WSOP results

WSOP Event 22 - $1,500 no-limit hold'em; winner, Mark Seif
WSOP Event 23 - $5,000 seven-card stud; winner, Jan Sorenson
WSOP Event 24 - $2,500 no-limit hold'em; winner, Farzad "Freddy" Bonyadi
WSOP Event 25 - $2,500 pot-limit hold'em; winner, Johnny Chan
WSOP Event 26 - $1,000 ladies' no-limit hold'em; winner, Jennifer Tilly

Like father, like son

WSOP Event 21 - $2,500 Omaha 8/b; winner, Todd Brunson.

WSOP Event 20

WSOP Event 20 - $5,000 pot-limit hold'em; winner, Brian Wilson.

Poker Room made me a liar!

After going to all that extra trouble yesterday to explain that while Hollywood Poker is a skin of Poker Room, it has features that Poker Room doesn't have, such as the five-card draw games I got so excited about, Poker Room added five-card draw to its games today. That's good news, in my opinion, except that it made me look like an idiot.

So, is Poker Room using Hollywood Poker to beta-test new features? If so, then there is something new that could be hitting Poker Room in the near future -- lower limits. I've noticed at Hollywood Poker that they are now spreading .15/.30 games in limit hold'em and .10/.10 and .15/.15 games in no-limit and pot-limit. Based on what happened with five-card draw, I'm thinking we're no more than a couple of days away from seeing similar micro-limits at Poker Room.

WSOP events 18 & 19

WSOP Event 18 - $2,000 seven card stud 8/b; winner, Dennis Ethier
WSOP Event 19 - $1,500 pot limit Omaha; winner, Barry Greenstein

Three words ...

... Five-card draw!

I have long viewed Poker Room as my "home" in online poker. Much of that is probably due to the fact that it is the first place I started playing, primarily because it was the only place I could find that supported Mac, which I was using at the time. Even when the owner of another site approached me about playing at his site as a prop for 100 percent rakeback, I still couldn't shake the Poker Room habit. Of course, I took the offer, but most of my hours are still played at Poker Room, even without any kind of rakeback deal.

Then Poker Room started doing like all the other sites and started putting out skins of their site, one of which is Hollywood Poker. After one of my many bustouts at Poker Room late last year, I decided to give Hollywood Poker a try, mostly because I could play the same players and software, but get another signup bonus. (It was 20 percent back then. Now all they give you are a ticket to the new player tournament, plus a ticket to a $10+1 tournament after you collect 75 player points.)

Anyway, to make a long story longer, this past May I was unstoppable at Poker Room. Sometime when I have more time, I will go into detail, but suffice to say I turned a $25 deposit into $500 by the end of the month. Unfortunately, May ended, and so did my fortune at the tables. I ended up losing it all over the first two weeks of June. Sucks to be me.

Having had several extraordinary expenses lately, I wasn't in any position to actually dig into my pocket to redeposit, so I ended up looking for other ways to play. I wandered into Hollywood Poker and noticed they now have hourly freerolls, but you have to spend 10 player points to enter one. After checking my account and seeing that I had 70 points from my brief stint there last year, I decided I might as well enter one. It only paid four places and the total prize pool was only $30, but there were also only 172 people in the tournament. (You see, these freerolls are Hollywood Poker-only events, and since the site is new, there aren't that many people there. However, in addition to the Hollywood Poker-only events, it also ties into almost all of the same games and tournaments at Poker Room, so there are always plenty of games available.) Anyway, I ended up winning the damn thing, which got me $14 and a new start at Hollywood Poker.

That's been less than a week ago, but I've managed to build that $14 into something slightly more substantial, giving me enough money to have a bad night and still have a little bit left the next day. And then, last night, I noticed something Hollywood Poker has that Poker Room doesn't -- five-card draw.

It has been a good 10 years since I've played five-card draw, and I never played it seriously or studied it. But one can only play so much hold'em, and quite frankly I think a lot of my slide earlier this month was due to the fact that I was somewhat bored by hold'em, and I was taking bigger risks to make the game more exciting. I even tried a few hands of Omaha, but it didn't provide me with the boredom fix it always has in the past. But five-card draw was a monster that wouldn't be boring, because the texture of the game was so much different.

Plus, I remembered back to my days in college, to the one time I played a daylong five-card draw binge with some friends and ended up pocketing $50 playing quarter-limit. And then I remembered when, early in my marriage, a weekend trip with the in-laws pretty much degenerated into a hotel-room marathon of five-card draw for penny stakes, and I ended up clearing about $10 that way. Neither of those examples are awe-inspiring, I'll admit, but given the stakes they were large enough wins that in the back of my mind I've always felt like I have a natural feel for five-card draw.

So, I sat down to play a few hands, just for old time's sake, just to break the boredom, just to see what happened. A few hands quickly turned into a few hours, and I was having fun playing poker again. I was a little bit of a fish at the table, but I was still able to apply what I've learned playing hold'em the past few years and ended up winning a little over $20 at the dollar tables.

Anyway, if you're like me and feeling a little tired of hold'em, you might want to head over to Hollywood Poker and give five-card draw a try. If you do, I'd appreciate it if you'd use my link or, barring that, my bonus code, which is HPfreerolls. You won't get anything more than the tournament entries and my undying appreciation. Of, if you're looking for a little extra cash for your deposit, I'd be happy to give you a refer-a-friend referral. which will net you a $25 bonus, if you email me at evilbilly@evilbilly.com.

WSOP Main Event odds

Another thing that has been composting in my inbox is this list from BetUSA.com:

World Series of Poker $10,000 No Limit Hold’em, Las Vegas, 7 to 15 July, 2005

To win the World Series of Poker main event:

 
Phil Ivey 300-1
Daniel Negreanu 300-1
Howard “The Professor” Lederer 350-1
Phil Hellmuth 350-1
John Juanda 400-1
Huck Seed 400-1
Marcel “Flying Dutchman” Luske 400-1
Erik Seidel 400-1
Layne Flack 400-1
Gus Hansen 400-1
Chris “Jesus” Ferguson 400-1
Paul Phillips 500-1
Dave “Devilfish” Ulliott 500-1
Ram Vaswani 500-1
Barry Greenstein 500-1
John “World” Hennigan 600-1
Carlos Mortensen 600-1
Scotty Nguyen 600-1
TJ Cloutier 600-1
Men “The Master” Nguyen 600-1
Johnny “Oriental Express” Chan 600-1
Dan “The Man” Harrington 750-1
Sam Farha 750-1
Greg “Fossilman” Raymer 800-1
Doyle “Dolly” Brunson 1000-1
Prahlad Friedman 1000-1
Julian Gardner 1000-1
Erick Lindgren 1000-1
Antonio “Magician” Esfandiari 1000-1
Amir Vahidi 1000-1
Alan Cunningham 1000-1
Dave “El Blondie” Colclough 1000-1
Chip Jett 1000-1
Gary “The Choirboy” Jones 1000-1
David “Chip” Reese 1000-1
Brent Carter 1000-1
Scott Fischman 1000-1
Phil Laak 1000-1
Freddy Deeb 1000-1
Ted Forrest 1000-1
Paul Darden Jr 1000-1
Lucy Rokach 1000-1
Annie Duke 1000-1
David Singer 1250-1
Humberto Brenes 1250-1
Jennifer Harman 1250-1
Dewey Tomko 1250-1
Mike “The Mouth” Matusow 1250-1
Asher Derei 1500-1
Erik Sagstrom 1500-1
Neil “Bad Beat” Channing 1500-1
Joe “The Elegance” Beevers 1500-1
Barney Boatman 2000-1
David Williams 2000-1
Chris Moneymaker 2000-1
Billy Baxter 2000-1
Jean Robert Bellande 2500-1
Eric Brenes 2500-1
Kathy Liebert 2500-1
Tomer Benvenitsi 2500-1
Andy Bloch 2500-1
Hassan Habib 2500-1
Gabe Kaplan 2500-1
Ben Affleck 2500-1
Alex Brenes 2500-1
Scott Wilson 3000-1
Bob Stupak 3000-1
Toby “Spiderman” Maguire 5000-1
Ed Norton 7500-1
Leonardo DiCaprio 8500-1
Matt Damon 8500-1

To make the final table:

Daniel Negreanu 30-1
Phil Ivey 30-1
Marcel “Flying Dutchman” Luske 50-1
Phil Hellmuth 50-1
Howard “The Professor” Lederer 50-1
Layne Flack 50-1
Gus Hansen 50-1
Dave “Devilfish” Ulliott 60-1
Carlos Mortensen 60-1
Scotty Nguyen 60-1
Barry Greenstein 60-1
Ram “Crazy Horse” Vaswani 60-1
Paul Phillips 60-1
Men “The Master” Nguyen 60-1
Chris “Jesus” Ferguson 60-1
John Juanda 60-1
Huck Seed 60-1
John “World” Hennigan 60-1
Erik Seidel 60-1
Johnny “Oriental Express” Chan 60-1
TJ Cloutier 60-1
Jim Meehan 125-1
Paul Maxfield 125-1
Tony Ma 125-1
Josh Arieh 125-1
David “The Dragon” Pham 125-1
Chris Bigler 125-1
Surinder Sunar 125-1
Hasan Habib 125-1
Gavin Griffin 125-1
Phil Gordon 125-1
Alex Brenes 125-1
David Chiu 125-1
Gabe Thaler 125-1
John Robert Bellande 125-1
Minh Ly 125-1
Chris “AA” Grigorian 125-1
Young Phan 125-1
David Singer 125-1
Humberto Brenes 125-1
Tony Cousineau 125-1
Alan Goehring 125-1
Annie Duke 125-1
Mike Carson 125-1
Scott Fishman 125-1
Prahlad Friedman 125-1
Paul Darden Jr 125-1
Lucy Rokach 125-1
Jennifer Harman 125-1
Julian Gardner 125-1
Ted Forrest 125-1
Asher Derei 125-1
Dave “El Blondie” Colclough 125-1
Doyle “Dolly” Brunson 125-1
Erick Lindgren 125-1
Kassem “Freddy” Deeb 125-1
Mike “The Mouth” Matusow 125-1
Antonio “Magician” Esfandiari 125-1
Allen Cunningham 125-1
Amir Vahedi 125-1
John Shipley 125-1
Kathy Liebert 125-1
Toto Leonidas 125-1
Mel Judah 125-1
Gary “The Choirboy” Jones 125-1
Chip Jett 125-1
Dan “The Man” Harrington 125-1
Padraig Parkinson 175-1
Jesse Jones 175-1
Dan Heimiller 175-1
Marin De Knijff 175-1
Thor Hansen 175-1
John “Miami” Cernuto 175-1
Richard Tatalovich 175-1
Willie Tann 175-1
Rob Hollink 175-1
Harry Demetriou 175-1
Greg “Fossilman” Raymer 175-1
Erik Sagstrom 175-1
Tony “Tony G” Guoga 175-1
Jeff Schulman 175-1
Mel Meiner 175-1
Dennis Waterman 175-1
Keith “Jet” Lehr 175-1
Paul Wolfe 175-1
Frankie O’Dell 175-1
Oneil Longston 175-1
Brent Carter 175-1
Dan Alspach 175-1
Lee Watkinson 175-1
Mike Sexton 175-1
Scott Gray 175-1
Thomas “Thunder” Keller 175-1
James Van Elstyne 175-1
Chau Giang 175-1
Blair Rodman 175-1
Raj Kattamuri 175-1
Danny Nguyen 175-1
Tuan Le 175-1
Lee Nelson 175-1
Yosh Nakano 175-1
Tony “Tony D” Tam Duong 175-1
Chris “Syracuse” Tsiprailidis 175-1
Stan Goldstein 175-1
Tom “Captain” Franklin 175-1
Johan Storakers 175-1
John Kabbaj 175-1
Bill Gazes 175-1
Hoyt Corkins 175-1
Tony “The Lizard” Bloom 175-1
Andrew Bloch 175-1
Alan Betson 175-1
Joe “The Elegance” Beevers 175-1
Daniel Larsson 175-1
Robert Williamson III 175-1
David Williams 175-1
An Tran 175-1
Phil Laak 175-1
David Levi 175-1
John Esposito 175-1
Diego Cordovez 175-1
David Plastik 175-1
Pascal Perrault 175-1
Philippe Marmorstein 175-1
Kenna James 175-1
Mickey Appleman 175-1
Keith “The Camel” Hawkins 175-1
Peter “The Poet” Costa 175-1
Farzad Bonyadi 175-1
John Bonetti 175-1
Rory Liffey 175-1
Eric Brenes 200-1
Neil “Badbeat” Channing 225-1
Mike Laing 225-1
Dewey Tomko 225-1
Sam Grizzle 225-1
Marty Mad Wilson 225-1
Julian Thew 225-1
Tom McEvoy 225-1
Isabelle Mercier 225-1
Ben Roberts 225-1
Sam Farha 225-1
Simon “Aces” Trumper 225-1
Barny “Barmy” Boatman 225-1
Ross Boatman 225-1
Evelyn Ng 225-1
David “Chip” Reese 225-1
Tomer Benvenitsi 250-1
Andy Bloch 250-1
Gabe Kaplan 250-1
Ben Affleck 250-1
Jay Lovinger 250-1
Tony Kendall 250-1
Chris Moneymaker 250-1
Rumit Somaiya 300-1
Toby “Spiderman” Maguire 300-1
Scott Wilson 500-1

Let's try this again

I'm going to make another attempt to resurrect this blog. Changes at work have created a lot of hassle in my life. Basically, everything has changed, and while I'm actually getting more hours at home and even a few more hours of sleep each night, the upheaval in my schedule has left me utterly exhausted.

There have been a lot of developments at WSOP, but frankly I've either been too busy or too tired to keep track of them. But in an effort to reduce some of the clutter on the front page of my blog, I'm going to start giving each tournament report its own page and just place a link to it in the blog. Basically, I'm being lazy, because the reports come to me as Word files and I'm going to just "save as web page" so that you get to see the exact same thing I do. And since I've been away so long, there are a lot of these things to get caught up on.

WSOP Event 5
WSOP Event 5 - $1,500 limit hold'em; winner, Pat Poels
WSOP Event 6 - $2,500 no limit hold'em shootout, six-handed; winner, Isaac ‘the General’ Galazan
WSOP Event 7 - $1,000 no limit hold'em rebuy; winner, Mike Gracz
WSOP Event 8 - $1,500 seven card stud; winner, Cliff ‘Bax’ Josephy
WSOP Event 9 - $2,000 no limit hold'em; winner, Erik Seidel
WSOP Event 10 - $2,000 limit hold'em; winner, Reza Payvar
WSOP Event 11 - $2,000 pot limit hold'em; winner, Edward Moncada
WSOP Event 12 - $2,000 pot limit Omaha rebuy; winner, Josh Arieh
WSOP Event 13 - $5,000 no limit hold'em; winner, T.J. Cloutier
WSOP Event 14 - $1,000 seven card stud 8/b; winner, Steve Hohn
WSOP Event 15 - $1,500 limit hold'em shootout; winner, Mark Seif
WSOP Event 16 - $1,500 no limit hold'em shootout, winner, Anthony Reategui
WSOP Event 17 - $2,000 limit hold'em; winner, Quinn Do

World Series of Poker - Event 4

Limit Hold’em
Buy-in: $1,500
Number of Entries: 1,049
Total Prize Money: $1,447,620

Official Results:

1. Eric Froehlich, Los Angeles, CA, $361,910
2. Jason Steinhorn, Cupertino, CA, 182,040
3. Todd Whitteles, Las Vegas, NV, 115,810
4. Adam Hersh, Agoura Hills, CA, 101,335
5. Christian Van Hees, Seattle, WA, 86,855
6. Devin Armstrong, Toronto, ON (Canada), 72,380
7. Peter Costa, Leicester, England, 57,905
8. Wing Wong, Rowland Heights, CA, 43,430
9. Brian Mogelefsky, Huntington, NY, 28,950
10. Zelong Dong, $15,925.00
11. Michael Spiegel $15,925.00
12. Michael Ma, $15,925.00
13. Peter Campo, $13,030.00
14. Farzad Rouhani, $13,030.00
15. Mark Muchnik, $13,030.00
16. Anne Duke, $10,135.00
17. Amnon Filippi, $10,135.00
18. Joseph Tarabochia, $10,135.00
19. David Rheem, $7,240.00
20. Michael Fishman, $7,240.00
21. Hoa Nguyen, $7,240.00
22. Roy Cooke, $7,240.00
23. Russell Hendrinks, $7,240.00
24. Scott Bohlman, $7,240.00
25. David Chiu, $7,240.00
26. Sam Lewis, $7,240.00
27. Bob Jarrett, $7,240.00
28. Robert Tyburski, $5,065.00
29. John Bonetti, $5,065.00
30. George Kalaitzis, $5,065.00
31. David Cossio, $5,065.00
32. Theodore Park, $5,065.00
33. David Oppenheimer, $5,065.00
34. Jarod Kason, $5,065.00
35. Christopher Avery, $5,605.00
36. Mark Ferraro, $5,605.00
37. Joe Cassidy, $4,200.00
38. Kevin Dykstrom, $4,200.00
39. Michael McKenna, $4,200.00
40. Ronald Moore, $4,200.00
41. Steven Russell, $4,200.00
42. Phil Hellmuth Jr., $4,200.00
43. AJ Kelsall, $4,200.00
44. John Juan, $4,200.00
45. Brandley Anderson, $4,200.00
46. Gary Hager, $3,400.00
47. James Shaw, $3,400.00
48. Larry Lawson, $3,400.00
49. James Lawson, $3,400.00
50. Danny Morgan, $3,400.00
51. Unknown, $3,400.00
52. Unknown, $3,400.00
53. Unknown, $3,400.00
54. Unknown, $3,400.00
55. Herbert Gelman, $2,895.00
56. Joseph E. Brandenburg, $2,895.00
57. Terry Leatherwood, $2,895.00
58. Andy Miller, $2,895.00
59. Yunya Wang, $2,895.00
60. David Caputo, $2,895.00
61. William "Billy C" Carter, $2,895.00
62. Charles Coates, $2,895.00
63. Jody Gararienta, $2,895.00
64. Michael Hibberd, $2,535.00
65. Tad Jergens, $2,535.00
66. Jerry Zehr, $2,535.00
67. Antonio Pane, $2,535.00
68. Peter Dominic, $2,535.00
69. Barraj Bilal, $2,535.00
70. Elias Hourani, $2,535.00
71. Patrick Heneghan, $2,535.00
72. Petter Sawen, $2,535.00
73. Ross Boatman, $2,170.00
74. Gebrehiwet Goitom, $2,170.00
75. Kurt Maier, $2,170.00
76. Dan Heimiller, $2,170.00
77. Feming Chan, $2,170.00
78. Luke J Smith, $2,170.00
79. Oden Kagin, $2,170.00
80. Brad Peeples, $2,170.00
81. Jesse Knight, $2,170.00
82. Vincent Poppen, $1,810.00
83. Maritas S., $1,810.00
84. Adam Selwyn, $1,810.00
85. Tony "TNT" Nasr, $1,810.00
86. Li Kim Bahn, $1,810.00
87. David Sammartino, $1,810.00
88. Richard Pena, $1,810.00
89. Gino Yu, $1,810.00
90. John Hom, $1,810.00
91. Lance Weil, $1,590.00
92. Jack Leeney, $1,590.00
93. Joe Harwell, $1,590.00
94. Todd Walker, $1,590.00
95. Gavin Griffin, $1,590.00
96. Robert Burton, $1,590.00
97. Alan Goehring, $1,590.00
98. Tonya Lieu, $1,590.00
99. Matthew Glantz, $1,590.00
100. Robert Levin, $1,590.00

The ‘E-Fro’ Show! Eric Froehlich becomes youngest WSOP winner ever!

Last year, Gavin Griffin became the youngest player in history to ever win a World Series of Poker gold bracelet. With so many young people now turned on to poker, however, it seemed just a matter of time before a younger star would emerge and eclipse the record. That moment came at precisely 4 am Tuesday, after an all-night poker marathon lasting 16 hours. Eric Froehlich, a 21-year-old professional poker player, won the $1,500 buy in Limit Hold’em championship. At exactly 21 years, 3 months, and 3 days of age, ‘E-Fro” established a new all-time benchmark for the youngest poker champion.

The final table was a brutal exercise of patience, skill, and discipline. The chip lead changed several times and shifted back and forth when play was heads up. By the time the final hand was dealt, the standing-room-only crowd that had packed the Rio Pavilion had dissipated, leaving E-Fro to bask in his glory amidst a zonked out ESPN TV crew and a hoarse-voiced Tournament Director, John Grooms. Poker glory usually comes in fickle flashes. It didn’t seem to matter that E-Fro had climbed poker’s equivalent of Mt. Everest, and there wasn’t anyone around to witness the spectacle. The important thing was the view. For at least a while, E-Fro will be the latest chapter in poker history.

This tournament was historic for at least one additional reason – 1989 world poker champion Phil Hellmuth, finished in 42nd place. That would not normally be newsworthy. But it so happened to be Mr. Hellmuth’s 47th time in the money at the WSOP – which distanced him by one notch over 1986 world poker champion Berry Johnston (with 46 cashes). The race is on to climb another poker mountain.

The final ten players assembled around the final table with the following chip counts:

THE FINAL TABLE:
SEAT 1: Wing Wong, 54,000
SEAT 2: Eric Froehlich, 192,000
SEAT 3: Jason Steinhorn, 207,000
SEAT 4: Christian Van Hees, 175,000
SEAT 5: Brian Mogelefsky, 61,000
SEAT 6: Todd Witteles, 134,000
SEAT 7: Peter Costa, 153,000
SEAT 8: Zelong Dong, 166,000
SEAT 9: Devon Armstrong, 209,000
SEAT 10: Adam Hersh, 248,000

Players were eliminated as follows:

10th Place – Zelong Dong might as well have had a taxi waiting when he arrived at the final table. Minutes into play, the actuary lost most of his chips to a flush, then made a desperate raise with his final 6,000, which was snapped up by Peter Costa. Dong did no wrong with his 10th-place finish – worth $15,925.

9th Place – Brian Mogelefsky took a tough beat when he was dealt K-K against Jason Steinhorn’s 10-10. All of Mogelefsky’s chips were in the pot after the flop and it looked as if the 27-year-old New Yorker might double up. But a 10 on the turn gave Steinhorn a set, and poisoned the pocket kings. Mogelefsky earned $28,950.

8th Place – Wing Wong, a professional poker player, arrived with the lowest stack and was the next player to exit. He moved his last 18,000 into the pot with J-9 and was nipped by Adam Hersh’s 10-3 when the final board showed 10-4-3-9-A. Wong collected $43,430.

7th Place – Peter Costa arrived with the most impressive poker pedigree of anyone at the final table. He has won numerous majors, including Late Night Poker (UK), the Aussie Millions, a Hall of Fame event, two European Poker Championship events, and a number of smaller tournaments. Given his past performance, his finish in this event had to be a disappointment. Costa had aces cracked about mid-way into his stay at the table and never seemed to recover. He finally went out with 8-8 against Todd Witteles’ K-J when a king flopped. Costa -- born in the island nation of Cypress, transplanted to England, and now a resident of Las Vegas – received $57,905.

6th Place – Devin Armstrong works as a television camera operator, but is fast becoming a face in front of the camera rather than behind it. Armstrong finished 5th in last year’s Canadian Poker Championship, appeared on the cover of Canadian Poker Player magazine, and is hosting a poker DVD. He got steamrolled on his final hand of the night, with 2-2 against E-Fro’s pocket aces. A deuce failed to save Armstrong, who pocketed $72,380 for 6th place.

5th Place – When play became five-handed, it was still anyone’s tournament to win. The lowest stack was about 270,000, and the largest stack stood at 420,000. Then, things turned very bad for Chris Van Hees. The Seattle-based poker pro tried to make a move at the pot at the wrong time and was snapped off by Todd Witteles, who spiked and ace on the flop to go with his A-6. Van Hees picked up $86,855 in prize money for 5th place.

4th Place – Adam Hersh arrived at the final table with the chip lead, so his 4th-place finish and $101,335 prize was a mixed blessing. The 22-year-old UNLV student was playing in his first poker tournament, and demonstrated some extraordinary talents for a player with so little experience at this level. On his final hand, Hersh was dealt 5-5 and lost to Jason Steinhorn’s pair of nines.

3rd Place – Todd Witteles watched his stack disappear in 30 minutes. He went from 400,000 in chips to the rail with a dismal dry spell that was fitting for a 100-degree Las Vegas day. The evaporation was complete when Witteles was dealt A-9 and was dominated by E-Fro’s A-K. Witteles managed to catch a nine on the flop, but E-Fro caught a king. Two blanks were the final nails in Witteles’ coffin, as he exited in 3rd place. Amazingly, this was also Witteles first time to cash in a major tournament. His payout was $115,810.

If anyone thought the tournament was about to end, they were in for a surprise. Instead, it was a never-ending see-saw chip exchange that lasted nearly three hours. Just when it seemed E-Fro was about to win the tournament, Steinhorn would stage a rally and re-gain the chip lead. Once, he did this after being down 9 to 1 in chips. Then, when murmurs began that Steinhorn might close with a victory, E-Fro caught a flurry of cards and raced back into the chip lead.

At 3:30 a.m., Steinhorn had a 2 to 1 chip lead, but he won very few pots in the final half hour. Getting short on chips, he called a raise by E-Fro. The flop came 9-2-2 with two spades. The turn was a meaningless 10 of hearts. The river brought a third spade, but also paired the 10. E-Fro bet holding his flush despite two pair on board, and Steinhorn (hand not shown) made a crying call. The flush was good and history was made.

Runner up Jason Steinhorn is a 33-year-old engineering manager from the Bay Area. He has already cashed twice at this year’s WSOP (finishing 31st in Event #2). Second-place paid $182,040.

Froehlich was speechless following his victory. Perhaps it was fatigue. Perhaps it was $361,910 in hundred dollar bills piled up on the poker table that was now his. Or, perhaps it was the realization that this young man did something truly extraordinary, accomplishing a feat most men and women two and three times his age have been striving for year after year at the World Series – mostly coming up short. A gold bracelet is becoming more and more elusive given the huge size of the fields and level of competition. But for one shining instant, we have again been reminded that just about anything is possible at the World Series of Poker. Any player with any level of experience can come, sit down and play, and perhaps even end up as a poker champion.

Just ask E-Fro.

Official Report by Nolan Dalla – World Series of Poker Media Director
World Series of Poker Circuit Director of Operations – Ken Lambert
World Series of Poker Tournament Director – John Grooms
Rio Poker Room Manager – Michael Matts
Rio Poker Tournament Director – Robert Daily

World Series of Poker - Event 3

Pot-Limit Hold’em
Buy-in: $1,500
Number of Entries: 1,071
Total Prize Money: $1,477,980

Official Results:
1. Thom Werthmann, Bloomfield Hills, MI, $369,535 
2. Layne Flack, Las Vegas, NV, 185,855 
3. Hieu ‘Tony’ Ma, S. El Monte, CA, 118,240 
4. Martin Green, Brighton, England, 103,460 
5. David ‘Gunslinger’ Bach, Athens. GA, 88,680
6. Mario Valenzuela, Temecula, CA, 73,900 
7. Pierre Nasr, Vancouver, BC (Canada), 59,120
8. Arash Ganehian, Marina Del Rey, CA, 44,340 
9. Ernest Patrick, Birmingham, MI, 29,560
10. Gavin Smith, $16,260.00
11. Edward Moncada, $16,260.00
12. Chris Stolzfus, $16,260.00
13. Al Krux, $13,300.00
14. Frank Whipple, $13,300.00
15. Patrick Pezzin, $13,300.00
16. Young Cho, $10,345.00
17. Matthew Kirisits, $10,345.00
18. Thomas Hunt III, $10,345.00
19. Dave McAfee, $7,390.00
20. Renee Wexler, $7,390.00
21. Shannon Frankfather, $7,390.00
22. Scott Levy, $7,390.00
23. T.J. Burle, $7,390.00
24. Jim Bechtel, $7,390.00
25. Hoyt Corkins, $7,390.00
26. Peter Zakhary, $7,390.00
27. Nick Frangos, $7,390.00
28. Jennifer Harman, $5,175.00
29. Christopher Christy, $5,175.00
30. Peter Davidson, $5,175.00
31. Gerald Cheatham, $5,175.00
32. Chance Langeness, $5,175.00
33. Jason Younger $5,175.00
34. John Johnson, $5,175.00
35. Anders Berg, $5,175.00
36. Dave Danheiser, $5,175.00
37. Bill Ferrand, $4,285.00
38. Roger White, $4,285.00
39. Nathaniel Mullen, $4,285.00
40. Alan Adler, $4,285.00
41. Delmiro Toledo, $4,285.00
42. Alan Kessler, $4,285.00
43. Joseph Casetla, $4,285.00
44. Kenny Levy, $4,285.00
45. Marc Shubbe, $4,285.00
46. Bruce Gifford, $3,475.00
47. Antonio Abesamis, $3,475.00
48. Roger Barnes, $3,475.00
49. Billy Seber, $3,475.00
50. David Stroj, $3,475.00
51. James Kileen, $3,475.00
52. Kevin Kim, $3,475.00
53. Marcel Luske, $3,475.00
54. Arthur Christman, $3,475.00
55. Joseph Cassidy, $3,475.00
56. Marco Traniello, $2,955.00
57. Mark Taylor, $2,955.00
58. Dean Factor, $2,955.00
59. Joshua Jones, $2,955.00
60. James Catton, $2,955.00
61. Elliott Howle, $2,955.00
62. Stanley Bayne, $2,955.00
63. Carlos Trujillo, $2,955.00
64. Brett Wiesner, $2,585.00
65. Craig Hartman, $2,585.00
66. Michael Minetti, $2,585.00
67. Jesse Daniel, $2,585.00
68. Jorge Arias, $2,585.00
69. Manuel Regis, $2,585.00
70. Tao Yubin, $2,585.00
71. Amie Martini, $2,585.00
72. Jeffrey Klein, $2,585.00
73. Keith Sexton, $2,215.00
74. Todd Brunson, $2,215.00
75. Aaron Jensen, $2,215.00
76. Christopher Fear, $2,215.00
77. Andrew Singer, $2,215.00
78. Dewey Tomko, $2,215.00
79. Michael Pryce, $2,215.00
80. Isabelle Mercier, $2,215.00
81. Robert Glenn, $2,215.00
82. Asle Gtesteland, $1,845.00
83. Tommy Tucker, $1,845.00
84. John Gordon, $1,845.00
85. Joseph Beevers, $1,845.00
86. Scott Wilson, $1,845.00
87. Jason Bloom, $1,845.00
88. Alan Hance, $1,845.00
89. Bobby Justice, $1,845.00
90. Sean Colclough, $1,845.00
91. Daniel Coury, $1,625.00
92. KU Davis, $1,625.00
93. Steven Sauser, $1,625.00
94. Steve Zolotow, $1,625.00
95. Andrew Bloch, $1,625.00
96. Andrew Hallenbeck, $1,625.00
97. Jason Strochak, $1,625.00
98. Jonathan Dull, $1,625.00
99. Jordan Siegel, $1,625.00
100. Gerard Denham, $1,625.00

Pot-Limit Ace:
Thom Werthman Wins Largest Pot-Limit Hold’em Event in World Series History

Thom Werthman, a 35-year-old owner of a high-tech telecommunications company in Detroit, MI, staged a memorable comeback and won a stunning upset victory over one of poker’s most enigmatic personalities. When play became heads-up, Wertherman overcame a 3 to 1 chip deficit versus the always-unpredictable Layne Flack, who was shooting for his 6th WSOP gold bracelet. But after a two-day, 26-hour poker marathon, it was the newcomer Werthmann who earned his first major tournament victory.

The $1,500 buy-in Pot-Limit Hold’em championshipp started with 1,071 players, making it the largest pot-limit hold’em event in WSOP history. In fact, it was the third largest field ever to play in a WSOP event – a statistic expected to be short-lived since this year’s tournament is smashing records daily.

When the final ten players assembled around the final table, Layne Flack had an impressive chip lead. Other than Englishman Martin Green – no one seemed to pose a threat to the freewheeling poker enigma originally from Missoula, Montana -- who has drawn comparisons to the late Stu Ungar. No one could possibly foresee that the mild-mannered, self-admitted recreational poker player in Seat 7 would be the last man sitting at the final table at 1:55 am. The finalists started with the following chip counts:

THE FINAL TABLE:
Seat 1; Arash Ghaneian, 87,000
Seat 2: Ernest Patrick, 118,000
Seat 3: Gavin Smith, 73,000
Seat 4: Mario Valenzuela, 116,000
Seat 5: Pierre Nasr, 118,000
Seat 6: Tony Ma, 48,000
Seat 7: Thom Werthmann, 265,000
Seat 8: David Bach, 130,000
Seat 9: Layne Flack, 391,000
Seat 10: Martin Green, 282,000

After Gavin Smith went out in 10th place, players were eliminated as follows:

9th Place – Tony Ma plays a short-stack as well as anyone in poker. He came in desperately hoping to double up, and did better than that. He tripled up. Twenty minutes into the finale, Ma moved ‘all in’ with K-K. Arash Ghaneian had A-Q and a third player, Ernest Patrick had 8-8. The flop came K-J-J – good for a full-house -- which catapulted Ma back into the game. Meanwhile, Patrick was down to the felt and exited in 9th place. Ernest Patrick, a 56-year-old builder from Birmingham, MI, collected $29,560.

8th Place – Arash Ghaneian, an Iranian-born poker pro who now lives in Marina Del Rey, CA went out next. He took a blow on the previous hand losing to Ma, then tried to steal from the button with 7-6 suited. Mario Valenzuela was sitting in the small blind with K-J and re-raised, and Ghaneian was pot-committed. A jack flopped and Ghaneian was forced to take the walk of shame. He received $44,340.

7th Place – Pierre became short-stacked and was delighted to look down and see pocket queens. David ‘Gunslinger’ Bach lived up to his name and called a 30,000 raise with K-2 suited. The crowd became electrified as the hand was played out. The flop came 9-5-4, with one diamond. Nasr smiled with confidence. The queen of diamonds fell on the turn, which gave Nasr a set (three queens). Then, the crowd roared when a third diamond fell on the river, giving the Gunslinger a flush. Nasr, a Lebanese-born jeweler now living in Canada, backed away from the final table in shock and disappointment. He received $59,120 for 7th place.

6th Place – Layne Flack was right on schedule to win another gold bracelet. With all due respect to the other players, it seemed Flack might run away with the title when he crushed Mario Valenzuela, thus eliminating another player and taking nearly a 3 to 1 chip lead. Flack was dealt 10-10 and hot a ten on the flop. Valenzuela had pocket queens and was ‘all in’ and drawing to two outs. He missed. The Mexico City-born demolition contractor now living in southern California imploded – earning $73,900 for 6th place. After the hand, Flack had 740,000 in chips.

5th Place – It was the Gunslinger’s time to get shot down. David ‘Gunslinger’ Bach went up to nearly 300,000 in chips at one point, but had a tough run in his final half hour at the table. He made his last stand with A-K and was covered by Thom Werthmann, holding pocket 2s. With 350,000 in the pot, the Gunslinger needed to catch an ace or king, but missed. Bach, a former pro bowler who has turned to poker playing for a living, ended up with poker’s equivalent of a spare. Fifth-place paid $88,680. With that pot, Thom Werthmann rocketed up close to 500,000 in chips and suddenly Layne Flack had competition.

4th Place – England has produced a long line of great pot-limit players. Martin Green hoped to add his name to the Brit legacy, but fell three spots short of the top prize. Green was getting short on chips and pushed in under the gun with A-J. Flack, with a mountain of chips called with K-4 and spiked a 4 on the river, making Mr. Green blue. Green, who edits a major horseracing publication in Brighton, jockeyed into 4th place – good for $103,460.

3rd Place – Tony Ma survived three hours with a short stack before finally succumbing to defeat. Ma looked down, saw and ace, and moved in. Thom Wethermann couldn’t get his chips in fast enough with A-J and when a jack flopped, Ma was essentially bounced to the rail Vietnamese-born Tony Ma, who has won numerous poker tournaments in his distinguished career (he was Card Player magazine’s “Player of the Year” in 1999) received $118,240 for 3rd place.

When heads-up play began, Flack enjoyed a substantial chip lead over Werthmann – 1,150,000 to 480,000. Twenty minutes later, Flack was up 3 to 1. Then, the winds of fate shifted. Arguably the most decisive hand of the tournament took place when Werthmann made a pot-sized bet holding 8-6 after the flop came 6-3-2. Flack re-raised the pot with two overcards and a spade flush draw. Werthmann moved the rest of his chips in, and it was essentially a coin flip situation with two cards to come. Flack failed to catch the spade or overcard which would have given him his 6th gold bracelet, and Werthmann had new life. The chips counts were now close to equal.

Werthmann seized the chip lead when he took a 300,000 pot on non-showdown hand, then Flack won most of those chips back when he made two pair and Werthmann missed a straight draw.

With the championship hanging in the balance, the final hand of the night was dealt on Sunday night at 2 am, with throngs of spectators jammed around the table observing the two glary-eyed finalists. Flack was dealt 5-5 and was the clear favorite over Werthmann’s A-2. Werthmann desperately needed to catch and ace. He caught not one ace, but two. The final board showed A-K-Q-A-J, which gave Werthmann trip aces and his first WSOP title.

Flack, who normally is not sentimental about gold bracelets or poker glory, was visibly disappointed with the outcome. He commented earlier that he had given his previous five bracelets as gifts to various family members. He hoped his sixth bracelet might go to his brother. But alas, that bracelet ended up on the wrist of the new unanticipated champion. Layne Flack, the Montana-born poker wunderkind, collected $185,855 as the runner up.

For Thom Werthmann, this was a two-day dream come true. He had previously cashed two times, including 179th in the main event last year (2,576 entries). He earned a whopping $369,535 and the coveted gold bracelet studded with diamonds.

Official Report by Nolan Dalla – World Series of Poker Media Director
World Series of Poker Circuit Director of Operations – Ken Lambert
World Series of Poker Tournament Director – John Grooms
Rio Poker Room Manager – Michael Matts
Rio Poker Tournament Director – Robert Daily

World Series of Poker - Event 2

No-Limit Hold’em
Buy-in: $1,500
Number of Entries: 2,305
Total Prize Money: $3,180,900

Official Results:

1. Allen Cunningham, Las Vegas, NV, $725,405
2. Scott Fischman, Las Vegas, NV, 352,125
3. David ‘Devilfish’ Ulliott, Hull, England, 232,205
4. Can Kim Hua, Rosemead, CA, 200,395
5. Liz Lieu, Los Angeles, CA, 177,000
6. Charlie Huff, Geneva, OH, 136,780
7. An ‘the Boss’ Tran, Las Vegas, NV, 104,970
8. Randy Edmonson, Columbus, MS, 73,160
9. Heath Boutwell, Atlanta, GA, 54,075
10. Jeremy Flynn, $34,990
11. Burton Boutin, $34,990
12. Travis Green, $34,990
13. Minh Ly, $28,630
14. Andrew Kelsall, $28,630
15. Robert Newton, $28,630
16. Daniel Schmiech, $22,265
17. Keith Clarke, $22,265
18. Robert Amereno, $22,265
19. Josiah Trager, $15,905
20. Diego Cordovez, $15,905
21. Eric Sarkissians, $15,905
22. Daniel Tran, $15,905
23. Charles Dawson, $15,905
24. Phillip Hellmuth, $15,905
25. Patrick Moore, $15,905
26. Jeremy Brom, $15,905
27. Kerry Small, $15,905
28. Farzad Arastoozad, $11,135
29. Daniel Moore, $11,135
30. Rory Monahan, $11,135
31. Jason Steinhorn, $11,135
32. Kenneth Robbins, $11,135
33. David Fried, $11,135
34. Kevin Keller, $11,135
35. Darren Woolard, $11,135
36. Joseph Pelton, $13,135
37. Tom Lee, $9,225
38. James Plateroti, $9,225
39. John Evans, $9,225
40. Christopher Russo, $9,225
41. Matthew Fletcher, $9,225
42. David Ho, $9,225
43. Joseph Goldstein, $9,225
44. Michael Matusow, $9,225
45. Rami Owera, $9,225
46. Thomas Fougeron, $7,475
47. Arnold Tolee, $7,475
48. Terry Weimer, $7,475
49. Jay Smith, $7,475
50. Shreeniwas Kelkar, $7,475
51. Aaron Donovan, $7,475
52. Joshua Olson, $7,475
53. Mark Seif, $7,475
54. Steve Shkolnik, $7,475
55. Michael Byers, $6,360
56. Cyndy Viollete, $6,360
57. Kevin Kyblock, $6,360
58. Daniel Benjamin, $6,360
59. Marc Bradley Lome, $6,360
60. Loi Phan, $6,360
61. Sam Von Duhn, $6,360
62. James Bechtel, $6,360
63. Thomas Savitsky, $6,360
64. Melvin Swancy, $5,565
65. Ky Vu, $5,565
66. David Tuchman, $5,565
67. Ronnie Yambra, $5,565
68. Jeffrie Rine, $5,565
69. Gavin Writer, $5,565
70. Allie Prescott, $5,565
71. Andrew Reanrungroch, $5,565
72. Emad Alabdi, $5,565
73. Jeff Calkins, $4,770
74. Marcello De Grosso, $4,770
75. Vincent Devita, $4,770
76. James Lester, $4,770
77. Boris Shats, $4,770
78. Charles Ruggerloi, $4,770
79. Mark Scott, $4,770
80. Brandon Wong, $4,770
81. Kenneth Taylor, $4,770
82. Saso Perduloski, $3,975
83. Carlton Jerome, $3,975
84. David Levi, $3,975
85. Jason Rich, $3,975
86. Greg Raymer, $3,975
87. Jeff Gibralter, $3,975
88. Daniel Vogel, $3,975
89. Gregg Smallowitz, $3,975
90. Mark Chapic, $3,975
91. Mark Kozin, $3,500
92. Eric Taylor, $3,500
93. James Pursifull, $3,500
94. Jeremy Stein, $3,500
95. Steve Kim, $3,500
96. Cecilia Reyes, $3,500
97. Kevin Bott, $3,500
98. Unknown, $3,500
99. Roberto Gordon, $3,500
100. Ralph Schwartz, $3,500
101. Kenneth Goldstein, $3,180
102. Ben Davenport, $3,180
103. Ben Foster, $3,180
104. Zackary Hon, $3,180
105. Daniel Smith, $3,180
106. Paul Westly, $3,180
107. Steven Greenberg, $3,180
108. David Dandeshgar, $3,180
109. Timothy Miles, $3,180
110. Christopher Sapirman, $3,180
111. Lanzi Nicholas, $2,865
112. Michael Ortiz, $2,865
113. Chad Logsdon, $2,865
114. Senthil Kumar, $2,865
115. Jon Moonres, $2,865
116. Jan Hoitmann, $2,865
117. Brian Hebert, $2,865
118. Robert Blechmen, $2,865
119. Bradley Anderson, $2,865
120. Frederick Wolf, $2,865
121. Jonathen Shelton, $2,865
122. Keith Love, $2,865
123. Max Scharf, $2,865
124. Glyn Banks, $2,865
125. Michael Waterstradt, $2,865
126. Amos Sharpe, $2,865
127. Kevin Tucci, $2,865
128. Gary Walters, $2,865
129. Evelyn Ng, $2,865
130. Keith Rittenhouse, $2,865
131. Susau Austin, $2,865
132. Gary Ringhofer, $2,865
133. Richard Sharpe, $2,865
134. Adolfo Crespo, $2,865
135. Jeffrey Stoff, $2,865
136. Russel Krueger, $2,865
137. Anthony Licastro, $2,865
138. John Hurst, $2,865
139. Casey Bogus, $2,865
140. Ken Goldin, $2,865
141. Jordan Devenport, $2,545
142. Mark Ristine, $2,545
143. Donald Sjulstad, $2,545
144. Gennady Leviten, $2,545
145. David Peat, $2,545
146. Janes Pechac, $2,545
147. Benjamin Owens, $2,545
148. Thomas Dull, $2,545
149. George Bronstein, $2,545
150. Avi Mukherjee, $2,545
151. Greg Lasica, $2,545
152. Kevin Fox, $2,545
153. Michael Stapleton, $2,545
154. Victor Amereno, $2,545
155. Brian Lesser, $2,545
156. Unknown, $2,545
157. Dumitru Gazetovici, $2,545
158. Angel Juarez, $2,545
159. Emad Rayyan, $2,545
160. Unknown, $2,545
161. Johan Storakers, $2,545
162. James Bakvnowicz, $2,545
163. Seth Angel, $2,545
164. Thomas Rawlins, $2,545
165. Thomas Slater, $2,545
166. Jesse Danial, $2,545
167. Gary Yates, $2,545
168. Michael Rosario, $2,545
169. Larry Etherington, $2,545
170. Thomas Christensen, $2,545
171. Amawattie Mahabir, $2,225
172. Brian Schwanz, $2,225
173. Matthew Glantz, $2,225
174. Marco Traniello, $2,225
175. Adam Green, $2,225
176. Robert Landaver, $2,225
177. Unknown, $2,225
178. Canio Sabia, $2,225
179. John Morris, $2,225
180. Jeffrey Shulman, $2,225
181. Allen Hausman, $2,225
182. George Nichols, $2,225
183. Blake Toungate, $2,225
184. Bob Buyce, $2,225
185. Chris Mccormack, $2,225
186. Seth Lindsley, $2,225
187. David Anderson, $2,225
188. Terry Fleischer, $2,225
189. Denny Crum, $2,225
190. Jerry Bernetzke, $2,225
191. Walter Joslin, $2,225
192. Olivia Mandell, $2,225
193. Ann Escobedo, $2,225
194. Eric Rothwell, $2,225
195. Eric Mizrachi, $2,225
196. Brian Owens, $2,225
197. Rubin White, $2,225
198. Robert Sanders, $2,225
199. Russell Laverdiere, $2,225
200. Marco Patacios, $2,225

A Very Good Time to be a Poker Player
Allen Cunningham wins WSOP gold bracelet number four – captures $725,405 in record-setting event

Poker entered a new age on June 5, 2005 when 2,305 players jammed into the Rio Pavilion to enter the first open event of this year’s World Series of Poker. The number of entries amounted to the second largest field in the 36-year history of the WSOP. Only last year’s world poker championship, with 2,576 entries, attracted more players. The total prize pool amounted to a whopping $3,180,900. To give this number some perspective, this was more money than was awarded in the main event of the 1998 world championship. Indeed, it’s a very good time to be a poker player.

The tournament attracted so many entries that the Rio (Harrah’s) and ESPN jointly decided that it would become a three-day event. All events with entries numbering 1,500 or more will now be three day events, as well as all televised events.

Considering the humongous fields and so many new poker faces, it was a surprise to see several familiar names at the final table. Four of the finalists were former gold bracelet winners – Allen Cunningham (with 3 wins), Scott Fischman (with 2 wins), and David ‘Devilfish’ Ulliott as well as An ‘the Boss’ Tran (with one win each). In fact, Scott Fischman arrived as the defending champion in this event.

Based on the starting chip counts, it looked like the final table might end with a Cunningham-Fischman showdown – which is exactly what happened. The final nine players assembled in front of a standing room only crowd and ESPN television cameras with the following chip counts:

THE FINAL TABLE:
SEAT 1: Heath Boutwell, 204,000 in chips
SEAT 2: Scott Fischman, 707,000 in chips
SEAT 3: David ‘Devilfish’ Ulliott, 270,000 in chips
SEAT 4: Allen Cunningham, 728,000 in chips
SEAT 5: Charlie Huff, 500,000 in chips
SEAT 6: Randy Edmonson, 89,000 in chips
SEAT 7: Can Kim Hua, 440,000 in chips
SEAT 8: Liz Lieu, 177,000 in chips
SEAT 9: An ‘the Boss’ Tran, 337,000 in chips

Players were eliminated as follows:

9th Place – A few minutes into play, Richard ‘Heath’ Boutwell was dealt A-Q and went up against pocket jacks. Bouotwell failed to hit his overcards and the computer programmer from Atlanta, GA was disconnected from the final table. He collected $54,075.

8th Place – Randy Edmondson, who was making his third final table appearance at the WSOP (all in Omaha-related events) arrived as the shortest stack. He moved ‘all in’ with 9-9 against Allen Cunningham’s A-10. An ace flopped and Edmonson was down to just two outs. He missed and ended up in 8th place. Edmonson, a high school football coach from Mississippi, was punted away with $73,160 in prize money.

7th Place – An ‘the Boss’ Tran gets his brassy nickname because he likes to call everyone ‘boss.’ The Vietnamese-born poker pro, who won a gold bracelet in pot-limit Omaha in 1991, played his final hand and lost with pocket jacks to Cunningham’s set of eights. This was Tran’s 36th time to cash at the WSOP, and fifth final table appearance. He received $104,970.

6th Place – At this point, Cunningham was dominating play at the final table. He was better than 2 to 1 in chips over all opponents and from the looks on the faces of each player, no one was happy with the way things had gone during the initial hours. Things were about to get really bad for Charlie Huff. The construction tradesman from Ohio was dealt A-5 and found his hand dominated by Scott Fischman’s A-K. Neither player made a pair, which meant Fischman’s A-K played. Huff departed with $136,780.

5th Place – Liz Lieu was the first woman to make it to a final table at this year’s WSOP. Last year’s championship series produced three female gold bracelet winners (Liebert, Duke, and Violette). But Lieu’s bid to become this year’s first female winner was crushed when she was getting low on chips and went out with a marginal hand in 5th place. Lieu, who is originally from Vietnam and now plays high-limit hold’em (mostly $400-800 limit) in Los Angeles, earned $177,000 for 5th place.

4th Place – Can Kim Hua was one of three Vietnamese-born poker pros in the finale. He lasted the longest of the three, but finally went bust with K-J after the flop came Q-J-9. Allen Cunningham had Q-J, good for top two pair. Two blanks fell on turn and river and Can was eliminated. He received $200,395.

3rd Place – The remaining trio was an all-star lineup, as well as a clash of styles and personalities. Each was aggressive in his own right, at times. But Cunningham’s significant chip lead clearly gave him an extra arsenal of weapons. Chips counts stood at 1,900,000 for Cunningham; 845,000 for Devilfish; and 680,000 for Fischman. David ‘Devilfish’ Ulliott, quite likely the most famous poker player in England and easily one of the game’s most charismatic personalities, found himself trapped between two very tough opponents. He lost half of his chips to Fischman and then decided to gamble hoping to double up, and ended up walking to the rail. After falling into third place, Devilfish semi-bluffed his way to elimination. Holding the J-10 of hearts, Devilfish moved ‘all in’ when the flop came 6-4-3 (with two hearts). Allen Cunningham called the bet with pocket 8s. The middle pair held up and Devilfish swam off the finale table as the 3rd-place finisher with $232,205.

Heads-up play began with Allen Cunningham holding the chip lead – approximately 2,200,000 to 1,600,000. It took only five minutes for Cunningham to destroy the defending champion’s aspirations of staging a comeback by repeating in this event and winning a third bracelet.

On the final hand of the tournament, Fischman got into a raising war with Cunningham on the turn, holding 5-4. The board showed 10-6-3-5. Fischman had a pair with an outside straight draw. Cunningham was delighted to call the ‘all in’ raise holding 6-3, good for two pair. A harmless ace fell on the river, which locked up gold bracelet number four for Cunningham.

Scott Fischman was cheered on by a large and enthusiastic band of friends and family, but was disappointed with the outcome. However, $325,125 in prize money helped to ease the pain.

Meanwhile, Allen Cunningham acted as if he had just spent another long day at the office. He was visibly thrilled with the victory, but noted that in comparison to other WSOP victories, this was not as satisfying as his first title – which came back in 2000.

Most interesting is the current race for all-time gold bracelets which is now taking place between poker legends Doyle Brunson, Phil Hellmuth, and Johnny Chan (with nine WSOP wins each). There is another competition taking place, between a younger generation of players, including Layne Flack (5), Phil Ivey (4) and now Cunningham (4). One must wonder – twenty years from now, will this gold bracelet won by Cunningham add to his long legacy of victories? Cunningham enjoys the advantage of now being on a “World Series of Poker freeroll.” He could play in every single event from now until the end, not cash once, and would still walk away with over a half-a-million in profits. But that’s not Cunningham’s goal.

He’s now shooting for Number Five.

Official Report by Nolan Dalla – World Series of Poker Media Director
World Series of Poker Circuit Director of Operations – Ken Lambert
World Series of Poker Tournament Director – John Grooms
Rio Poker Room Manager – Michael Matts
Rio Poker Tournament Director – Robert Daily

Update from WSOP

Here's a brief update that was sent out from the World Series of Poker. Looks like it's going to be a big year.

The $1500 buy-in no-limit hold'em event (Event #2) smashed the all-time record for the largest non-main event tournament, as 2,305 players entered. 2,200 players started the event, and 105 were alternates. All alternates were seated within the first hour.

This is the second-largest poker tournament ever held, shy of the all-time record set in the 2004 WSOP main event (with 2,576 entries). The prize pool for this tournament amounts to $3,180,900. First place will receive $725,405, which is the largest prize money award ever for a non-WSOP main event winner. 200 places will be paid -- for instance, finishing 200th pays $2,225.

Note: All events exceeding 1,500 entries will become three-day (not two-day) events. The large number of players necessitates that more hours are added to the tournament so as to give players enough play to determine the winners. Hence, the next official report will not be released until Sunday, 5 June -- when the final table on Day Three will be completed.

"Record setting" and "biggest of all-time" are expected to be used frequently to describe this year's WSOP. There is quite simply no other event like it, nor has there ever been an event like this in terms of prize money and attendance (number of participants). The amount of money awarded to winners over the next six weeks will approach $100 million dollars, making the WSOP the richest event in all of sports.

It's time for the big dance!

The WSOP is here once again, and I have results from the first event ready for you this morning. It's almost like Christmas, except Christmas isn't nearly as cool. Of course, we're all waiting for the Main Event, but that's still a month away.

I really hope to see the "big name" pros have a better year than they did last year. While it's enthralling to see some nobody win a series of satellites to take home the top prize for an initial investment of 14 cents (yes, that's an actual figure -- Superior Poker had WSOP qualifiers that began at 0.10+0.04), I would still prefer to see the guys who are the best at this game get their rewards. Just imagine how cool it would be if Doyle Brunson were to win it one more time.

But the sheer numbers make that scenario a bit unlikely. I read that Poker Stars is sending at least 1,000 people, and that the expected field of 6,600 was already half full, mostly of online players. That's more online players than total players last year! Frigging amazing.

If you're looking for a dark horse to bet on, look no further than Don Mullis, out of North Carolina. This guy burned up the WSOP Circuit this year, making something like 10 final tables.

And no, it does not appear I will be making an appearance at the WSOP this year. Last year I made a quiet promise to myself that I would find a way to get there this year, but I never followed through on it. I didn't try one single qualifier.

But, without further delay, here's the results from Event 1:

World Series of Poker - Event 1

Casino Employees World Poker Championship
No-Limit Hold’em
Buy-in: $500
Number of Entries: 662
Total Prize Money: $297,900

Official Results:
1. Andy Nguyen, Las Vegas, NV, $83,390
2. Danilo Flores, San Leandro, CA, 43,195
3. Thang Luu, Las Vegas, NV, 23,830
4. Simon Matthews, Victoria, BC (Canada), 20,855
5. Steven Cuti, Stockton, CA, 17,875
6. Dustin West, Riverside, CA, 14,895
7. Todd Dakake, Las Vegas, NV, 11,915
8. David Slowik, Las Vegas, NV, 8,935
9. Justin Porter, Kansas City, MO, 5,960
10. Tyler Wasileff, 3,275
11. Patrick Olsson, 3,275
12. Christopher Gibase, 3,275
13. Stanley Bartlett, 2,680
14. Christopher Swanson, 2,680
15. Nicholas Ruff, 2,680
16. Charles Pannabe II, 2,085
17. Donovan Barton, 2,085
18. David Wortham, 2,085
19. Anthony Suarez, 1,490
20. Marsha Waggoner, 1,490
21. Pete Climer, 1,490
22. Shiela Drake, 1,490
23. Mark Erb, 1,490
24. Danny Plovide, 1,490
25. Quac Dep, 1,490
26. Aaron Well, 1,490
27. Patrick Grace III, 1,490
28. David Branch, 1,045
29. Derek Scott Powell, 1,045
30. Tamir Sad Ilcatass, 1,045
31. Eric Schutzberg, 1,045
32. Kevin Luc Chiem, 1,045
33. Gholam Ghanavati, 1,045
34. Brian Wolard, 1,045
35. David Stainton, 1,045
36. Brent J. Pollack, 1,045
37. Edward Rudd, 895
38. Justin Lepper, 895
39. Jason Reep, 895
40. Shawne Portman, 895
41. Aaron Bass, 895
42. Arthur Eastridge, 895
43. William Kiley, 895
44. Delia Derby, 895
45. Dalton McCulley, 895
46. John Sheffield, 745
47. Casey J. Loop, 745
48. Nick Sanders, 745
49. Randall Hampton, 745
50. Michael Chicoski, 745
51. Thomas B. Liming, 745
52. Theodore Finkleman, 745
53. Desiree Lee Turner, 745
54. Chi Wei Lee, 745
55. Peter Sanders, 595
56. William Gilmore, 595
57. Mohammed Falnipour, 595
58. Donald Johnson, 595
59. Wade Michael, 595
60. Dana Martino, 595
61. Joe Ramos, 595
62. John Vasher, 595
63. Chris Harner, 595

Andy Nguyen Wins! Poker Dealer at Binion’s Becomes 2005 Casino Employees World Poker Champion

Every year, the World Series of Poker starts off with the Casino Employees World Championship. To be eligible to enter, players must be active employees at a casino. The winner of the event receives a gold bracelet and bragging rights as the ‘world champion’ among casino employees.

The 2005 World Series of Poker began with a record-setting parade of poker players who jammed into the Rio in Las Vegas. The number of entries (662) smashed the previous all-time record for this event, when 279 players entered. It took 14 long hours for the final table to begin, as 653 players had been eliminated by 2 am. The final nine players assembled around the final table and were eliminated as follows:

9th Place -- Justin Porter, a poker dealer from the Isle of Capri Casino in Kansas City was the 9th-place finisher. He collected $5,960 in prize money.

8th Place – David Slowik, a poker dealer from the Bellagio Casino in Las Vegas was the 8th-place finisher. He collected $8,935 in prize money.

7th Place – Todd Dakake, a poker dealer at the Palms Casino in Las Vegas was the 7th-place finisher. He collected $11,915 in prize money.

6th Place – Dustin West, a poker dealer at Casino Morongo near Palm Springs, CA was the 6th-place finisher. He collected $14,895.

5th Place – Steven Cuti, a poker dealer at the Casino Real in Stockton, CA was the 5th-place finisher. He collected $17,875.

4th Place – Simon Matthews, a poker dealer at Great Canadian Casinos in Victoria, British Columbia was the 4th-place finisher. He collected $20,855.

3rd Place – Thang Luu, a craps dealer at Harrah’s Las Vegas was the 3rd-place finisher. He collected $23,830.

2nd Place – The runner up was Danilo Flores, a poker dealer at the Oaks Card Club in Emeryville, CA. He collected $43,195.

The winner was Andy Nguyen, a poker dealer at Binion’s Casino in Las Vegas. Nguyen is a 43-year-old native of Vietnam. He has been in the U.S. for 20 years and has worked at Binion’s since 2001.

Official Report by Nolan Dalla – World Series of Poker Media Director
World Series of Poker Circuit Director of Operations – Ken Lambert
World Series of Poker Tournament Director – John Grooms
Rio Poker Room Manager – Michael Matts
Rio Poker Tournament Director – Robert Daily