If Mitch Schock didn’t exist in real life, he’d have to be created by a fiction writer.

The man with the perfect name for a dynamic new poker champion just won the most recent World Series of Poker tournament, held at the Rio in Las Vegas. Schock electrified the record tournament field of 606 entries and created a buzz by winning his first WSOP gold bracelet. He also collected the handsome sum of $310,225 in prize money.

Schock’s victory came in the $2,500 buy-in Pot Limit Hold’em/Pot-Limit Omaha Mixed Championship. Schock awed the competition. He outlasted everyone in a three-day poker test that was just as much a battle of physical and mental endurance as poker skill. His final heads-up match took three hours, ending in a triumphant victory against runner up Rodney Brown.

Schock finally ended the duel with a sledgehammer on what turned out to be the final hand of the tournament, winning on the Pot-Limit Omaha round with double-suited aces, which flopped the nuts.

Schock is a 40-year-old professional poker player from Bismarck, N.D. He has been playing professionally since the mid-1990s. Schock is also a single father to three children. Perhaps his biggest source of pride from this victory is being able to lay claim to being the first WSOP winner in history from the state of North Dakota.

Prior to playing poker professionally, Schock held a number of different jobs, primarily in the construction business. Schock has been very active organizing poker games and activities, particularly in North Dakota. He has helped to create various poker charity tournaments that were successful. He often emcees the events and says they are designed to be fun and raise money for good causes.

Schock also invested in a bar poker league as well as heads-up poker machines, which are still found in various places around the country.

Rodney Brown, from Brea, Calif., had to settle for second place. He is a 37-year-old professional poker player. Brown once worked as an insurance company executive. But he found he could make more money and manage his time better by playing poker in and around the local Los Angeles poker scene. To Brown’s credit, he was but one card away from victory at one point, but missed and ultimately had to settle for a nice paycheck and some fond memories.

Jan Collado, a 23-year-old student from Oyten, Germany, finished third for $135,921. . Carter Gill, a 24-year-old who claims to be a hand model from Madras, Ore., finished fourth. Tyler Patterson, a 24-year-old professional gambler from Everett, Wash., finished fifth, James Vanneman, a 24-year-old poker pro from Boston, was sixth, David Lestock, a 27-year-old semi-pro from Bradenton, Fla., was seventh, Jonas Mackoff, a 24-year-old from Vancouver, B.C., was eighth.

Rami Boukai, who won this same event two years ago, made it to the final table again. He finished in ninth place.

When final table play began, Tyler Patterson enjoyed a chip lead of more than 2-to-1 over his closest threat. Seven of the players were out-chipped by 3-to-1 or more (including Schock, the eventual winner).

The top 63 finishers collected prize money. In addition to Boukai, several former gold bracelet winners cashed, including: Joe Hachem (12th), Scott Clements (14th), David Williams (24th), Tom “Hot Pants” Schneider (26th) and Humberto Brenes (39th).

With this cash, Humberto Brenes is now alone in fourth place in the all-time WSOP cashes list.