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2012 World Series of Poker

The 2012 World Series of Poker was the 43rd annual World Series of Poker (WSOP). It was held at the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino in Paradise, Nevada between May 27-July 16, 2012, with the final table of the Main Event delayed until late October.

There were 61 bracelet events, culminating in the $10,000 No Limit Hold’em Main Event beginning on July 7. From 2008 through 2011, Main Event final tables were delayed until November. However, due to the 2012 U.S. presidential election, this year’s final table was delayed until October 29, with heads-up play commencing the following day.

New tournament formats introduced in the 2012 WSOP included a re-entry tournament, an ante only tournament, a mixed max tournament (in which the number of players per table changes at set times during the tournament), and a four-handed tournament.

Event schedule

# Event Entrants Winner 1st Prize Runner-up Results Reference
1 $500 Casino Employees No Limit Hold’em 732 Chiab Saechao $70,859 Patricia Baker Results [2]
2 $1,500 No Limit Hold’em 2,101 Brent Hanks $517,725 Jacob Bazeley Results [3]
3 $3,000 Heads Up No Limit Hold’em/Pot Limit Omaha 317 Leif Force $207,708 Jason Koon Results [4]
4 $1,500 Seven Card Stud Hi-Low 8 or Better 622 Cory Zeidman $201,559 Chris Bjorin Results [5]
5 $1,500 Pot Limit Hold’em 639 Nick Jivkov $189,818 Bryan Pellegrino Results [6]
6 $5,000 No Limit Hold’em Mixed Max 409 Aubin Cazals $480,564 Joseph Cheong Results [7]
7 $1,500 Seven Card Stud 367 Andy Bloch $126,363 Barry Greenstein Results [8]
8 $1,500 Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better 967 Herbert Tapscott $264,400 Gavin Griffin Results [9]
9 $1,500 No Limit Hold’em Re-entry 3,404 Ashkan Razavi $781,398 Amanda Musumeci Results [10]
10 $5,000 Seven Card Stud 145 John Monnette $190,826 Huu Vinh Results [11]
11 $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha 970 Vincent van der Fluit $265,211 Charles Tonne Results [12]
12 $10,000 Heads Up No Limit Hold’em 152 Brian Hastings $371,498 Jason Mo Results [13]
13 $1,500 Limit Hold’em 730 David Arsht $211,921 Stephen Hung Results [14]
14 $1,500 No Limit Hold’em Shootout 1,138 Brandon Schaefer $311,174 Jonathan Cohen Results [15]
15 $5,000 Seven Card Stud Hi-Low Split-8 or Better 212 Adam Friedman $269,037 Todd Brunson Results [16]
16 $1,500 No Limit Hold’em Six Handed 1,604 Matt Matros $454,835 Mark Radoja Results [17]
17 $10,000 Pot Limit Hold’em 179 Andy Frankenberger $445,899 Phil Ivey Results [18]
18 $2,500 Seven Card Razz 309 Phil Hellmuth $182,793 Don Zewin Results [19]
19 $1,500 No Limit Hold’em 2,302 Clifford Goldkind $559,514 Kennii Nguyen Results [20]
20 $5,000 Limit Hold’em 166 Benjamin Scholl $206,760 Andrew Prock Results [21]
21 $1,000 No Limit Hold’em 2,799 Michael Gathy $440,829 Jamie Armstrong Results [22]
22 $2,500 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball (Limit) 228 Randy Ohel $145,247 Benjamin Lazer Results [23]
23 $3,000 No Limit Hold’em Six Handed 924 Simon Charette $567,624 Artem Metalidi Results [24]
24 $5,000 Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better 256 Joe Cassidy $294,777 Scotty Nguyen Results [25]
25 $1,500 Limit Hold’em Shootout 366 Brian Meinders $116,118 Darin Thomas Results [26]
26 $3,000 Pot Limit Omaha 589 Austin Scott $361,797 Brett Richey Results [27]
27 $1,500 H.O.R.S.E. 889 Ylon Schwartz $267,081 David Chiu Results [28]
28 $2,500 No Limit Hold’em Four Handed 750 Timothy Adams $392,476 Brendon Rubie Results [29]
29 $1,000 Seniors No Limit Hold’em Championship 4,128 Allyn Jaffrey Shulman $603,713 Dennis Phillips Results [30]
30 $1,500 2-7 Draw Lowball (No Limit) 285 Larry Wright $101,975 Brandon Cantu Results [31]
31 $1,500 No Limit Hold’em 2,811 Carter Phillips $664,130 Joe Cada Results [32]
32 $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. 178 David “Bakes” Baker $451,779 John Monnette Results [33]
33 $1,000 No Limit Hold’em 2,795 Max Steinberg $440,238 Samuel Gerber Results [34]
34 $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha Six Handed 419 Naoya Kihara $512,029 Chris DeMaci Results [35]
35 $2,500 Mixed Hold’em 393 Chris Tryba $210,107 Erik Cajelais Results [36]
36 $3,000 No Limit Hold’em Shootout 587 Craig McCorkell $368,593 Jeremiah Fitzpatrick Results [37]
37 $2,500 Eight Game Mix 477 David “ODB” Baker $271,312 Greg Mueller Results [38]
38 $1,500 No Limit Hold’em 2,534 Dung Nguyen $607,200 Theo Tran Results [39]
39 $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha 293 Jan-Peter Jachtmann $661,000 Andrew Brown Results [40]
40 $2,500 Limit Hold’em Six Handed 302 Ronnie Bardah $182,088 Marco Johnson Results [41]
41 $3,000 No Limit Hold’em 1,394 Greg Ostrander $742,072 Jackie Glazier Results [42]
42 $2,500 Omaha/Seven Card Stud Hi-Low 8 or Better 393 Oleksii Kovalchuk $228,014 George Danzer Results [43]
43 $1,500 No Limit Hold’em 2,770 Henry Lu $654,380 Neil Channing Results [44]
44 $1,000 No Limit Hold’em 2,949 Rocco Palumbo $464,464 Nelson Robinson Results [45]
45 $50,000 Poker Players Championship 108 Michael Mizrachi $1,451,527 Chris Klodnicki Results [46]
46 $2,500 No Limit Hold’em 1,607 Joey Weissman $694,609 Jeremy Quehen Results [47]
47 $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better 978 Steven Loube $267,345 Timothy Finne Results [48]
48 $3,000 Limit Hold’em 247 Kenny Hsiung $165,205 Robert Hwang Results [49]
49 $1,500 Ante Only No Limit Hold’em 939 Greg Hobson $256,691 Mike Sowers Results [50]
50 $5,000 No Limit Hold’em 1,001 Pete Vilandos $952,694 Kyle Julius Results [51]
51 $1,000 Ladies No Limit Hold’em Championship 936 Yen Dang $170,587 Debbie Pechac Results [52]
52 $2,500 10-Game Mix Six Handed 421 Vanessa Selbst $244,259 Michael Saltzburg Results [53]
53 $1,500 No Limit Hold’em 3,166 Neil Willerson $737,248 Vladimir Mefodichev Results [54]
54 $1,000 No Limit Hold’em 3,221 Will Jaffe $500,075 Luis Campelo Results [55]
55 $1,000,000 The Big One for One Drop 48 Antonio Esfandiari $18,346,673 Sam Trickett Results [56]
56 $1,500 No Limit Hold’em 2,798 Tomas Junek $661,022 David Borg Results [57]
57 $10,000 No Limit Hold’em Six Handed 474 Greg Merson $1,136,197 Keith Lehr Results [58]
58 $3,000 Pot Limit Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better 526 Viacheslav Zhukov $330,277 Roch Cousineau Results [59]
59 $1,000 No Limit Hold’em 4,620 Dominik Nitsche $654,797 Jonathan Hilton Results [60]
60 $10,000 2-7 Draw Lowball (No Limit) 101 Nick Schulman $294,321 Mike Wattel Results [61]
61 $10,000 No Limit Hold’em Main Event 6,598 Greg Merson $8,531,853 Jesse Sylvia Results [62]

Results

Place Name Prize
1st Antonio Esfandiari $18,346,673
2nd Sam Trickett $10,112,001
3rd David Einhorn $4,352,000
4th Phil Hellmuth $2,645,333
5th Guy Laliberté $1,834,666
6th Brian Rast $1,621,333
7th Bobby Baldwin $1,408,000
8th Richard Yong $1,237,333
9th Mike Sexton $1,109,333

Main Event

Performance of past champions

Name Championship
Year(s)
Day of
Elimination
Doyle Brunson 1976, 1977 2C
Tom McEvoy 1983 2C
Berry Johnston 1986 1A
Johnny Chan* 1987, 1988 4 (353rd place)
Phil Hellmuth 1989 1A
Jim Bechtel 1993 1A
Dan Harrington 1995 3
Huck Seed* 1996 4 (527th place)
Scotty Nguyen 1998 1B
Carlos Mortensen 2001 1B
Robert Varkonyi 2002 3
Chris Moneymaker 2003 1C
Greg Raymer 2004 1B
Joe Hachem 2005 1A
Jamie Gold 2006 2C
Jerry Yang 2007 3
Peter Eastgate 2008 3
Joe Cada 2009 2C
Jonathan Duhamel 2010 1C
Pius Heinz 2011 3

Other notable high finishes

Place Name Prize
20th Paul Volpe $294,601
23rd Yuval Bronshtein $294,601

November Nine

Name Number of chips
(percentage of total)
WSOP
Bracelets
WSOP
Cashes
WSOP
Earnings
United States Jesse Sylvia 43,875,000 (22.2%) 0 2 $36,372
Hungary Andras Koroknai 29,375,000 (14.8%) 0 2 $39,371
United States Greg Merson 28,725,000 (14.5%) 1 5 $1,253,501
United States Russell Thomas 24,800,000 (12.5%) 0 3 $126,796
United States Steven Gee 16,860,000 (8.5%) 1 4 $480,822
United States Michael Esposito 16,260,000 (8.2%) 0 3 $27,311
United States Robert Salaburu 15,155,000 (7.7%) 0 0 0
United States Jacob Balsiger 13,115,000 (6.6%) 0 1 $3,531
United States Jeremy Ausmus 9,805,000 (5.0%) 0 13 $114,623

Final Table

 

Place Name Prize
1st Greg Merson $8,531,853
2nd Jesse Sylvia $5,295,149
3rd Jacob Balsiger $3,799,073
4th Russell Thomas $2,851,537
5th Jeremy Ausmus $2,155,313
6th Andras Koroknai $1,640,902
7th Michael Esposito $1,258,040
8th Robert Salaburu $971,360
9th Steven Gee $754,798