Southern California poker pro wins WSOP title, $260,552

Luis Velador won the $2,500 Pot-Limit Hold'em/Pot-Limit Omaha championship (Event #33) at the World Series of Poker on Saturday night to claim $260,552 and his second WSOP gold bracelet.

"Tomorrow is my wife's birthday," said Velador. "I promised I was going to bring her the bracelet. That's what I'm going to do."

A 46-year-old poker pro from Corona, Calif., Velador topped a highly-competitive field of 482 players. Velador has been playing professionally for 13 years. He plays live cash games, tournaments, and online poker. Velador was born in the Puerto Vallarta area of Mexico. He is one of the few Mexican-born winners in WSOP history. Victor Perches was the first player from Mexico to win a gold bracelet in 2006.

Velador won his first gold bracelet in 2008. He won a $1,500 buy-in No-Limit Hold'em competition and collected $574,734 for first place. When Velador won in 2008, his final table performance was as dominant as had ever been seen at the WSOP. From start to finish during the five-hour final table, Velador held at least a 2-to-1 chip advantage over his nearest adversary. Most of the time, he had every opponent at the table covered by a 5- or 6- to 1 margin.

This victory was not as easy. However, Velador did dominate the later stages of the finale.

"I got hit by the deck, late," said Velador. "My strategy was basically to push. I was showing some really good hands, and it worked."

Today, Velador concentrates mostly on middle-limit cash games, ranging from $10-20 up to $40-80 limits. He prefers playing mixed games. He has played daily at the Bicycle Club Casino in the past, but now plays mostly at the Commerce Casino in Los Angeles.

The runner up was another former gold bracelet winner, four-time champ David Chiu. The Las Vegas poker pro played a solid game, but could not overcome a 4-to-1 chip disadvantage when heads-up play began.

The final hand of the tournament came during the pot-limit Hold'em round. Velador was dealt six-seven, while Chiu had ace-10. Velador paired his six on the flop, and Chiu never improved, giving Velador the victory. Chiu collected $160,902 for second place and now has $2.8 million in career WSOP earnings.

Rob Hollink from Groningen, Holland, also a former bracelet winner, finished in third place for $116,358.

Craig Gray, from Portland, Ore., was fourth, Kevin MacPhee, from Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, was fifth, Annand "Victor" Ramdin, from New York, N.Y., was sixth, James Mitchell, from London, England, was seventh, Gavin Cochrane, from Welwyn, England, was eighth, and Matt Sterling, from Brownstown, Ind., was ninth.

The top 45 finishers collected prize money. Aside from Velador, Chiu and Hollink, former WSOP gold bracelet finishers who cashed in this event included Burt Boutin (10th), Joshua Tieman (11th), Phil Ivey (12th), John Kabbaj (17th), Steve Zolotow (33rd), Jeffrey Lisandro (42nd), and Chris Reslock (43rd).

Modified from notes provided by Nolan Dalla for www.wsop.com