Jerry Yang's 2007 WSOP Watch For Sale On eBay

The watch awarded to 2007 WSOP main event champion Jerry Yang has found its way onto eBay where it has received 46 bids so far, the largest of which is currently $3,550. The auction will now remains open until July 24th, with the watch’s owner hoping that the winning bid will eventually reach close to its retail price of around $9,000.
In order to win the watch, Yang first won a $225 satellite into the $10k WSOP main event, where he subsequently overcame a field of 6,358 players on his way to collecting the huge $8.25 million top prize. Six years later, however, the US Internal Revenue Service seized some of Yang’s property to help pay for back taxes, including his WSOP winner’s bracelet, and the Corum Admiral’s Cup Competition watch currently up for sale.
Apparently, bad tax advice was mostly responsible for Jerry Yang’s  unfortunate situation leading to him owing $571,894 in delinquent taxes, and as he explains: “I did pay my state taxes, over $900,000.. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to pay my federal taxes on time. Due to penalties the amount that I owed at that point, after I paid everything, I owed roughly between $150,000-$170,000 due to penalties and things like that. That’s why I owe the IRS a little bit more than that today.”
Subsequently, Yang’s assets were seized and sold at auction, with his WSOP watch being bought by its current owner at an IRS auction in Sacramento, California, last year.
One may wonder how a WSOP main event winner ended up in such a financial bind, but at least 43% of Yang’s massive $8.25 million payday would have been paid as taxes, and he also gave away a further 10% to charity. In addition, Yang has earned a mere $187,435 in tournament winnings since his 2007 victory which, when one considers buy-ins, would probably not even be enough to break even.
On the plus side, Yang did put $540,000 of his money aside to open the ‘Pocket 8’s Sushi and Grill’ in Merced, California, which has been operating for five years now and is apparently “doing well,” according to Yang.