World Series Of Poker (2008) Event #1 Winner: Nenad Medic

He may not be a doctor, but with a name like Nenad Medic, he sure could be. Medic, a Toronto native, had the cure to win the first bracelet of the 2008 World Series of Poker event with the USD 10,000 pot-limit hold ‚em event. The prize pool – a sweet USD 3.3 million, of which Medic received USD 794,112.

„It’s amazing,“ Medic noted after the victory. „I came in here with big goals. But I didn’t think it would all happen this quickly.“

His career winnings now total over USD 3.6 million.

Medic is well-known as one of the elite no-limit hold’em cash game players among poker professionals, and he has backed that up recently with big buy-in tournament success, according to Mike Lucchesi of CardPlayer.com.

Medic discussed how he pulled off the first win of the 2008 WSOP.

„I pretty much played solid the whole way. I wasn’t playing too aggressive. I picked my spots. But once it got down to fourhanded, it took a while. I don’t know, earlier, everybody was getting hands. Fourhanded, nobody seemed to pick up any hands, so there were a lot of small pots – maneuvering, going back and forth, nothing too big. I like that style; I like to play small pots, myself. So, I was fortunate to win more of the small pots.“

Medic played college basketball while attending the University of Waterloo and began playing poker with his teammates. Upon graduation he decided to not pursue a career in professional basketball, instead turning to online poker. He soon began finding success in tournaments, making his first WPT final table at the PokerStars.com Caribbean Poker Adventure in 2005. In January 2006 he made the final table at the Aussie Millions, finishing in 3rd place and earning USD 282,432. In November of that year he won his first WPT title at the World Poker Finals, earning USD 1,717,194. Medic again made the final table at the World Poker Finals in 2007, finishing in 3rd place and winning USD 486,367.

The second place finisher in this event was Andy Bloch.