After 3 intensive days of play, the $500 Casino Employees Event came to an end with Roland Reparejo as the winner! Reparejo, who's been playing this tournament several times in the past few years, bested a field of 876 players to lay hands on his first gold bracelet (2014 WSOP's first bracelet) and an $82,835 payday!
Born in the Philippines, Reparejo, 55, came to the United States at the age 19 and worked for more than 30 years as a chef at various country clubs in the Palm Springs area. A few years ago, he left his executive chef position to play poker and work as a poker dealer instead.
WSOP asked him to reflect over the three decades+ working as a chef, including many 16-hour days, to his experience of winning his first gold coveted bracelet in a tournament that required 3 days of play (was supposed to be only 2 days) due to a highly-competitive final table. "I used to work many long hours," he said. "It really wore me out, but this for me was even tougher. That's why I feel so good about winning it."
Final table results:
1st: Roland Reparejo - $82,835
2nd: Corey Emery - $51,037
3rd: Charles Nguyen - $33,073
4th: Olivier Doremus - $24,203
5th: John Taylor - $17,975
6th: Brian Wong - $13,528
7th: Marcin Sobczak - $10,308
8th: David Luttbeg - $7,947
9th: Kevin Chiem - $6,192
