – Wisconsin

The Event #35 winner Michael Rocco is to be classified as a professional,
since he has been playing for a living since 1997. Accordingly, through the
conclusion of Event #35, the “Pro-Am” gold bracelet scoreboard reads:

Professionals – 28 wins
Amateurs -- 5 wins
Semi-Pros -- 2 wins

Leonardo Ebeling was the chip leader at the End of Day One for this event.
However, he did not cash. Hence, through Event #35, the End of Day One
chip leaders have gone on to cash 76 percent of the time -- 25 of 33
occasions (the chip leader was not applicable on two events). Nine of these
same 33 chip leaders (27 percent) made it to the final table. Only one chip
leader went on to win the event. That lone wire-to-wire winner was Vanessa
Selbst in Event #19.

Michael Rocco was the chip leader at the start of this final table. He ended
up as the winner. Through Event #35, fourteen of 32 chip leaders at the
start of the final table (43 percent) went on to win the event. Twenty of 32
chip leaders (63 percent) went on to finish in the top three spots. Two
events did not have a chip leader (Heads-Up and Shootout tournaments).

World Series of Poker Commissioner – Jeffrey Pollack

Director of Sponsorship and Licensing -- Ty Stewart

Director of Broadcasting and New Media – Craig Abrahams

Director of Communications – Seth Palansky

Regional Vice President of Specialty Gaming -- Howard Greenbaum

Tournament Director – Jack Effel

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