Johnson satellites to stardom
By Andrew FeldmanTravis Johnson headed to Las Vegas for a couple of days with $3,500. Playing the cash games the first two days proved to be painful, as he lost $1,000 and his confidence as well. With $2,500 left, he entered a satellite for $340 and just a couple of days later pocketed $666,853 and a WSOP bracelet by winning Event 7, the $1,500 no-limit hold 'em tournament.
The 30-year-old amateur from North Hills, Calif., is currently an underwriter for Bank of America. Throughout the three-day event, he wore the same clothes yet denied a superstitious nature.
"I started to get chips, and I said I did not want to change anything," he said to the WSOP. "Normally, I am not superstitious. But I said to myself, 'If it's not broke, don't fix it. Don't do anything differently.'"
He didn't have any reason to change anything, and defeating the field of 2,791 players still hasn't sunk in yet.
"I can't even comprehend what I am going to do," Johnson said. "I was happy to win $3,000 in a single-table satellite yesterday. I cashed. Three grand looked good. So, if that looked good, I can't even fathom what this means. … It's just so over my head right now.
"The bottom line is -- this is fun. The World Series of Poker is history-book stuff. I still can't grasp it all."
One thing he can grasp is a lot of cash, his first time doing so at the WSOP. Johnson made his debut in 2007 but failed to make finish in the money in a $1,500 no-limit hold 'em event.
Other notable finishers include Jacobo Fernandez (83rd), Brandon Cantu (98th) and Shaun Deeb (110th).
Below are the complete results of Event 7 at the 2009 World Series of Poker:
Event 7: No-limit hold 'em
Buy-in: $1,500
Entries: 2,791
Prize pool: $3,809,715
Players in the money: 297
1. Travis Johnson ($666,853)
2. Steve Karp ($414,116)
3. Michael Ciotola ($273,385)
4. Mark Salinaro ($193,343)
5. Craig McConville ($145,721)
6. Brian McInnis ($116,234)
7. Walter Wright ($97,985)
8. Jim McClain ($87,013)
9. Kam Low ($81,185)
10. Jacob Kalb ($56,955)
11. Gary Tang ($56,955)
12. Michael Pesek ($56,955)
13. Phillip Souza ($39,963)
14. Robert Fett ($39,963)
15. Michael Martin ($39,963)
16. James Bott ($28,039)
17. Jason Riesenberg ($28,039)
18. Jerry Fowler ($28,039)
19. Clint Miller ($19,658)
20. Max Longwith ($19,658)
21. Justin Kuzmicki ($19,658)
22. Jeremy Joseph ($19,658)
23. Bruce Vandervort ($19,658)
24. George Smith ($19,658)
25. Kenneth Krouner ($19,658)
26. Paul Dominski ($19,658)
27. Francois Safieddine ($19,658)
28. Eric Fulmer ($15,429)
29. Thomas Koral ($15,429)
30. James Passavant ($15,429)
31. Sarang Ahuja ($15,429)
32. Travis Remmert ($15,429)
33. William Heger ($15,429)
34. Jason Newburger ($15,429)
35. Cristian Choi ($15,429)
36. Gregory Gugger ($15,429)
37. Michael Glasser ($11,505)
38. Jeff Gibralter ($11,505)
39. Ed Larsen ($11,505)
40. Joshua Smith ($11,505)
41. Dao Bac ($11,505)
42. Justin Pechie ($11,505)
43. Peter Granlund ($11,505)
44. Philippe Uzan ($11,505)
45. Steven Michaels ($11,505)
46. Chad Stoffel ($9,029)
47. Jaime Melgarejo ($9,029)
48. Mike Ellis ($9,029)
49. Sean Hagan ($9,029)
50. Nathan Drill ($9,029)
51. Charles Dolan ($9,029)
52. Wolbert Bartlema ($9,029)
53. Victor Greeley ($9,029)
54. Qui Nguyen ($9,029)
55. Brent Wajcman ($7,390)
56. Frank Selldorff ($7,390)
57. Paul Volpe ($7,390)
58. Brady Hinnegan ($7,390)
59. Ron Shioji ($7,390)
60. Patrick Smith ($7,390)
61. Sandra Naujoks ($7,390)
62. John Permejo ($7,390)
63. Gabriel Torres ($7,390)
64. Dion Flores ($6,209)
65. Florian Langmann ($6,209)
66. Mike Allis ($6,209)
67. Erik Haakenson ($6,209)
68. Paul Campbell ($6,209)
69. Tyler Hamade ($6,209)
70. Joe Degeorge ($6,209)
71. Darren Grant ($6,209)
72. Kiarash Hamadani ($6,209)
73. Michael Pollowitz ($5,333)
74. Gary Haglund ($5,333)
75. David Lin ($5,333)
76. Stephen Murphy ($5,333)
77. Stephane Tayar ($5,333)
78. Wesley Jones ($5,333)
79. Leo Whitt ($5,333)
80. Robert Flowers ($5,333)
81. Andrew Gershenfeld ($5,333)
82. Benjamin Schomer ($4,609)
83. Jacobo Fernandez ($4,609)
84. Mario Rodriguez ($4,609)
85. Mario Perera ($4,609)
86. John Hall ($4,609)
87. Joel Casper ($4,609)
88. Gary Chan ($4,609)
89. John Smith ($4,609)
90. Mazen Nassar ($4,609)
91. Tony Bueti ($4,038)
92. Hyun Jung ($4,038)
93. Michael Souza ($4,038)
94. Anthony Gregg ($4,038)
95. Mika Paasonen ($4,038)
96. Chae Yim ($4,038)
97. Gustov Eydelsteyn ($4,038)
98. Brandon Cantu ($4,038)
99. Peter Cross ($4,038)
100. Andrew Buechner ($3,581)
101. Deborah Gudinas ($3,581)
102. Coby Hesse ($3,581)
103. Matt Keikoan ($3,581)
104. Dave Levine ($3,581)
105. Kunal Murdia ($3,581)
106. Ron Fani ($3,581)
107. Jesse Segall ($3,581)
108. Joseph Sidoryk ($3,581)
109. Scott Cohen ($3,581)
110. Shaun Deeb ($3,581)
111. John Michael ($3,581)
112. Bruce MacGregor ($3,581)
113. Michael Schneider ($3,581)
114. Chris Bell ($3,581)
115. Richard Jackson ($3,581)
116. Joe Deniro ($3,581)
117. William Shaw ($3,581)
118. Wade Woelfel ($3,581)
119. Christopher Burmeister ($3,581)
120. Christine Kim Williams ($3,581)
121. Dan Moorman ($3,581)
122. Nancy Todd Tyner ($3,581)
123. Tom Brownscombe ($3,581)
124. David Margolis ($3,581)
125. Curtis Willis ($3,581)
126. Grant Hinkle ($3,581)
127. Jeffrey Tunkel ($3,581)
128. Mike Appel ($3,581)
129. Jim Meehan ($3,581)
130. Elliott Fodera ($3,581)
131. Jon Sanner ($3,581)
132. Matthew Kwok ($3,581)
133. Marcelo Asensio ($3,581)
134. Jeremy Keehn ($3,581)
135. Allan Bieler ($3,581)
136. Sorel Mizzi ($3,276)
137. Ben Alcober ($3,276)
138. Mark Leonard ($3,276)
139. Wei Mu ($3,276)
140. William Childs ($3,276)
141. Donald Yarbrough ($3,276)
142. Craig Brennan ($3,276)
143. Derrick Dichiara ($3,276)
144. Tim Anstine ($3,276)
145. John Alber ($3,276)
146. Tuyen Luong ($3,276)
147. Kyle Jones ($3,276)
148. Matt Vance ($3,276)
149. Christian Hartwig ($3,276)
150. Rodney Corr ($3,276)
151. Daniel Welch ($3,276)
152. Jeff Sluzinski ($3,276)
153. Colby Calonica ($3,276)
154. Joshua Jahke ($3,276)
155. Matthew Junstrom ($3,276)
156. Christopher Gonzales ($3,276)
157. Joseph Valencia ($3,276)
158. Anthony Slattery ($3,276)
159. Robert Mason ($3,276)
160. Robert Johnston ($3,276)
161. Luke Vrabel ($3,276)
162. Francis Mahiout ($3,276)
163. Eugene Genson ($3,276)
164. Gerald Treglio ($3,276)
165. Wesley Tyler ($3,276)
166. Craig Restifo ($3,276)
167. Robert Zehm ($3,276)
168. Rebecca Messenger ($3,276)
169. Joe Bishop ($3,276)
170. Kevin Lusk ($3,276)
171. Steven Watts ($3,276)
172. Richard Monroe ($3,047)
173. Clark Hamagami ($3,047)
174. Babajane Hassan ($3,047)
175. Charles Chattha ($3,047)
176. Paul Cohn ($3,047)
177. Linda Transue ($3,047)
178. Randall Cohen ($3,047)
179. Mark Winter ($3,047)
180. Richard Toth ($3,047)
181. Enio Bozzano ($3,047)
182. Martin Kenno ($3,047)
183. Mark Becker ($3,047)
184. Michael Baker ($3,047)
185. Mike Halioua ($3,047)
186. Kevin Kim ($3,047)
187. Mark Muchnik ($3,047)
188. Mario Miguel ($3,047)
189. Jason Elizinga ($3,047)
190. Alan Myerson ($3,047)
191. Alex Jacob ($3,047)
192. Brian Brubaker ($3,047)
193. Samuel Dickson ($3,047)
194. Quinn Do ($3,047)
195. Gabi Habash ($3,047)
196. Adcock Nelson ($3,047)
197. Soren Nielson ($3,047)
198. Nick Ceci ($3,047)
199. Michael Price ($3,047)
200. Nikmil Gera ($3,047)
201. Paul Lovett ($3,047)
202. Laurent Wisniec ($3,047)
203. Scott George ($3,047)
204. Kenneth Horton ($3,047)
205. Blake Purvis ($3,047)
206. Rocky Boustani ($3,047)
207. Shawn Pilot ($3,047)
208. Galen Hall ($2,895)
209. Ali Barmaki ($2,895)
210. Uzi Aronson ($2,895)
211. Steven Phelps ($2,895)
212. Chance Steed ($2,895)
213. Michael Marks ($2,895)
214. Francis Rusnak ($2,895)
215. Mike Abbott ($2,895)
216. Frank Sinopoli ($2,895)
217. Benjamin Buhion ($2,895)
218. Jeffery Greco ($2,895)
219. Jerry Cooper ($2,895)
220. Robert Currier ($2,895)
221. Laurence Houghton ($2,895)
222. Bruce Axtman ($2,895)
223. Steve Ungrey ($2,895)
224. Jonathan Depa ($2,895)
225. Doug Paxton ($2,895)
226. Gavin Palmer ($2,895)
227. Daniel White ($2,895)
228. Andres Garcia ($2,895)
229. Craig Ettelman ($2,895)
230. Vincent Graziano ($2,895)
231. Kristin Bruan ($2,895)
232. Loren Klein ($2,895)
233. Ryan Schmidt ($2,895)
234. Nicholas Grippo ($2,895)
235. Angus Wong ($2,895)
236. Trond Eidsvig ($2,895)
237. Michele Furey ($2,895)
238. Ryan Julius ($2,895)
239. Charles Robinson ($2,895)
240. Valdemar Kwaysser ($2,895)
241. Jonathan Markham ($2,895)
242. Anthony Lee ($2,895)
243. Chris Cornell ($2,895)
244. Seth Anirudh ($2,895)
245. Alexandre Chan ($2,895)
246. Phi Nguyen ($2,895)
247. Bryan Asch ($2,895)
248. Tony Vipusithimakool ($2,895)
249. Marc Ladouceur ($2,895)
250. Kenneth Hicks ($2,895)
251. Robert Barkan ($2,895)
252. Gil George ($2,895)
253. Robert Pardo ($2,742)
254. Mark Silvanovich ($2,742)
255. Colin Russell ($2,742)
256. Mike Brady ($2,742)
257. Doug Carli ($2,742)
258. Roman Kocian ($2,742)
259. Samuel Subilia ($2,742)
260. Denise Molloy ($2,742)
261. Roongsak Griffeth ($2,742)
262. Graham Wheldon ($2,742)
263. William Guerena ($2,742)
264. Sean Getzwiller ($2,742)
265. Marc Fiel ($2,742)
266. Stephen Delvin ($2,742)
267. Sandra Cruz ($2,742)
268. Peter Turmezey ($2,742)
269. John Greene ($2,742)
270. Alan Snow ($2,742)
271. Mario Rodriguez ($2,742)
272. Robert Quast ($2,742)
273. Jeffrey Izes ($2,742)
274. Jacob Amburgey ($2,742)
275. Todd Brenn ($2,742)
276. Marlon Quilloy ($2,742)
277. Tomer Berda ($2,742)
278. Rajesh Vohra ($2,742)
279. Harry Pozefsky ($2,742)
280. Christopher Feindt ($2,742)
281. Brian Pinkow ($2,742)
282. Stanley Myiow ($2,742)
283. Harold Look ($2,742)
284. Teddy Cablay ($2,742)
285. Timothy Muntifering ($2,742)
286. Motoyuki Mabuchi ($2,742)
287. Jeremiah Fitzpatrick ($2,742)
288. Michael Hockensmith ($2,742)
289. Harold Dennis ($2,742)
290. Brian Taylor ($2,742)
291. Laura Fink ($2,742)
292. Joe Tehan ($2,742)
293. Brian Bradley ($2,742)
294. Jordan Mann ($2,742)
295. Steven Taxarchis ($2,742)
296. Roger Burger ($2,742)
