Stolzmann wins JBWPO

The crown for this year's Jack Binion World Poker Open main event goes to college student John Stolzmann. His achievement is quite impressive, considering names such as Negreanu, Nguyen and Giang at the TV table and that he started the day on somewhat of a short stack. Though he was fourth in chips going into the day, that was only about half of what third had. Finally, he had to overcome about a 2-to-1 chip disadvantage when it finally got down to heads up against the formidable Giang. Quite impressive indeed.

Although I've already printed this once, here's his bio once again. I'm getting a lot of visitors who are trying to find out more information about him, so it's probably best to make it as easy to find as possible.

Stolzmann is currently a 23-year-old student at the University of Wisconsin, in Madison. He was born in Sheboygan, WI and started playing poker about four years ago. He now plays semi-professionally – both online and in occasional visits to major poker tournaments. His biggest win to date was 4th place in the Costa Rican Classic (2004), where he collected $15,000. Stolzmann’s biggest influences have been his father and girlfriend – both of whom are at this tournament. He won his entry fee into the main event by finishing among the top spots in a super satellite. He has been able to survive the first three days of the main event – ranking 48th out of 161 players after Day One, and 20th of 27 players after Day Two. He comes into Day Four -- 4th in the chip count. Stolzmann is the youngest player at the final table – with the least amount of experience at this level. It will be interesting to see how he adjusts to the pressures of playing in front of WPT television cameras, against some of the top players in the game.