Ghandrasekhar Billavara Wins $1,500
Buy-in No-Limit Hold'em World Championship

"Billavara reluctantly entered the tourney and ended up cashing for $722,914"

The winner of the $1,500 buy-in No-Limit Hold'em championship was Ghandrasekhar Billavara. He is a 38-year-old businessman from San Francisco, CA. This was only the second World Series of Poker tournament Billavara had ever entered. It was his first tournament victory.

Billvara was born in India. He earned a B.A. in computer science. He now owns a coffee shop in San Francisco.

An odd twist of events led to Billavara's triumph. In his first WSOP poker event last week, Billavara barely had time to find his seat inside the tournament room. He busted out on the third hand of play. Frustrated, he nearly passed on entering this event. However, Billavara had previously won $3,200 playing craps inside the casino. He decided that if he entered one more $1,500 buy-in tournament, even a bust-out guaranteed a net win of $200 for his Las Vegas trip. So, Billavara somewhat reluctantly entered this tournament along with over 3,000 other aspiring champions. He ended up cashing for $722,914.

Billavara needed some luck at one point in the later stage of the event, and got it at the perfect time. He arrived at the final table lowest in chips among the final nine players. "I said to myself the night before, if I could just double up once I might have a chance," Billavara said in a post-tournament interview. "Then, I looked down and saw pocket aces on my first hand! I could not believe it. It's a hand everybody dreams about." Billavara won the hand and was the champion five hours later.

"I plan to pay off some of my mortgage," Billavara replied when queried about his plans for nearly three-quarters of a million dollars in winnings. "Now, I might take $10,000 and enter the main event, too."

Billavara started playing poker only about two years ago. He was invited to a home game where he plays for modest stakes in a weekly game. Now, he admits that his friends in the home game in San Francisco might view him a bit differently. "Now, I will look at them and say – are you trying to bluff me? Are you crazy?" Billavara said jokingly. "Look at this gold bracelet on my wrist! You want to try and bluff me?"

This was the sixth (and last) $1,500 buy-in No-Limit Hold'em event on this year's schedule. These tournaments attracted over 15,000 entrants, combined. This is greater than the total number of players who entered the entire 2003 World Series of Poker, which totaled 36 events.

This was the largest non-main event tournament in World Series of Poker history. The turnout of 3,151 players broke the old record set three weeks ago, which was 2,998. This was also the busiest day in WSOP history in terms of total number of tournament entries within a 24-hour period.

The tournament ranks as the third-largest live poker tournament of all-time. Only the WSOP main events of 2005 and 2006 attracted more players.


by Nolan Dalla