Roland Reparejo Wins $82,835 at WSOP Casino Employees Event

The first event in this year’s WSOP lasted for three days and brought 55-year-old Roland Reparejo a prize of $82,835.

The 2014 World Series of Poker (WSOP) kicked off on May 27 at an American poker room in Las Vegas, with the traditional $5,000 casino employees’ poker race. A total of 876 players participated in the event, creating an impressive prize pool of almost $400,000.

After three days of playing, Roland Reparejo made his way to the top and got the biggest share of the $394,200 prize pool. The 55-year-old, semi-retired poker dealer was born in the Philippines and came to the USA when he was 19.

“This is incredible to win,” he told reporters. “I’ve been coming here for years, usually to play in the employee’s event and the seniors, too. I can’t believe I won this. It’s a dream to me.”

Five-minute champion

The Casino Employees Event dates back to 1983. The race was originally scheduled for two days, but by the end of the second day two players were still in the game, so they had to continue the following day. According to local gambling news, it took Reparejo just five minutes to beat his rival, Cory Emery.

Here are the final results:

1. Roland Reparejo - $82,835
2. Corey Emery - $51,037
3. Charles Nguyen - $33,073
4. Olivier Doremus - $24,203
5. John Taylor - $17,975
6. Brian Wong - $13,528
7. Marcin Sobczak - $10,308
8. David Luttbeg - $7,947
9. Kevin Chiem - $6,192