News / nono / 20 June 2008 / Leave a comment

The winner was Luis Velador, from Lake Elsinore, CA. He is a 44-year-old professional poker player. Velador has been playing professionally for 11 years.

Velador was born in Mexico. He is one of the few Mexican-born winners in WSOP history. Victor Perches became the first ever to win in 2006.

Velador has sometimes been listed at other poker tournaments as "Jose-Luis Velador." However, he prefers to be known as Luis Velador.

Velador collected $574,734 for first place. He also earned his first WSOP gold bracelet. Velador has only played in three WSOP events. He has cashed in all three. In fact, Velador played in the 2006 and 2007 Main Events, and cashed both times!

Prior to becoming a poker pro, Velador was a tile setter.

Velador concentrates mostly on middle-limit cash games, ranging from $10-20 up to $40-80 limits. He prefers mixed games. He has played daily at the Bicycle Club Casino in the past but now plays mostly at the Commerce Casino, in Los Angeles.

Velador's performance was as dominant as has been seen by any player at this year's WSOP, to date. From start to finish during the five-hour final table, Velador held at least a 2 to 1 chip advantage over his nearest adversary. Most of the time, he had every opponent at the table covered by a 5 or 6 to 1 margin.

"There is lot of dead money in these tournaments," Velador said. "Sure, there are many good players, too. But these (lower buy-in tournaments) are not like the big ones where all you see is pros."

"I got hit by the deck yesterday," Velador stated - in reference to his dominance during the last half of the tournament.