Las Vegas, NV (June 5, 2011) -- Allen Bari won the biggest cash prize of any poker champion so far, by overcoming a huge field in the $5,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em Championship, held at the 2011 World Series of Poker.
Bari earned a whopping $874,116 in first-place prize money. The 26-year-old New Jersey poker pro was also presented with the ultimate symbol of achievement in the game of poker, the WSOP gold bracelet. This marked his first WSOP victory.
The top prize surpassed the winner’s share of the $25,000 buy-in Heads-Up No-Limit Hold’em Championship, which concluded three days earlier. Jake Cody, the winner of that prize, collected $851,192.
This was the second No-Limit Hold’em tournament on this year’s WSOP schedule. The tournament attracted 865 entries. The top 81 finishers collected prize money. Among those who cashed were former gold bracelet winners Farzad Bonyadi, Brian Lemke (winner of this event in 2009), Carlos Mortensen, J.C. Tran, Scott Montgomery, and Mike Wattel.
Anyone who watched the closing stages of the tournament would likely agree that Bari dominated play. He was never in any danger of going bust at the final table. When play became four-handed, Bari had possession of two-thirds of the total chips in play. Indeed, if the final table were a city, Bari’s chip stack resembled an iron skyscraper surrounded by three wooden shacks.
Although he made things look easy, the reality was that Bari earned this victory through a lot of commitment and dedication. He cashed five times at last year’s WSOP. Bari now has 11 WSOP cashes and more than $1 million earnings. Bari’s first major tournament victory took place on the WSOP Circuit in 2008. He won the Main Event Championship, held at Caesars Atlantic City.
The runner up was Mario Ho, who enjoyed her best career WSOP finish. The popular poker pro from Los Angeles collected a nice consolation prize amounting to $540,020.
For the tournament portal page for this tournament, including all LIVE UPDATES, click here.