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Another Millionaire is Made at the WSOP

June 6, 2014

Lifelong hockey player, aspiring novelist, poker player, and upstate New York native Jonathan Dimmig outlasted 7,976 other poker players vying for the title of millionaire in the third annual Millionaire Maker event of this year’s WSOP in Las Vegas. Dimmig’s win resulted in a $1.3+ million-dollar payday and a gold bracelet. This is his biggest win since he cashed an $11K paycheck at a WSOP Circuit event. This was his first WSOP cash.

“My goal on the first day was just to make it through the day. I’d played the Main Event here all the last three years and never even cashed in that. So coming in, my goal was really to just get the money off my back and just cash—that’s really all I wanted to do,” said Dimmig.

And so he did. At the final table, the chip lead changed seats five times, but Dimmig outbested Jeff Coburn in a not-so-long heads up showdown that wrapped up a 12-hour final table. The day saw Stephen Graner as the chip lead, but he was ousted in 6th place. James Duke then had the chips for a stint, but ultimately bowed out in 3rd place, leaving Dimmig and Coburn to finish it off.

“It’s not my style to sit back and wait and let others bust out so I can move a notch up the pay ladder,” Dimmig said earnestly. “I noticed some of the guys were just trying to get up the money ladder, and I don’t think like that. This is a life-changing event. I don’t want to look back in 30 years and say ‘what if?’ This is a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and you got to go for it.”

Dimmig now has earned the first seven-figure payout of the year and becomes the world’s newest poker-made millionaire.

“I played hockey all my life and, as everyone knows, I’m from Buffalo. The Sabres have never won a championship; the Bills have never won a championship; so I’m proud to bring a little piece of championshipness to the city, because where I’m from is really a great city.”

This was the second-biggest poker tournament in history with almost 8,000 registrants, second only to the 2006 WSOP Main Event that drew in 8,773 players over four days. The MM drew in 8,000 in one day, spanning two flights of starting play. 1,751 players re-entered, making for 6,226 actual participating players, which is still impressive. No other single day in poker has ever attracted that many players to one event.

The prize pool amassed nearly $11 million and included more than $1 million to the first place finisher, as was the case last year. The first year paid Benny Chen $1.1 million for his first-place feat. The top 12 placers each earned six figures, and the top 99 finishers earned at least $10K.

Some recognizable faces in the crowd included Steve Gee, who finished in 754th place; Andy Block, 432nd; Mike Sexton, 357th; Humberto Brenes, 315th; Greg Mueller, 138th; and many others, as you can imagine.

Written by Maria · Filed Under Poker News 

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