The World Series of Poker Circuit made some major changes to its 2011-12 season in order to boost attendance and make prize pools swell. One of the biggest adjustments was the introduction of re-entry events, which allow players to enter the tournament on the first starting day and, if they busted, give them the opportunity to start their tournament again on the next starting day. They took this successful concept and, for the first time, applied it to the World Series of Poker to create Event 9, the $1,500 no-limit hold 'em re-entry event. Just like they witnessed on the Circuit, this WSOP event stood out from the rest and boasted a $4.5 million prize pool with a tremendous field of 3,404. It was the largest $1,500 no-limit hold 'em event in the past four years, and Ashkan Razavi reaped the benefits, earning the $781,398 top prize and his first WSOP gold bracelet. "It's amazing with such a large field and being a $1,500 event -- there are more minefields to dodge to get to this place," he said of his victory. "Also, being in the final 30 was unbelievable -- especially for a $1,500 event -- the field was really though, there were a lot of good players, a lot of known pros. They were amazing. I feel very fortunate to have been able to go through on the whole field." Among the final 30 were two double bracelet winners, Brian Rast and Greg Mueller, 2010 WSOP main event champion Jonathan Duhamel, 2011 World Poker Tour Champion Scott Seiver, Lee Childs, online legend Ari Engel, WSOP bracelet winner Dan Idema, and Swedish pro Per Hildebrand. Given the massive field size, it was amazing to see this set of players make a run and equally amazing to see Razavi battle through all of them to emerge with the victory. The 30-year-old professional poker player from Maple Ridge, British Columbia, defeated Amanda Musumeci heads-up for the title. Musumeci held the chip lead for most of the final table, but was unable to break the streak of 230 consecutive open events at the WSOP with a male champion. Musumeci earned a career-best $481,643 for second place. Her previous top cash ($130,997) came from her 62nd-place finish in the 2011 main event. This was Razavi's second career WSOP final table and his second cash of the 2012 WSOP. He recently became a father and plans on using some of his money to buy a new minivan and take care of his family's "well-being and financial security." Supported by friends wearing shirts that said "Ash Can Do It," Razavi was motivated to succeed at the final table. He began the final day in sixth and made his move with six remaining, finding a key double up that gave him enough chips to open up his game. He eliminated Rast in sixth place and took the chip lead for the first time with five remaining. The domination continued as he eliminated Duy Ho in fifth, and by the time it was three-handed, he held nearly 60 percent of the chips in play. Derrick Huang fell in third place, running his sevens into Razavi's kings and after one small double up, Musumeci's Q-9 couldn't beat Razavi's K-10. The final table lasted only six hours, one of the shortest of the Series thus far. The event also did have one major hiccup as three players were able to re-enter more than once on the second starting day. The WSOP acknowledged that there was an issue with their software, found the offending players, removed their chips from play and refunded their additional entry. No future penalties were applied to these players as there was no malicious intent with their re-entry, just a misunderstanding of the WSOP's rules for this event. Other notable finishers include Seiver (17th), Duhamel (21st), Childs (24th), Paul Wasicka (33rd), John Juanda (52nd), Liv Boeree (84th) and Jason Mercier (260th). Below are the complete results of Event 9 at the 2012 World Series of Poker: Event 9: No-limit hold 'em re-entry
Buy-in: $1,500
Entries: 3,404
Prize pool: $4,595,400
Players in the money: 342
1 Ashkan Razavi ($781,398)
2. Amanda Musumeci ($481,643)
3. Derrick Huang ($347,228)
4. Ryan Olisar ($252,379)
5. Duy Ho ($185,378)
6. Brian Rast ($137,632)
7. Greg Mueller ($103,258)
8. Benjamin Reinhart ($78,259)
9. Dien Le ($59,969)
10. Aviraham Lovton ($46,413)
11. Stephen Reynolds ($46,413)
12. Giorgio Medici ($46,413)
13. Andrew Rennhack ($36,303)
14. Daniel Idema ($36,303)
15. Matt Iles ($36,303)
16. Dmitrii Valoyev ($28,675)
17. Scott Seiver ($28,675)
18. Domenico Scalamogna ($28,675)
19. Joshua Suyat ($22,885)
20. Barry Hutter ($22,885)
21. Jonathan Duhamel ($22,885)
22. Desmond Portano ($22,885)
23. Roman Muravev ($22,885)
24. Lee Childs ($22,885)
25. Ari Engel ($22,885)
26. David Byer ($22,885)
27. Per Hildebrand ($22,885)
28. Samuel Grafton ($18,427)
29. Michael Zelman ($18,427)
30. Joseph Steur ($18,427)
31. Garreth Teatum ($18,427)
32. Anthony Leshnack ($18,427)
33. Paul Wasicka ($18,427)
34. Joseph Carr-Hill ($18,427)
35. Zohar Spivack ($18,427)
36. Arthur Morris ($18,427)
37. Bryan Piccioli ($14,981)
38. Michael Nissen ($14,981)
39. Garren Azama ($14,981)
40. Joshua Mancuso ($14,981)
41. Fawz Bennis ($14,981)
42. Kurt Fruth ($14,981)
43. Robert Lipkin ($14,981)
44. Nicholas Rampone ($14,981)
45. James Sowers ($14,981)
46. Randolph Lanosga ($12,315)
47. John Clark ($12,315)
48. Francisco Riosvallejo ($12,315)
49. Brian Barnes ($12,315)
50. Daniel Weinman ($12,315)
51. Aaron Steury ($12,315)
52. John Juanda ($12,315)
53. Kevin MacPhee ($12,315)
54. Benjamin Eilers ($12,315)
55. Louise Francoeur ($10,201)
56. James Akenhead ($10,201)
57. Christopher Dinson ($10,201)
58. Phi Nguyen ($10,201)
59. Adam Richardson ($10,201)
60. Adam Caruso ($10,201)
61. Clayton Mozdzen ($10,201)
62. Ben Mintz ($10,201)
63. Jarred Solomon ($10,201)
64. Radwan Khuri ($8,547)
65. Ryan Buckholtz ($8,547)
66. Conrad Monica ($8,547)
67. Nelson Robinson ($8,547)
68. David Miscikowski ($8,547)
69. David Benyamine ($8,547)
70. DJ Blanchard ($8,547)
71. Michael Hunsucker ($8,547)
72. Cherie Beasley ($8,547)
73. Evan Krentzman ($7,214)
74. Ryan Drossel ($7,214)
75. Derek Molnar ($7,214)
76. Brian Lemke ($7,214)
77. Dubravko Bagic ($7,214)
78. Richard Alm ($7,214)
79. Wayne Shinsato ($7,214)
80. Chip Ervin ($7,214)
81. Pratyush Buddiga ($7,214)
82. David Jones ($6,157)
83. Matthew Weber ($6,157)
84. Liv Boeree ($6,157)
85. Thomas Fuller...