Tomas Junek tops Event 56

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In 2007, Alex Kravchenko became the first Russian player to win a World Series of Poker bracelet. That victory blossomed into an all-out Russian poker revolution that has the game rivaling chess as the mind sport of choice for the country's youth. Could the Czech Republic be far behind? The question became a relevant one upon the conclusion of Event 56, $1,500 no-limit hold 'em, when 23-year-old Tomas Junek won the country's first WSOP bracelet.

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WSOP.comTomas Junek earned $661,022 for his Event 56 victory.

Junek, a resident of Vysoke Myoto, Czech Republic, joined 2011 main event runner-up Martin Staszko as Czech Republic natives with impressive WSOP showings. Junek's win came over a field of 2,798 in one of the last bracelet events before the main event.

"I started to play poker a lot with my friends at school. And after that, I started to play online," said Junek to WSOP.com. "That did not go so well. After that, I returned to live tournaments. And I won … I was quite successful. I [was coached] and he really improved my game. … Now I'm here. I got the bracelet."

While Junek was the victor, most eyes were glued to another young player at the final table. Peter Eastgate, the 2008 world champion, made his first cash since 2009, making the final table and finishing fourth. Eastgate notably sold his championship bracelet on eBay, so for his fans, it was good to see him back at the tables and finding a measure of success. By the time he exited though, the tournament was Junek's to lose.

A professional poker player, Junek entered the final day of play in 17th place of 22 remaining players. By the time the tournament was reduced to one table, he'd taken a slim lead, but he only really took control of the tournament when he doubled through Eliyahu Levy, who'd finish fifth soon thereafter. After Eastgate was eliminated by Australian David Borg, Junek eliminated Donald Vogel in third place to go to heads-up with a better-than 2-1 chip advantage. Heads-up play lasted just 26 minutes and Borg never earned more than 4,000,000 in chips of the 13,500,000 in play.

The $661,022 Junek received for the win was his first cash at the WSOP after a summer of tournament near-misses. With the win, he not only fattens his bankroll, but has shown his country's poker players that they too can win at the WSOP. You can expect to see more players from the Czech Republic in the years to come.

Other notable finishers include Alexander Queen (11th), Sam Holden (16th), and Chance Kornuth (49th) .

Below are the complete results of Event 56 at the 2012 World Series of Poker:

Event 56: No-limit hold 'em
Buy-in: $1,500
Entries: 2,798
Prize pool: $3,777,300
Players in the money: 298

1. Tomas Junek ($661,022)
2. David Borg ($410,517)
3. Donald Vogel ($289,530)
4. Peter Eastgate ($209,111)
5. Eliyahu Levy ($152,867)
6. Andrew Taylor ($113,092)
7. Steven Goldberg ($84,649)
8. Tomas Trampota ($64,101)
9. Bassel Moussa ($49,105)
10. Gianluca Mattia ($38,037)
11. Alexander Queen ($38,037)
12. Michael Graydon ($38,037)
13. Dmitrii Valouev ($29,803)
14. Bastian Fischer ($29,803)
15. Christopher O'Donnell ($29,803)
16. Sam Holden ($23,608)
17. Paul Vas Nunes ($23,608)
18. Randolph Lanosga ($23,608)
19. Rudy Blondeau ($18,924)
20. Will Failla ($18,924)
21. Matthieu Auclair ($18,924)
22. Richard Teatum ($18,924)
23. Mohamad Kowssarie ($18,924)
24. Timothy Chang ($18,924)
25. Mohsen Tayfeh ($18,924)
26. Miguel Javier ($18,924)
27. Timothy Ng ($18,924)
28. Edward Loftis ($15,336)
29. Thibaud Guenegou ($15,336)
30. Carlos Lopez Neira ($15,336)
31. Philip Cordano ($15,336)
32. Robin Ylitalo ($15,336)
33. Konstantinos Kamaras ($15,336)
34. Andrew Youngblood ($15,336)
35. Shawn Presley ($15,336)
36. Felix Funk ($15,336)
37. Nicholas Immekus ($12,541)
38. Josef Wilamowski ($12,541)
39. Kevin Mcclurg ($12,541)
40. Noah Vaillancourt ($12,541)
41. Luke Nettles ($12,541)
42. Panu Miettinen ($12,541)
43. Blake Cahail ($12,541)
44. Cody Zartman ($12,541)
45. Michael Zurn ($12,541)
46. Christian Dunn ($10,388)
47. Seong Bag ($10,388)
48. Kelly Jensen ($10,388)
49. Chance Kornuth ($10,388)
50. Todd Louer ($10,388)
51. Van Manlambus ($10,388)
52. Marco Traniello ($10,388)
53. Glafiro Valle ($10,388)
54. Arthur Kalantzis ($10,388)
55. Michael Hill ($8,688)
56. Rohan Juvvadi ($8,688)
57. Allan Le ($8,688)
58. Rocky Rule ($8,688)
59. Clement Montaron ($8,688)
60. Shankar Pillai ($8,688)
61. Selim Oulmekki ($8,688)
62. Stefan Raffay ($8,688)
63. Brandon Poe ($8,688)
64. Donnacha O'Dea ($7,328)
65. John Zentner ($7,328)
66. George Agajeenian ($7,328)
67. Dalton Mills ($7,328)
68. Jesus Abreu ($7,328)
69. Logan Headley ($7,328)
70. Mukul Pahuja ($7,328)
71. Robert Lofaso ($7,328)
72. Kosei Ichinose ($7,328)
73. James Tedrow ($6,270)
74. Grant Elmer ($6,270)
75. Peter Bosen ($6,270)
76. Michael Katz ($6,270)
77. Nicholas Heather ($6,270)
78. James Vallejos ($6,270)
79. Scott Freeman ($6,270)
80. Michael Compolongo ($6,270)
81. Jarod Ludemann ($6,270)
82. Joseph Urgo ($5,402)
83. Frank Gidney ($5,402)
84. Denis Mcdonald ($5,402)
85. Patrick Lee ($5,402)
86. Ronald Jensen ($5,402)
87. Jesse Yaginuma ($5,402)
88. Andrew Hansen ($5,402)
89. Jose Cristerna ($5,402)
90. Antoine Dugast ($5,402)
91. Chris Dombrowski ($4,722)
92. Anatoly Filatov ($4,722)
93. Justin Gardenhire ($4,722)
94. Daniel Erlandsson ($4,722)
95. James Henson ($4,722)
96. Mark Maletic ($4,722)
97. Eric Mizrachi ($4,722)
98. Ferdinando Locascio ($4,722)
99. Aditya Agarwal ($4,722)
100. Kennii Nguyen ($4,155)
101. Michael McNeil ($4,155)
102. Alejandro Barcelo ($4,155)
103. Sergio Cabrera ($4,155)
104. Daniel Negreanu ($4,155)
105. Steven Moreau ($4,155)
106. Madison Bergeron ($4,155)
107. Chad Winters ($4,155)
108. Christopher Gamboa ($4,155)
109. Matt Iles ($4,155)
110. David Triplo ($4,155)
111. Kees Aerts ($4,155)
112. Theodore Driscoll ($4,155)
113. Roberto Betbese ($4,155)
114. Gordon Vayo ($4,155)
115. Binh Pham ($4,155)
116. Laura Cantero ($4,155)
117. Marco Ritter ($4,155)
118. Jose Obadia ($4,155)
119. Daniel Johnson ($4,155)
120. Dean Schultz ($4,155)
121. Eric Assadourian ($4,155)
122. Joseph Morneau ($4,155)
123 Corey Burbick ($4,155)
124. Ashton Griffin ($4,155)
125. David Winkler ($4,155)
126. Clayton Mozdzen ($4,155)
127. Andrew Johnson ($4,155)
128. William McMahon ($4,155)
129. Barbara Martinez ($4,155)
130. David Baker ($4,155)
131. Bizhan Delgoshaei ($4,155)
132. Carla Solinas ($4,155)
133. Jennifer Leigh ($4,155)
134. Maxi Lehmanski ($4,155)
135. James Mcbride ($4,155)
136. Deanna Dozier ($3,702)
137. Karim Ahras ($3,702)
138. Richard Zoppi ($3,702)
139. Mikhail Timoshin ($3,702)
140. Amir Shayesteh ($3,702)
141. Scott Neuman ($3,702)
142. Atif Choudhury ($3,702)
143. Jonas Wexler ($3,702)
144. Jason Levine ($3,702)
145. Lonnie Hallett ($3,702)
146. Larry Little ($3,702)
147. Robert Deppe ($3,702)
148. Rajaee Wazwaz ($3,702)
149. Stuart Tuvey ($3,702)
150. Paul Lieu ($3,702)
151. Anthony Harb ($3,702)
152. Manuel Martinez ($3,702)
153. Ronald Borczon ($3,702)
154. Foster Hays ($3,702)
155. Adrian Testatonda ($3,702)
156. Matthew Obrien ($3,702)
157. Diego Suaya ($3,702)
158. Jason James ($3,702)
159. Adam Geyer ($3,702)
160. Wade Woelfel ($3,702)
161. Barry Leventhal ($3,702)
162. John Yatrakos ($3,702)
163. Michael Linster ($3,702)
164. Patrick Griffeth ($3,702)
165. Dominic Borlen ($3,702)
166. Ronald Cole ($3,702)
167. Cherish Andrews ($3,702)
168. Maria Ho ($3,702)
169. Martin Jacobson ($3,702)
170. Jeff Littlefield ($3,702)
171. Sridhar Prathivadi ($3,702)
172. Amelie Letombe ($3,324)
173. Rudolf Fourie ($3,324)
174. Jeff Becker ($3,324)
175. Mark Marasco ($3,324)
176. Michael Neuber ($3,324)
177. Michael Conti ($3,324)
178. Pedro Piazuelo ($3,324)
179. Daniel Colman ($3,324)
180. Stacey Nutini ($3,324)
181. Scott Epstein ($3,324)
182. William Schweinebraten ($3,324)
183. Dylan Thomassie ($3,324)
184. Adam Levy ($3,324)
185. Anthony Picault ($3,324)
186. Bill Kontaratos ($3,324)
187. Richard Ryan ($3,324)
188. Moises Achcar ($3,324)
189. Bryan Devonshire ($3,324)
190. Jean Bros ($3,324)
191. Justin Chan ($3,324)
192. Wayne Landry ($3,324)
193. Dylan Linde ($3,324)
194. William Nguyen ($3,324)
195. Stuart Spear ($3,324)
196. Nam Bien ($3,324)
197. Douglas Moss ($3,324)
198. Mark Farrar ($3,324)
199. Jeff Madsen ($3,324)
200. David Bezerra ($3,324)
201. Eric Klemann ($3,324)
202. Byron Kaverman ($3,324)
203. Niklas Zoller ($3,324)
204. Austin Hartis ($3,324)
205. Jennifer Tilly ($3,324)
206. Michael Wilson ($3,324)
207. Shane Weber ($3,324)
208. Melad Marji ($3,022)
209. Walter S. Shew ($3,022)
210. Hayden Fortini ($3,022)
211. Jason DeWitt ($3,022)
212. Bernhard Moessner ($3,022)
213. Jeff Vandenberg ($3,022)
214. Joe Weiss ($3,022)
215. Ben Mintz ($3,022)
216. Donald Fujita ($3,022)
217. Raymond Moscoe ($3,022)
218. George Kuzmanovich ($3,022)
219. Aadam Daya ($3,022)
220. Jonathan Sorscher ($3,022)
221. Lee Gaines ($3,022)
222. Claire Chiang ($3,022)
223. George Harraka ($3,022)
224. Claudio Rinaldi ($3,022)
225. Matt Brady ($3,022)
226. Joseph Grenon ($3,022)
227. Brett Nalder ($3,022)
228. Jared Vengrin ($3,022)
229. Heinz Kamutzki ($3,022)
230. Ha Lu ($3,022)
231. Bradley Friestad ($3,022)
232. Bret Hruby ($3,022)
233. Lars Halkier ($3,022)
234. Nicolas Chappuis ($3,022)
235. Istvan Rozsa ($3,022)
236. Robert Allen ($3,022)
237. Ramon Batusta ($3,022)
238. David Noganosh ($3,022)
239. Kevin Pawloski ($3,022)
240. Brian Altman ($3,022)
241. Marcelo Mesqueu ($3,022)
242. Jonathan Crute ($3,022)
243. Edgar Gutierrez ($3,022)
244. Lee Taylor ($3,022)
245. Christopher Hart ($3,022)
246. Iakov Onuchin ($3,022)
247. Anthony Spina Denson ($3,022)
248. Tony Lee ($3,022)
249. Yann Dion ($3,022)
250. Joshua Smith ($3,022)
251. Timothy Duckworth ($3,022)
252. Thomas Vogel ($3,022)
253. Alexander Smolin ($2,757)
254. Nicholas Decktor-Korn ($2,757)
255. Joseph Mckeehen ($2,757)
256. Andrew Beaman ($2,757)
257. Ryan Huston ($2,757)
258. Hunter Frey ($2,757)
259. Zach Clark ($2,757)
260. Martin Feijo ($2,757)
261. Mohammed Jaafar ($2,757)
262. Randall Davis ($2,757)
263. Michael Chow ($2,757)
264. Bill Rothstein ($2,757)
265. Mathieu Viale ($2,757)
266. Frederic Brunet ($2,757)
267. Zhan Shi ($2,757)
268. Roland Israelashvili ($2,757)
269. Jeremie Guez ($2,757)
270. Levi Berger ($2,757)
271. Brian Jensen ($2,757)
272. Marco Della ($2,757)
273. Jeffrey Rothstein ($2,757)
274. Roberto Rodriguez La Torre ($2,757)
275. William Sloan ($2,757)
276. Jon Kassel ($2,757)
277. Fernando Arista ($2,757)
278. Aaron Kehr ($2,757)
279. Tony Cousineau ($2,757)
280. Ashton Berner ($2,757)
281. Austin Lewis ($2,757)
282. James Townsend ($2,757)
283. Elande Ngongo ($2,757)
284. Larry Spraker ($2,757)
285. Michael Meyers ($2,757)
286. Tarik Adam ($2,757)
287. Michael Scott ($2,757)
288. Mikael Cavailles ($2,757)
289. Gomes Teixeira ($2,757)
290. Anthony Utnage ($2,757)
291. Stephen Susano ($2,757)
292. Jerry Ard ($2,757)
293. John Hayes ($2,757)
294. Marilyn Jordan ($2,757)
295. Kurt Jewell ($2,757)
296. Adam Sanders ($2,757)
297. Anatoly Filatov ($1,378)
298. Scott Cochran ($1,378)

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Gary Wise

ESPN Poker

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Gary Wise has contributed to ESPN.com since 2007. He is well-studied in the history of poker and presents a unique tableside view of the goings-on in the poker community.