The Title Has Been Captured at the Commerce Casino Million Dollar Championship

 Richard Bakovic won the highly unusual Commerce Casino Million Dollar Guaranteed event this week. The event which allowed players to re-buy into the event during any of their five opening days saw 3300 players turn out for the action including such notable pros as Archie Karas, “Miami” John Cernuto, John “The Razor” Phan, Maria Ho, Nam Le, Shannon Elizabeth, David Plastik and Al “Sugar Bear” Barbieri. Despite the record breaking turn out, the event still fell approximately $60K short of the $1 million guarantee but the Commerce Casino was more than happy to pick up the overlay.

The 3300 player field was whittled down to 315 players over the course of the first five Day One events and then was whittled down further to 135 survivors before the final day of play on Sunday. The final nine players divided up nearly $500,000 as play grinded on into the early hours of Monday.

Bakovic received $173,500 for his efforts and the remaining final table players were each paid out numbers well into the five figures. Not bad considering they were each given five chances to cash in on the event.

Here’s a look at the final table results:

1. Richard Bakovic (San Pedro, CA) $173,500

2. Nathan Che (Elk Grove, CA) $97,100

3. Derek Gomez (Orange, CA) $61,570

4. Ramzi Srour (Burbank, CA) $47,700

5. Phong “Turbo” Nguyen (Los Angeles, CA) $39,030

6. Aaron Kweskin (Los Angeles, CA) $30,350

7. Thinh Do (Fullerton, CA) $21,680

8. Charles Dolan (Fountain Valley, CA) $15,610

9. Trong Nguyen (Garden Grove, CA) $10,000