The $1,000 buy-in no-limit hold ‘em Event 34 offered another huge field to the already thriving and record-setting 2011 World Series of Poker. A total of 3,144 players entered the event with hopes of turning their investment (the smallest buy-in amount of any of the 58 WSOP events) into a first-place prize of $488,283. Mark Schmid, a 31-year-old professional poker player from Grand Rapids, Mich., was the one to emerge with the victory early Wednesday morning after anything but an easy final table.

When it got to the final table, it should’ve been all gravy for Schmid. A online sit-and-go expert, Schmid produces instructional training videos on how to navigate through a single table. He entered the final table with a dominating chip lead, but couldn’t hold on and eventually would enter heads-up play down 3-to-1 to Justin Cohen. With the bracelet in sight, his experience and expertise paid off, as he’d make the comeback and collect his first WSOP bracelet and sixth WSOP cash.

“It all comes down to making the right decisions,” Schmid said after his victory, and spoken like a true sit-and-go expert. “There are wild swings in tournament poker. All you can do is make the best possible [expected value] decision and hope for the best. It all worked out for me tonight.”

This was Schmid’s second time to attend the WSOP. In 2010, he cashed in a $1,500 event (139th) and $1,000 event (255th), as well as the $1,500 shootout event. Shootout success is based on winning a one-table sit-and-go and it would make sense that he was able to cash in the same event earlier in 2011. Winning a bracelet seemed like a distant dream for Schmid prior to the WSOP, but now that it’s a reality, he’s thrilled to join a very limited club of bracelet holders.

“It’s huge for me,” he said. “This is one of my life goals. I remember on my blog last year, I posted my goal was to win a bracelet. To come through with a win is huge. There is so much variance in tournaments. You can’t really expect to win a bracelet. There are good players who go a decade without winning one. It’s just such a high variance. So, I did not really expect to do it.”

For the past few years, Schmid was a professional online poker player, but after “Black Friday” it no longer was an option. Since the April 15 indictments, Schmid headed to Las Vegas to play in the cash games, and this victory provided him with a significant boost to his bankroll.

The Event 34 final table was the eighth final table in 2011 where no player had previously captured WSOP gold, so once again, a new champion was crowned. Two of the more experienced players at the final table were Robbie Verspui and Michael Souza. Verspui finished in seventh at his second final table of the Series after his runner-up finish in Event 13. Souza, a three-time WSOP Circuit winner, finished eighth. Chicago accountant Ben Volpe, who used his vacation time to play in the WSOP, finished in sixth during his week off from work to earn $83,925.

Other notable finishers include Amanda Baker (51st), Dwyte Pilgrim (70th) and Mike Sica (76th).

Below are the complete results of Event 34 at the 2011 World Series of Poker:

Event 34: No-limit hold ‘em Buy-in: $1,000 Entries: 3,144 Prize pool: $2,829,600 Players in the money: 324

1. Mark Schmid ($488,283) 2. Justin Cohen ($302,031) 3. Andrew Rudnik ($213,747) 4. Jonathan Clancy ($154,722) 5. Trevor Vanderveen ($113,297) 6. Benjamin Volpe ($83,925) 7. Robbie Verspui ($62,873) 8. Michael Souza ($47,622) 9. Jeremy Kottler ($36,473) 10. Steven Davisson ($28,239) 11. Daniel Sosa ($28,239) 12. Mitch Schock ($28,239) 13. Paulus Valkenburg ($22,099) 14. Alex Findlay ($22,099) 15. Domenico Palesse ($22,099) 16. John Berreman ($17,486) 17. Genefredo Legaspi ($17,486) 18. Ravi Raghaven ($17,486) 19. Jake Flores ($13,978) 20. Jonas Mackoff ($13,978) 21. Randy Kritzer ($13,978) 22. Scott Shelley ($13,978) 23. Michael Rushton ($13,978) 24. Andy Wong ($13,978) 25. Wenlong Jin ($13,978) 26. Damon Sandor ($13,978) 27. Glen Bertelson ($13,978) 28. Hai Chu ($11,290) 29. Jaymes Rosenthal ($11,290) 30. Philip Jacobsen ($11,290) 31. James Satterwhite ($11,290) 32. Steve Yazeji ($11,290) 33. Veronica Dabul ($11,290) 34. Adam Cader ($11,290) 35. Bryan Paris ($11,290) 36. Jason Fuller ($11,290) 37. David Stefanski ($9,224) 38. Kien Tieu ($9,224) 39. Paul Chollet ($9,224) 40. William Jobe ($9,224) 41. Donald Marchi ($9,224) 42. Hans Michaelsen ($9,224) 43. Ryan Snickles ($9,224) 44. Shahab Shahbazzadeh ($9,224) 45. Jorge Arriola ($9,224) 46. Anthony Miller ($7,611) 47. Gualter Salles ($7,611) 48. Alan Fixel ($7,611) 49. Christopher Mcclung ($7,611) 50. Fatolla Shahen ($7,611) 51. Amanda Baker ($7,611) 52. Konstantin Puchkov ($7,611) 53. Erik Lemarquand ($7,611) 54. Gabriel Rouleau ($7,611) 55. Yueqi Wang ($6,338) 56. Stewart Yancik ($6,338) 57. Joseph Urgo ($6,338) 58. Jewel Treat ($6,338) 59. Luke Davies ($6,338) 60. Erle Mankin ($6,338) 61. Tomer Berda ($6,338) 62. Paul Pires Trigo ($6,338) 63. Steve Gersch ($6,338) 64. Cody Slaubaugh ($5,319) 65. Chinmay Patel ($5,319) 66. Matthew Quattrone ($5,319) 67. Matthew Schulte ($5,319) 68. Efren Garcia ($5,319) 69. Gabriel Nassif ($5,319) 70. Dwyte Pilgrim ($5,319) 71. Joshua Schoonover ($5,319) 72. Christian Kohl ($5,319) 73. James Carroll ($4,527) 74. Mike Beasley ($4,527) 75. Michael Levine ($4,527) 76. Mike Sica ($4,527) 77. Michael Foglia ($4,527) 78. Kevin Kanda ($4,527) 79. Joel Shulruf ($4,527) 80. Ronaldo Rodriguez ($4,527) 81. Samuel Woo ($4,527) 82. Roger Low ($3,876) 83. Megan Milburn ($3,876) 84. Paul Netto ($3,876) 85. Duane Weaver ($3,876) 86. Paul Kintner ($3,876) 87. Matthew Smith ($3,876) 88. Brian Friefeld ($3,876) 89. Jesse Yaginuma ($3,876) 90. Paul Tindall ($3,876) 91. Elizabeth Lack ($3,367) 92. Jean-Paul Pasqualini ($3,367) 93. John Zentner ($3,367) 94. Karoon Monfared ($3,367) 95. Travis Eller ($3,367) 96. Curt Raines ($3,367) 97. Tun Vang ($3,367) 98. Allyson Stroeder ($3,367) 99. Jesse Rockowitz ($3,367) 100. John John Iv ($2,942) 101. Simon Watt ($2,942) 102. Hiroaki Harada ($2,942) 103. Christopher Breitbach ($2,942) 104. Jeffrey Kaplow ($2,942) 105. Norman Messier ($2,942) 106. Hathi Hosseini ($2,942) 107. Dan Webster ($2,942) 108. Dean Bui ($2,942) 109. Peter Lockwood ($2,942) 110. Craig Bergeron ($2,942) 111. Randy Coble ($2,942) 112. Eric Haddad ($2,942) 113. Joshua Norris ($2,942) 114. Scott Keikoan ($2,942) 115. Nicholas Petrangelo ($2,942) 116. Scott Zakheim ($2,942) 117. Nicholas Newport ($2,942) 118. Eric Baudry ($2,942) 119. Nathan Geise ($2,942) 120. Andrew Miles ($2,942) 121. Greg Brantman ($2,942) 122. Lily Kiletto ($2,942) 123. Richard Liotta ($2,942) 124. Ian Gillespie ($2,942) 125. Thibault Leduc ($2,942) 126. Ted Goldstein ($2,942) 127. Philip Koek ($2,942) 128. Yannick Chatelain ($2,942) 129. Ludovic Lachance ($2,942) 130. Samuel Phillips ($2,942) 131. Steven Mcnally ($2,942) 132. Freddie Ardoin ($2,942) 133. Brandon Shane ($2,942) 134. Robert Deppe ($2,942) 135. Joseph Giacone ($2,942) 136. Christopher Jordan ($2,942) 137. Steve Kujubu ($2,942) 138. Brent Dornburg ($2,942) 139. Dave Baker ($2,942) 140. Kyle Martin ($2,942) 141. Fawz Bennis ($2,942) 142. Jimmy Stoitsiades ($2,942) 143. Stephen Ma ($2,942) 144. Kyle Julius ($2,942) 145. Herbert Brown ($2,603) 146. William Mcneelands ($2,603) 147. Eddylee Martin ($2,603) 148. Valerii Lubenets ($2,603) 149. Ryan Laplante ($2,603) 150. Drew Boyett ($2,603) 151. Alexandr Orlov ($2,603) 152. Nathan Haug ($2,603) 153. Joe Gualtieri ($2,603) 154. James Haver ($2,603) 155. John Fagg ($2,603) 156. Stephen Chidwick ($2,603) 157. Desmond Portano ($2,603) 158. Michael Loynd ($2,603) 159. Scott Culver ($2,603) 160. Jerry Delisle ($2,603) 161. Lisa Adams-Levy ($2,603) 162. Oliver Greer ($2,603) 163. Noelle Anderson ($2,603) 164. Zia Khosravi ($2,603) 165. David Lewis ($2,603) 166. Jared Davis ($2,603) 167. Marc Mestrovich ($2,603) 168. Dennis Jones ($2,603) 169. Michael Kamran ($2,603) 170. Raymond Matthaei ($2,603) 171. Edward Teems ($2,603) 172. Stephen Spivey ($2,603) 173. Lucas Greenwood ($2,603) 174. Travis Cook ($2,603) 175. David Tighe ($2,603) 176. Brad Flahiff ($2,603) 177. Dennis Wilmoth ($2,603) 178. Alexandre Deutsch ($2,603) 179. Michael Leah ($2,603) 180. Chang Yoon ($2,603) 181. Robert Tepper ($2,603) 182. Benjamin Bover ($2,603) 183. Frank Maggio ($2,603) 184. Eric Delman ($2,603) 185. Martin Staszko ($2,603) 186. Michael Kaufman ($2,603) 187. Jesse Cohen ($2,603) 188. Corey Thompson ($2,603) 189. Christopher Emmeluth ($2,603) 190. Shawn Busse ($2,320) 191. Mark Fitzgerald ($2,320) 192. Lars Bonding ($2,320) 193. Michael Sorrentino ($2,320) 194. Gil Barak ($2,320) 195. Leo Murphy ($2,320) 196. Kazuhito Oshima ($2,320) 197. John Hoang ($2,320) 198. Troy Benjamin ($2,320) 199. Gary Snyder ($2,320) 200. Posh Wave ($2,320) 201. Donna Lawton ($2,320) 202. Glenn Martinez ($2,320) 203. Michael Palevoda ($2,320) 204. Samuel Lubeck ($2,320) 205. Raul Paez ($2,320) 206. Mariano Paniello ($2,320) 207. Roman Chusov ($2,320) 208. Matthew Cohen ($2,320) 209. Ryan Gilchrist ($2,320) 210. Jameson Singer ($2,320) 211. George Shabatura ($2,320) 212. Jan Badiola ($2,320) 213. Randall Zane ($2,320) 214. Roland Ratenan ($2,320) 215. Keanu Tabali ($2,320) 216. Dash Dudley ($2,320) 217. Mo Chun ($2,320) 218. Elie Said ($2,320) 219. Sean Urban ($2,320) 220. David Koland ($2,320) 221. Douglas Gibson ($2,320) 222. Kyle Ward ($2,320) 223. Matt Affleck ($2,320) 224. Michael Karavolos ($2,320) 225. Richard Muhlenbruch ($2,320) 226. Ken Koski ($2,320) 227. Lea Nehme ($2,320) 228. Seth Berger ($2,320) 229. Vinh Pham ($2,320) 230. Matt Brady ($2,320) 231. Asad Goodarzy ($2,320) 232. Ian Johns ($2,320) 233. Alexander Gambino ($2,320) 234. Marc Andre Ladouceur ($2,320) 235. Marc Carpenterperrault ($2,093) 236. Romano Pizzo ($2,093) 237. Jeff Hakim ($2,093) 238. James Dylan ($2,093) 239. Thom Werthmann ($2,093) 240. Eric Smith ($2,093) 241. Lacy Wills ($2,093) 242. Ronald Neal ($2,093) 243. Peter Gelencser ($2,093) 244. Stephen Baldwin ($2,093) 245. Leon Lala ($2,093) 246. La Sengphet ($2,093) 247. Michael Wallnofer ($2,093) 248. Shaun Clay ($2,093) 249. Brandon Riha ($2,093) 250. Leonard Pastrana ($2,093) 251. Matthew Baboulis ($2,093) 252. Tewfik Mama ($2,093) 253. Rick Whitesell ($2,093) 254. Larry Renzelli ($2,093) 255. Chad Batista ($2,093) 256. Isaac Settle ($2,093) 257. Ralph Bratcher ($2,093) 258. Barry Shulman ($2,093) 259. Matthew Lupton ($2,093) 260. Michael Watt ($2,093) 261. Dara O’kearney ($2,093) 262. Paul Colwell ($2,093) 263. Mark Segal ($2,093) 264. Jeffrey Cohan ($2,093) 265. Daniel Duarte ($2,093) 266. Igor Ferreira ($2,093) 267. Damodara Vegi ($2,093) 268. Milorad Vuckovich ($2,093) 269. Brian Darabi ($2,093) 270. Kose Metin ($2,093) 271. Jason Helder ($2,093) 272. Richard Clark ($2,093) 273. Patrick Heneghan ($2,093) 274. Michael Hallen ($2,093) 275. Alexander Step ($2,093) 276. Deric Williams ($2,093) 277. Matthias Kurtz ($2,093) 278. Nagib Touma ($2,093) 279. Xuan Liu ($2,093) 280. Joshua Litsch ($1,895) 281. Alexander Wilson ($1,895) 282. Nadine Coulombe ($1,895) 283. Tim Esaki ($1,895) 284. Alexander Gerhart ($1,895) 285. Gerardo Lugo ($1,895) 286. Oliver Grujic ($1,895) 287. Anthony Spinella ($1,895) 288. Shaunt Shahkarami ($1,895) 289. Hugo Baudry ($1,895) 290. Thomas Conway ($1,895) 291. Julian Katz ($1,895) 292. Barry Bounds ($1,895) 293. Rafael Campos ($1,895) 294. Frank Mancinelli ($1,895) 295. Craig Ripley ($1,895) 296. Uri Nir ($1,895) 297. Anthony Harb ($1,895) 298. Patrick Blatter ($1,895) 299. Samir Bhatia ($1,895) 300. Kevin Kleininger ($1,895) 301. Carlos J Benatuil ($1,895) 302. Brandon Cherry ($1,895) 303. Garry Cyre ($1,895) 304. Mitch Ivey ($1,895) 305. Dale Oyler ($1,895) 306. Marsha Wolak ($1,895) 307. Carl Horton ($1,895) 308. Joseph Abba ($1,895) 309. Ameet Prasad ($1,895) 310. Martin Green ($1,895) 311. Harold Look ($1,895) 312. Brian Watts ($1,895) 313. Christopher Fitz ($1,895) 314. Teresa Windley ($1,895) 315. Jeffrey Davis ($1,895) 316. Christopher Ross ($1,895) 317. James Wadzinski ($1,895) 318. Carl Lundh ($1,895) 319. Silvano Lieghio ($1,895) 320. Miller Dao ($1,895) 321. David Gutfreund ($1,895) 322. Christoph Bieniok ($1,895) 323. David Jones ($1,895) 324. Cherish Andrews ($1,895)

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