Greg Ostrander wins $742,072

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Greg Ostrander knows what it's like to be constantly under pressure. The 40-year-old's life experiences kept him calm and collected as he won the 1,000th bracelet in WSOP history in Event 41, $3,000 no-limit hold 'em. Ostrander was a police officer in Rochester, N.Y., for eight years. On duty one night, he was violently attacked, more specifically, bit in the neck, and was required to undergo tests and take a leave of absence. During his time away, he turned to poker, realized it was profitable, and decided to make it his new profession. Supported by his family, he built a bankroll through underground games. In his latest trip to Las Vegas, he proved he could play with the best in the world, as he navigated through the field of 1,394 to win $742,072.

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WSOP.comGreg Ostrander won $742,072 and his first WSOP bracelet in Event 41.

Ostrander and Jackie Glazier reached the day's time limit on Day 3 and returned for an unplanned Day 4 to finish their heads-up match. Ostrander was down 3-to-1 to start the final day, but the break served him well as it enabled him to come in with a new strategy and a new focus.

"One thing I have learned over the years is no matter how far you go in a tournament, unless you end up winning the tournament, you are always feeling defeated," said Ostrander. "I am pretty good with a short stack. What I needed was that break last night. Obviously it turned out the way I wanted it to."

Glazier punished Ostrander to start Day 4 and had him down 5-to-1 before the tables began to turn. After a flop of 10-6-6, Ostrander moved all-in and was called instantly by Glazier who tabled 8-8. Ostrander showed 6-2 and held; that double-up changed the momentum of the match. In less than an hour, Ostrander doubled up a second time to bring the stacks back to even. From there, he took the lead and never looked back, finally eliminating Glazier by turning a straight to Glazier's two pair.

"It was unbelievable. That honestly was a difficult table," Ostrander said. The Australian Glazier earned $458,996 for second place. It was her seventh cash of 2012 and largest of her career.

Ostrander's victory was validation after all his hard work. He didn't immediately find success in poker and as a result, has always been dedicated to continue improving.

"Poker is a game you become good at when you lose at first, because the only way you are going to win is to realize why you are losing," he said. "When I first started poker, I was very bad. I was determined to be good at something and the drive was always there. I just kept playing, and getting better, and better, and better, and I turned it into a career which was the last thing I thought would happen."

Prior to poker, Ostrander was also a model for Calvin Klein, Banana Republic and Tommy Hilfiger.

The final table was shaping up to be full of some of the most notable players in the game, but two-time bracelet winner JP Kelly (10th), 2009 November Niner Kevin Schaffel (12th), French superstar Fabrice Soulier (13th), six-time casher at the 2012 WSOP Jason Koon (14th), 2011 WSOP Europe main event champion Elio Fox (15th) and 2008 November Niner Scott Montgomery (17th) all busted late in Day 3.

Below are the complete results of Event 41 at the 2012 World Series of Poker:

Event 41: No-limit hold 'em
Buy-in: $3,000
Entries: 108
Prize pool: $5,184,000
Players in the money: 144

1. Greg Ostrander ($742,072)
2. Jackie Glazier ($458,996)
3. Paul Vas Nunes ($290,407)
4. Morten Mortensen ($210,793)
5. Roger Fontes ($155,498)
6. Darryl Ronconi ($116,452)
7. Joseph Chaplin ($88,481)
8. Kyle Frey ($68,121)
9. Dylan Hortin ($53,126)
10. JP Kelly ($41,976)
11. Mario Puccini ($41,976)
12. Kevin Schaffel ($41,976)
13. Fabrice Soulier ($33,604)
14. Jason Koon ($33,604)
15. Hiren Patel ($33,604)
16. Elio Fox ($27,248)
17. Scott Montgomery ($27,248)
18. William Givens ($27,248)
19. Peter Nguyen ($22,377)
20. Daniel Buzgon ($22,377)
21. Karim Lehoussine ($22,377)
22. John Hice ($22,377)
23. David Lunde ($22,377)
24. Alejandro Trevino ($22,377)
25. Evan McNiff ($22,377)
26. Vincent Bellissimo ($22,377)
27. Michael McNeil ($22,377)
28. Dan Shak ($18,609)
29. Niall Farrell ($18,609)
30. Shannon Shorr ($18,609)
31. Kirk Morrison ($18,609)
32. Barry Schultz ($18,609)
33. Kory Mitchell ($18,609)
34. Jeremy Schwartz ($18,609)
35. Didier Guerin ($18,609)
36. Troy Southerland ($18,609)
37. Ronald Lee ($15,679)
38. Pascal Delannoy ($15,679)
39. Scott Poling ($15,679)
40. Ryan Olisar ($15,679)
41. Aubin Cazals ($15,679)
42. Scott Sitron ($15,679)
43. Michael Turnbull ($15,679)
44. Ryan Julius ($15,679)
45. Stanislav Barshak ($15,679)
46. James Calvo ($13,320)
47. William Lin ($13,320)
48. Nick Grippo ($13,320)
49. Robert Giordano ($13,320)
50. Jarred Solomon ($13,320)
51. Earl Plyler ($13,320)
52. Harold Evans ($13,320)
53. Clement Thumy ($13,320)
54. Kevin Allen ($13,320)
55. Corey Burbick ($11,455)
56. Matthew Schwarmann ($11,455)
57. Connor Allisen ($11,455)
58. David Enda ($11,455)
59. Kyle Ward ($11,455)
60. Alexander Venovski ($11,455)
61. Mario Delis ($11,455)
62. David Peters ($11,455)
63. James Hess ($11,455)
64. Dustin Graves ($9,971)
65. Mike Allis ($9,971)
66. Andrew Watson ($9,971)
67. Steve Karp ($9,971)
68. Yngve Steen ($9,971)
69. Bryan Porter ($9,971)
70. Kennii Nguyen ($9,971)
71. Danyel Boyciyan ($9,971)
72. Anthony Harb ($9,971)
73. Ilan Boujenah ($8,791)
74. Lars Bonding ($8,791)
75. Bill Rose ($8,791)
76. Barkatul Mohammed ($8,791)
77. Roberto Romanello ($8,791)
78. Robert Bloom ($8,791)
79. Vladimir Kochelaevskiy ($8,791)
80. Anthony Grappo ($8,791)
81. Rocco Palumbo ($8,791)
82. Chris Cornell ($7,840)
83. Chad Winters ($7,840)
84. Ronald Goodfellow ($7,840)
85. Simon Lam ($7,840)
86. Gregg Wilkinson ($7,840)
87. Andres Pereyra ($7,840)
88. Joshua Shaw ($7,840)
89. Philip Meulyzer ($7,840)
90. Adam Junglen ($7,840)
91. Jacobe Toole ($7,117)
92. Steven Goosen ($7,117)
93. Benjamin Yerushalaim ($7,117)
94. Kelsey Hendriks ($7,117)
95. David Dalesandro ($7,117)
96. Daniel Makowsky ($7,117)
97. Richard Murnick ($7,117)
98. Nicolas Cardyn ($7,117)
99. Justin Barnum ($7,117)
100. Bobby Poe ($6,470)
101. Nathan Tuthill ($6,470)
102. Arie Kliper ($6,470)
103. Carol Enders ($6,470)
104. Keven Stammen ($6,470)
105. Sergey Lebedev ($6,470)
106. Mihai Manole ($6,470)
107. Duy Le ($6,470)
108. Fernando Brito ($6,470)
109. Jordan Lewis ($6,470)
110. Michael Noori ($6,470)
111. Shayne Khanna ($6,470)
112. Brian Morris ($6,470)
113. Nicolas Vaca-Rondon ($6,470)
114. Ivan Tikhov ($6,470)
115. Yaron Zeev Malki ($6,470)
116. Dominik Nitsche ($6,470)
117. Iakov Onuchin ($6,470)
118. Carlos Sanchez-Vegas ($5,937)
119. Athanasios Polychronopoulos ($5,937)
120. John Racener ($5,937)
121. Steven Kerr ($5,937)
122. Brett Richey ($5,937)
123. Cyrille Theret ($5,937)
124. Daniel Hendrickson ($5,937)
125. Russell Ivy ($5,937)
126. Wai Cheng ($5,937)
127. Charles Shapiro ($5,937)
128. L Gardner ($5,937)
129. Ismail Erkenov ($5,937)
130. Kilian Kramer ($5,937)
131. Myro Garcia ($5,937)
132. Gordon Vayo ($5,937)
133. Yann Migeon ($5,937)
134. Michael Ferrell ($5,937)
135. Khalid Zoudo ($5,937)
136. Robert Gates ($5,937)
137. Amitabh Mehra ($5,937)
138. Alvaro Santamaria ($5,937)
139. Bill Wood ($5,937)
140. Carlo Savinelli ($5,937)
141. Layne Flack ($5,937)
142. Philip Lowery ($5,937)
143. Tristan Wade ($5,937)
144. William Higgins ($5,937)

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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.