Belgian Gathy wins massive $1K

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The first $1,000 buy-in event of the 2012 World Series of Poker attracted the largest single-day entry field to date with 2,799 players spending a dime for their shot at WSOP glory and an incredible return on investment. Michael Gathy, a 23-year-old online professional poker player from Belgium, turned his lottery ticket into a bracelet, winning the event after more than 36 hours of competition. He became only the second Belgian to capture a WSOP bracelet, joining Davidi Kitai in that elite club.

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WSOP.comMichael Gathy became the second Belgian champion in WSOP history with his victory in Event 21.

Gathy defeated a final table that included former bracelet winners Eric Baldwin and John Esposito. Baldwin left Gathy with less than 10 big blinds with five players to go, but a string of uncalled all-ins allowed him to earn his way back into contention. Gathy remained patient on the short stack. He doubled through the one-time chip leader Noah Vaillancourt to get his comeback started, then picked great spots to enter heads-up play against Jamie Armstrong just slightly behind in chips.

Armstrong doubled up Gathy once before extending his lead to 3.5 to 1 and just when it seemed that Gathy would be collecting second-place prize money, he scooped a massive pot with a turned full house to essentially even the match once again. A few hands later, Gathy was the chip leader and Armstrong four-bet all-in with 9-9. Gathy made the call with 10-10 and watched as the board ran clean to crown him a WSOP champion.

"The World Series of Poker is such a big event that it means a lot to me," said Gathy. "I didn't worry too much about getting low in chips. I thought I was going to win it when I was three-handed."

This was Gathy's second WSOP event and first WSOP cash. He plans on investing the $440,829 in a house or apartment.

Esposito earned $139,457 for his fourth-place finish and his first cash of the 2012 WSOP. Esposito was 32nd in last year's main event, winning $242,636 in the process. He's fifth all-time in WSOP main event cashes, and has in the top 32 five times since 1989.

Baldwin's $101,948 was his largest cash since November 2010. The 2009 CardPlayer Player of the Year was eliminated when his Q-Q was outflopped by Vaillancourt's A-4. He has $3.8 million in career tournament earnings.

Other notable finishers include Dan Smith (10th), Maria Ho (24th), Christian Harder (27th), Joe Tehan (71st) and 2011 WSOP main event runner-up Martin Staszko (116th).

Below are the complete results of Event 21 at the 2012 World Series of Poker:

Event 21: No-limit hold 'em
Buy-in: $1,000
Entries: 2,799
Prize pool: $2,519,100
Players in the money: 297

1. Michael Gathy ($440,829)
2. Jamie Armstrong ($273,776)
3. Noah Vaillancourt ($193,089)
4. John Esposito ($139,457)
5. Eric Baldwin ($101,948)
6. Eric Davis ($75,422)
7. Jean-Louis Santoni ($56,453)
8. Jason Manggunio ($42,749)
9. Joshua Field ($32,748)
10. Dan Smith ($25,367)
11. Hok-Leung Wong ($25,367)
12. Derek Wolters ($25,367)
13. Glen McCaffrey ($19,876)
14. Randy Green ($19,876)
15. Jonathan Poche ($19,876)
16. Mitch Merritt ($15,744)
17. William Fichman ($15,744)
18. Mark Aramaki ($15,744)
19. Wenlong Jin ($12,621)
20. Bret Green ($12,621)
21. Alan Keating ($12,621)
22. Bona Sar ($12,621)
23. Lucas Hinde ($12,621)
24. Maria Ho ($12,621)
25. Martin Gradl ($12,621)
26. William Stewart ($12,621)
27. Christian Harder ($12,621)
28. Zmnan Ziyard ($10,228)
29. Peter Carrillo ($10,228)
30. Tom Peterson ($10,228)
31. Kristijonas Andrulis ($10,228)
32. Hayden Fortini ($10,228)
33. Eric Hunter ($10,228)
34. Patrice Rinfret ($10,228)
35. Stephen Wheeland ($10,228)
36. Kevin Marcotte ($10,228)
37. Dmitry Kataev ($8,363)
38. Cesar Flores ($8,363)
39. Huy Nguyen ($8,363)
40. John Patgorski ($8,363)
41. Donald Fleming ($8,363)
42. Tuan Vu ($8,363)
43. Justin Pechie ($8,363)
44. Matas Dilpsas ($8,363)
45. Jason Sackler ($8,363)
46. Andrew Neeme ($6,928)
47. Anselmo Vilarreal ($6,928)
48. Edward Locke ($6,928)
49. Bobby Law ($6,928)
50. Emil Abramyan ($6,928)
51. Sebastion Saffari ($6,928)
52. Max Steinberg ($6,928)
53. Alex Brown ($6,928)
54. Michael Combs ($6,928)
55. Kelley Maltas ($5,794)
56. David Jones ($5,794)
57. Roongsak Griffeth ($5,794)
58. Brian Friesen ($5,794)
59. Alan Levin ($5,794)
60. Bradford Albrinck ($5,794)
61. Daniela Salic ($5,794)
62. Andrew Balogh ($5,794)
63. Ryan Young ($5,794)
64. Nicola Cavacini ($4,887)
65. Robert Davis ($4,887)
66. Joseph Cappello ($4,887)
67. Dennis Gokman ($4,887)
68. David Kilpatrick ($4,887)
69. Aaron Eckhart ($4,887)
70. Jaehwa Son ($4,887)
71. Joe Tehan ($4,887)
72. Hartt Stearns ($4,887)
73. Ryan Gentry ($4,182)
74. Wilbert Chun ($4,182)
75. James Edminister ($4,182)
76. Cesar Romero ($4,182)
77. Dean Bucher ($4,182)
78. Shawn Hindy ($4,182)
79. Andrew Guarnera ($4,182)
80. Florian Manz ($4,182)
81. Jerald Dietz ($4,182)
82. Matthew Prior ($3,602)
83. Matthew Mulford ($3,602)
84. James Schaff ($3,602)
85. Salvatore Dicario ($3,602)
86. Glenn Nguyen ($3,602)
87. Brian Hartner ($3,602)
88. Peter Haslam ($3,602)
89. Easy Rider ($3,602)
90. Inez Gilpen ($3,602)
91. Timothy Stull ($3,149)
92. Alon Doitch ($3,149)
93. Barry Weyandt ($3,149)
94. Steve Stencil ($3,149)
95. Anna Resnick ($3,149)
96. Dean Degross ($3,149)
97. Kory Kilpatrick ($3,149)
98. William Snavely ($3,149)
99. Adalberto Orrigo ($3,149)
100. Randy Hanley ($2,771)
101. Gino Risorto ($2,771)
102. Jon Rhamey ($2,771)
103. Jerry Wong ($2,771)
104. Daniel Bland ($2,771)
105. Gregory Josifovski ($2,771)
106. John Hoang ($2,771)
107. Clayton Newman ($2,771)
108. Scott Sitron ($2,771)
109. Michael Diaz ($2,771)
110. Thomas Hans ($2,771)
111. Luc Campeau ($2,771)
112. Jesse Hainley ($2,771)
113. Steven Gorder ($2,771)
114. Brandon Smotherman ($2,771)
115. James Lewis ($2,771)
116. Martin Staszko ($2,771)
117. Jason Gwinn ($2,771)
118. Milad Jorshari ($2,771)
119. Vaughn Till ($2,771)
120. Stephen Chidwick ($2,771)
121. Dao Bac ($2,771)
122. Kelly McCullum ($2,771)
123. Matthew Rosen ($2,771)
124. Halley Hamburger ($2,771)
125. Joseph Bradford ($2,771)
126. Dana Hecker ($2,771)
127. Andrew Lee ($2,771)
128. Efren Garcia ($2,771)
129. Michael Palma ($2,771)
130. Christy Pham ($2,771)
131. Hyon Kim ($2,771)
132. Adolfo Monreal ($2,771)
133. Husainali-Ya Mansoor ($2,771)
134. Michelle Miyake ($2,771)
135. James Kraus ($2,771)
136. Donald Ticotin ($2,469)
137. Chris Dombrowski ($2,469)
138. Fabrizio Rossoni ($2,469)
139. Anthony McCann ($2,469)
140. Time Miles ($2,469)
141. Bryan Hyden ($2,469)
142. Christopher Crockett ($2,469)
143. Henry Yun ($2,469)
144. Alexsander Richardson ($2,469)
145. Thung Huynh ($2,469)
146. Douglas Crowe ($2,469)
147. Moritz Gross ($2,469)
148. Alexander Buyano ($2,469)
149. Dror Michaelo ($2,469)
150. Sean Lippel ($2,469)
151. Michael Zurn ($2,469)
152. Anthony Stabile ($2,469)
153. Kam Low ($2,469)
154. David Rounick ($2,469)
155. Sebastien Bonnardot ($2,469)
156. Heda Imani ($2,469)
157. Vadzim Kursevich ($2,469)
158. Jasaan Dabney ($2,469)
159. Dennis Meisiner ($2,469)
160. Timothy Stoecklin ($2,469)
161. Joanne Monteavaro ($2,469)
162. Thai Tolly ($2,469)
163. Jonas Wexler ($2,469)
164. Robert Fox ($2,469)
165. Jeffrey Hoffman ($2,469)
166. Jose Serratos ($2,469)
167. Motoyuki Mabuchi ($2,469)
168. Brian Small ($2,469)
169. Sean Bullard ($2,469)
170. Kyle Ward ($2,469)
171. Michael Decock ($2,469)
172. Mikko Hirvonen ($2,217)
173. Laird McKeen ($2,217)
174. Jolina Germunson ($2,217)
175. Rafael Souza ($2,217)
176. Jimmie Guinther ($2,217)
177. Brandon Zaucha ($2,217)
178. Stephen Chimelski ($2,217)
179. Herbert Montalbano ($2,217)
180. Paul Heunders ($2,217)
181. Robby Westrom ($2,217)
182. Alex Jacob ($2,217)
183. Mitchell Narzem ($2,217)
184. John Phan ($2,217)
185. Richard Tsai ($2,217)
186. David Soutter ($2,217)
187. Gary Damato ($2,217)
188. Jesus Cortes ($2,217)
189. Lindsay Jones ($2,217)
190. Gerard Kohiruss ($2,217)
191. Ralphadiaan Vandereb ($2,217)
192. Kevin McColgan ($2,217)
193. David Douglas ($2,217)
194. Michiel Jan ($2,217)
195. John Duthie ($2,217)
196. Keith Uchima ($2,217)
197. Anthongy Stebila ($2,217)
198. Logan Raskin ($2,217)
199. Chris McClung ($2,217)
200. Dylan Linde ($2,217)
201. Michael Elias ($2,217)
202. Waseem Shahid ($2,217)
203. Chad Winters ($2,217)
204. Jeffrey Schneider ($2,217)
205. Desmond Portano ($2,217)
206. Marius Pospiech ($2,217)
207. Gilbert Sanchez ($2,217)
208. Sean Dempsey ($2,015)
209. Michael Wynn ($2,015)
210. Jonathan Little ($2,015)
211. Jamie Cohen ($2,015)
212. James English ($2,015)
213. Michael Cloud ($2,015)
214. Scott Baumstein ($2,015)
215. Joshua Cordova ($2,015)
216. David Vamplew ($2,015)
217. Kyle Knecht ($2,015)
218 Casey Stewart ($2,015)
219. Stephen Brasel ($2,015)
220. Michael Kennedy ($2,015)
221. Douglas Stewar ($2,015)
222. Jonathan Aguiar ($2,015)
223. Douglas Stevens ($2,015)
224. Torsten Thomas ($2,015)
225. Michael Perrone ($2,015)
226. Michael Higgins ($2,015)
227. Shant Varozian ($2,015)
228. Parker Muir ($2,015)
229. Hoang Ho ($2,015)
230. Marc Lome ($2,015)
231. Sameer Aljanedi ($2,015)
232. Ernesto Da Silva ($2,015)
233. Paul Damany ($2,015)
234. Nicholas Phillips ($2,015)
235. David McNeiece ($2,015)
236. Sho Otsu ($2,015)
237. Gunter Wagner ($2,015)
238. Daniel Eichhorn ($2,015)
239. Adam Kagin ($2,015)
240. Dean Reno ($2,015)
241. Mikael Narveson ($2,015)
242. Antonio Garcia ($2,015)
243. Evan Schwartz ($2,015)
244. Benjamin Bush ($2,015)
245. Abie Cohen ($2,015)
246. Alexander Gambino ($2,015)
247. Charles Couvillion ($2,015)
248. Byron McNair ($2,015)
249. Thomas Kruger ($2,015)
250. Louis Constant ($2,015)
251. Gerald White ($2,015)
252. Tim Duckworth ($2,015)
253. Jacob Guimond ($1,839)
254. Antonio Martin ($1,839)
255. Michael Davey ($1,839)
256. Douglas Feehan ($1,839)
257. Kenneth Burnsed ($1,839)
258. Raymond Ross ($1,839)
259. Christopher Moutzouris ($1,839)
260. Mickael Morgousky ($1,839)
261. Josh Brikis ($1,839)
262. Gabriel Bronsztein ($1,839)
263. Arturo Basalduagomez ($1,839)
264. Richard Liotta ($1,839)
265. Edward Mallon ($1,839)
266. Dan Santoro ($1,839)
267. Antonio Cavallo ($1,839)
268. John White ($1,839)
269. Matthew Vuillemot ($1,839)
270. Andrew Bloom ($1,839)
271. David Shamess ($1,839)
272. Armel Simon ($1,839)
273. Jeffrey Bogda ($1,839)
274. Bryan Piccioli ($1,839)
275. Andreas Adolfsson ($1,839)
276. Samuel Gerber ($1,839)
277. Emil Block ($1,839)
278. Michael Wisnoskill ($1,839)
279. Peter Hengsakul ($1,839)
280. David Stefanski ($1,839)
281. Erik Scanlon ($1,839)
282. Sandra Ross ($1,839)
283. Lauren Girard ($1,839)
284. Christopher Ford ($1,839)
285. Brad Pickler ($1,839)
286. Fuy Beiruty ($1,839)
287. Ronald Terrill ($1,839)
288. Nelson Robinson ($1,839)
289. Patrick Halter ($1,839)
290. Paul Spitzberg ($1,839)
291. Bill Mullins ($1,839)
292. Jiri Jakubec ($1,839)
293. Robert Hwang ($1,839)
294. Richard Rodrick ($1,839)
295. Samuel Greenwood ($1,839)
296. John John Iv ($1,839)
297. Aharon Shabtay ($1,839)

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Andrew Feldman

ESPN.com

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Andrew Feldman is ESPN.com's Poker Editor. He is the host of the Poker Edge Podcast and co-host of ESPN Inside Deal. Andrew has covered the poker industry for ESPN since 2004.