The winner of Event #49 the $1,500 buy-in No-Limit Hold'em championship was 38-year-old businessman from San Francisco, CA, Ghandrasekhar Billavara. This was only the second World Series of Poker tournament Billavara had ever entered and his first tournament victory.

In Billavara's first WSOP poker event last week, he busted out on the third hand of play. Frustrated, he almost passed on entering this event. However, Billavara had previously won $3,200 playing craps inside the casino. He decided that if he entered one more $1,500 buy-in tournament, even a bust-out guaranteed a net win of $200 for the Las Vegas trip.