Greg Hobson Wins Inaugural WSOP Ante Only No-Limit Hold'em Event

Greg “DuckU” Hobson has won the first-ever ante only no-limit hold’em tournament held at the World Series of Poker, outlasting a field of 939 players who put up the $1,500 buy-in to earn his first WSOP gold bracelet, the $256,691 first-place prize and 912 Card Player Player of the Year points.

Antes have been common in poker tournaments for a long time, but have almost always been in addition to blinds. The WSOP tested out an ante-only no-limit hold’em event at the 2012 WSOP Circuit Caesars Palace series, and received enough positive feed-back to try to integrate it into the offerings at the Rio.

“Turn out was great, we had a lot of praise and all the players are asking for it, so we decided to have a $1,500 event at the WSOP for a gold bracelet” said World Series of Poker Tournament Director Jack Effell. “We came up with our own derivative of ante only, where you ante every hand and the person to the left of the button will have a bring in, which will be the minimum denomination at the table.”

Before becoming more commonly spread in a live settings this tournament format found a following online, so it was little surprise to see a number of players who had cut their teeth on the virtual felt make it deep.

Notables who made it deep include Erick Lindgren (11th – $14,477), Mike “Timex” McDonald (6th – $39,931), Harrison “gibler123” Gimbel (4th – $72,155), and runner-up Mike “SowersUNCC” Sowers (2nd – $158,887).

Hobson is a highly successful online tournament specialist himself, with more than $3.1 million in earnings in online events. The quarter-million he won for topping this event was by far his largest live score to date, but he had previously made two larger scores online that both exceeded $450,000.

Here is a look at the complete payouts and POY points awarded at this final table:

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