A software engineer by day and tournament player by night, James Schaaf had his share of ups and downs before dominating the 803-player field at the 2008 $1,500 H.O.R.S.E. event.

Early in Day 1, the Torrance, Calif., resident knocked Todd Brunson out of the event, only to see his stack diminished to 200 chips later in the day. He rebounded and rebuilt his stack despite going all-in several times, but the critical juncture in his tournament play was yet to come.

After going all-in with J-T-8 in the Razz round, Schaaf somehow managed to triple up. This win launched a rush that took Schaaf into Day 2 of the event and, eventually, to the final table.

There, he faced off against a slew of top pros, including Victor Ramdin and Phil Hellmuth, himself gunning for his 12th WSOP gold. Despite the intense media and spectator scrutiny surrounding the final table, Schaaf played his way through the battlefield and landed heads-up against Tommy Hang.

In a round of Stud Eight-or-Better, Schaaf beat Hang's trip sevens with trip eights, pocketing $256,412 and his first WSOP gold.