Valdemar "Luigi" Kwaysser won the $10,000 buy-in Pot-Limit Hold'em World Championship at the World Series of Poker on Wednesday morning. It was the first WSOP bracelet for the resident of Budapest, Hungary, worth $617,214.

Kwaysser became the second Hungarian to win a gold bracelet this year, following Peter Gelencser's victory in the $2,500 Limit Deuce-to-Seven Lowball event, which was played out during the first week of the series. Kwaysser is the third Hungarian to win a WSOP title. The first was Peter Tarply, who was victorious in the Six-Handed No-Limit Hold'em Shootout held last year.

"We help each other a lot," said Kwaysser. "I truly believe that Hungary has done so well, considering the size of the country which is small, because we all stick together, and we learn together, and discuss poker together."

The 26-year old won major tournaments held in Costa Rica and Italy, but this win eclipsed those previous victories, both in terms of prize money and prestige.

Kwaysser studied at the University of Budapest for three years, majoring in economics. He did not graduate, but says he may return to school later. He is active in the Hungarian poker community, writing and teaching poker to new players at an online coaching site.

Following his victory, Kwaysser admitted he does not much play much pot-limit Hold'em.

"I do not know that much about pot-limit Hold'em," said Kwaysser. "I have barely played it. I know the structure and the lack of an ante makes it a much tighter game. In the beginning of the tournament, I played very tight. Then, later, I started to play more hands. People started respecting my raises, and that is how I won some pots. In No-Limit Hold'em tournaments there are usually antes, so you cannot just wait for a hand because you will get blinded out."

As the time passed and Kwaysser became the favorite to win, the Hungarian cheering section swelled to nearly two dozen spectators. The Hungarians chanted and sang songs when Kwaysser won a big pot.

Toronto's Matt Marafioti was the runner up, winning $381,507 for second place. The final hand of the tournament came when Kwaysser was dealt jack-eight of diamonds against Matt Marafioti's king-six of clubs. The flop brought a jack, a six and two clubs, giving both players plenty of reason for hope. Kwaysser's pair of jacks held up, however, as Marafioti was unable to improve.

James Calderaro, from Venice, Fla., was third. Calderaro, who finished 13th in last year's WSOP Main Event, collected $284,845. Konstantine Bucherl, from Regensburg, Germany, finished fourth to win $214,106.

Dani Stern, from New York, N.Y., was fifth to win $161,934, while Thomas Marchese, from Parsippany, N.J., was sixth for $123,264.

Peter Jetten, from Toronto, Ont., was seventh, Blair Rodman, from Las Vegas, Nev., who won a WSOP bracelet in a no-limit Hold'em event in 2007, was eighth, and Alexander Kuzmin, from Moscow, Russia, was ninth.

The top 27 finishers in the 268-player field collected prize money. In addition to Rodman, former WSOP gold bracelet finishers who cashed in this event included Vitaly Lunkin (23rd) and Mike Matusow (26th).

Poker standout Phil Ivey isn't going to be satisfied with just a few more World Series of Poker championship bracelets.

After winning his eighth bracelet early Tuesday morning at the Rio by capturing the $3,000 buy-in H.O.R.S.E. event, Ivey said he can collect 30 gold bracelets before he's done. Ivey topped a field of 478 entries in the H.O.R.S.E. event and won $329,840.

"I think I can reach that if I keep playing and stay healthy," Ivey told World Series of Poker spokesman Nolan Dalla shortly after he moved into a tie for fifth place with Erik Seidel for all-time tournament bracelets.

"I'm going to keep playing tournaments and hopefully I will win another one before the end," Ivey said. "I want to do well in the Main Event, of course. It would be nice to win that one of these years."

According to official records, Ivey has eight wins, 22 final-table appearances, and 40 in-the-money finishes at the World Series of Poker. He was won more than $5.2 million at the World Series of Poker.

According to various sources, his tournament winnings worldwide are now approaching $13 million, which is the highest amount won by anyone in poker history.

The victory moved Ivey, 33, who lives in Las Vegas, ahead of Billy Baxter and Men "the Master" Nguyen, who each have seven World Series of Poker titles.

Phil Hellmuth Jr. has a record 11 World Series of Poker championship bracelets, followed by Doyle Brunson and Johnny Chan with 10 each. The late Johnny Moss earned nine championship bracelets.

The win was Ivey's first victory this year and came in the 37th event of the 57-event tournament.

In last year's World Series of Poker, Ivey captured two gold bracelets. He finished seventh in the $10,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold 'em Main Event World Championship, collecting $1.4 million.

"Obviously, I was disappointed I did not win," Ivey said. "I mean, life goes on. There will be more November Nines for me in my future, I think."

The money Ivey earned for his victory Tuesday morning, however, seemed secondary to winning the bracelets.

"How much did first place pay?" Ivey asked nonchalantly to a bystander immediately after the victory. He defeated two-time gold bracelet winner Bill Chen in heads-up play, despite Chen holding a more than 3-to-1 chip advantage over Ivey at one point.

H.O.R.S.E. is an event that rotates between five different poker games: hold'em, Omaha, razz, seven-card stud and seven-card stud high-low split (eight or better).

The suspect of killing a Peruvian student claims that he was tricked to sign confession to admit murdered of Stephany Flores.

Jordan van der Sloot, espressed in an interview with local newpaper: "In my blind panic I signed everything, but never knew what was written on them."

He also mentioned that the officer told him if he signed, then he will be extradited back home.

van der Sloot is scheduled for his hearing on today for the death of Flores, 21 who was found brutally beaten to death in a hotel room registered under his name.

The Dutch poker player has been linked with 2 more case when 2 womens were mysteriouly disappeared in Columbia while van der Sloot was ther for Amerian Latin Poker Tournament. Both women were missing in action right before van der Sloot leaving for Peru.

van der Sloot is also the prime suspect for the disappearance of Natalee Holloway from Aruba in 2005.

David Warga was the winner of the $1,500 buy-in Seven-Card Stud High-Low Split championship at the 2010 World Series of Poker.

This marked Warga's first career WSOP gold bracelet victory in an open event and is his second bracelet overall. He having won the WSOP Casino Employees Championship in 2002. This victory paid $208,682, which was his biggest poker payday ever.

Warga is a 41-year-old former real estate investor-turned poker pro. He lives in Chandler, AZ.

The runner up was Maxwell Troy, a professional poker player from Los Angeles, CA. He plays daily at the Commerce Casino, mostly in Stud games. He won $129,253 for his efforts.

The third place finisher was longtime tournament veteran, David Levi -- an Israeli-born poker pro from Las Vegas, NV. With his third-place cash, Levi neared the half-million dollar mark in career WSOP winnings.

The top 64 finishers collected prize money. Former WSOP gold bracelet winners who cashed in this event included Andre Boyer, Vince Burgio, Brandon Cantu, Scott Clements, Phil Ivey, Chris Reslock, James Richburg, Blair Rodman, and David Warga.

Warga was born in Dearborn, MI but now lives in the Phoenix area.
He won the Casino Employees Championship at the 2002 WSOP. The Casino Employees Championship was/is open only to casino workers. Warga's win totaled $47,300. At the time, he was a poker dealer at Casino Arizona.

Warga becomes the only player in WSOP history to ever win the Casino Employees Championship in addition to an open gold bracelet event.

Following his 2002 win, Warga went on to invest in real estate.

While dealing poker, Warga began playing poker seriously. He found himself playing more than he was dealing. He also found playing on the Internet to be preferable (and more profitable at the time) than playing in live-action games.

Warga now plays poker full-time. He has concentrated on online tournaments the last few years, after initially playing mostly in cash games.

Warga plays a wide range of tournaments, from $24 buy-in events up to those with $1,000 buy-ins. He says his comfort level (before winning this event) is the $216 entry fee events online.

He admits he had never played Seven-Card Stud High-Low Split in a casino before. His favorite poker game is H.O.R.S.E.

This was Warga's first recorded cash in a live poker tournament since 2006.

Warga said winning his first WSOP gold bracelet in an open event meant a lot.

"It means so much," he said. "I had very low expectations of actually winning it. I was very happy just make it into the money. And then to make it to the final table, I was ecstatic."

The former dealer said he was proud of his 2002 win, but that this win is really special.

"I worked at Casino Arizona at the time as a dealer….I've always been proud of that first bracelet, but some saw it as a little bit tainted (because it's not an open event)," he said. "So, to win an open event means a lot more to me. And, that it is the second one. There are not many players who have won multiple bracelets."

The final table consisted of no former WSOP gold bracelet winners from open events, which guaranteed a first-time open event champion. This was the 11th final table this year with no former open event winners, which is an unusually large number of first time finalists.

For only the second time this year, only one nation was represented at the final table -- the United States.

The final table began eight-handed. Seven-Card Stud finals include only the top eight finishers, as opposed to nine in Hold'em.

Final table participants ranged in age from 23 to 50.

The final table officially began at 7 pm and ended at 1:10 am. The final table clocked in at 6 hours and 10 minutes.

"Dutch" Boyd cashed in this event, finishing in 28th place, which came the day after he won his second WSOP gold bracelet. Boyd won Event #23.

Ivey's cash was the 39th of his career. This puts him in a 25th-place tie on the all-time WSOP cashes list (with Steve Zolotow).

The defending champion was David J. Halpern, from New Orleans, LA. He did not enter this year's tournament.

From wsop.com