Nenad Medic Wins Event #1 at 2008 World Series of Poker

The first event at the 2008 WSOP is in the record books. The $10,000 Pot Limit Hold’em World Championship brought in 352 players, mostly poker professionals. The final table, which was led going in by Full Tilt Poker’s own Andy Bloch, featured some of the toughest players in the game today including Mike Sexton, Kathy Liebert, the Unabomber Phil Laak and Finnish player Patrik Antonius.

The players wasted time as Antonius, on the short stack, went all-in on the very first hand of the final table. Antonius had pocket kings and Laak held pocket jacks. The board came down Ad,Jd,2h,10h,Kd, bringing Antonius the much-needed double up and leaving Laak with very few chips. Soon after, Laak was KOd by former WPT Foxwoods champ, Nenad Medic.

Despite the double-up, Antonius, who recently signed a sponsorship deal with Full Tilt Poker, hit the rails in seventh place. Andy Bloch, also an FTP player, did the honors with an Ac,4c. Antonius earned nearly $125,000 for his efforts.

Medic, who was born in Serbia and currently resides in Canada, turned off Chris Bell’s life support system, catching one of the two remaining jacks in the deck to make trip hooks on the river. After Bell’s sixth place finish, the lone lady at the table, Kathy Liebert, doubled up twice, bringing her chip stack up to more than a million. Liebert played a brilliant game but came up short. She was stopped in third place after a wild hand in which all three players held pocket pairs. Liebert’s sixes were no match for Bloch’s pair of nines nor the 25 year old Medic’s pocket queens, especially after the flop yielded him a third lady.
Ouch!

As heads-up play began, Medic, who played basketball at the University of Waterloo, had a distinct chip advantage over Bloch, who has ties to both Harvard and MIT. Bloch, despite doubling up at a key point in the heads-up match, celebrated his 39th birthday with a second place finish in the event. The title, bracelet and $794,112 belonged to the young Serbian player. On the final hand, Medic appropriately earned a flush to take his first gold bracelet, which also happened to be the first of the WSOP in 2008.

These are the final results:

1) Nenad Medic - $794,112
2) Andy Bloch - $488,048
3) Kathy Liebert - $306,064
4) Mike Sexton - $246,160
5) Amit Makhija - $198,528
6) Chris Bell - $157,168
7) Patrik Antonius - $124,080
8) Mike Sowers - $99,264
9) Phil Laak - $74,448

Join Medic, Bloch and Antonius online at Full Tilt Poker. Right now, the online home of the world’s biggest poker stars is hosting a smaller version of the World Series, called the MSOP. Click here for details!

 

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Tags: Andy Bloch, Chris Bell, Kathy Liebert, Mike Sexton, Nenad Medic, World Series Of Poker 2008, World Series Of Poker 2008 Results, WSOP 2008, WSOP 2008 Results