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Poker In America
Tim Kopp
WSOP Numbers Astound Many
Hello again everyone, and welcome back to Poker In America. Well, here we are once again. It's late May, and unless you've been living
under a rock you know what that means. We have a new World Champion Greg Raymer
Poker players from around the Globe for months have been pulling their bankrolls together and getting ready to have a shot at the World
title and the multi-million dollar 1st place prize that goes along with it. For a bargain price of just $10,000 Professional and Amateurs
alike square off for a 7-day tournament that tests skill, stamina, patience and all around gusto, culminating in mountains of cash and one
eventual winner. This Year, as expected the WSOP has been exceeding expectations in just about every way shape and form. Prize pools have
been through the roof and the action has been nonstop for 3 weeks running.
Tournament Directors Matt Savage
and James Miller have done another
outstanding job, under some unusual circumstances, pulling together a well schooled team of dealers, directors, and casino personnel to
ensure that this year's WSOP was the best one yet.
In case you missed it, Mark Napolitano has been bringing us all daily videos from all the events, so to watch final table action from all
the past event's, or to read from Nolan Dalla's official daily WSOP reports, be sure to check our complete WSOP
Archive. Don't have the time? Well you're in luck my friends. Read on, and come with me as we take a step-by-step recap from Event 1
to The Main event.
In what seems like ages ago Event #1 way back on April 22nd. It was the Casino Employee's Event. For $500 casino employees from all over
the world were eligible to play in this $500 buy in event. Many of the players in this event are normally in town to help out as card room
staff for the remainder of the Tournament and the Employee's event is always a fun traditional way to get everyone in the mood for the weeks
that follow. As it turned out, this was the first of many record-breaking events of 279 of the industry's finest squared off. You might
think that 279 players sounds low, but the previous record, set last year, was only 208. With a $500 buy in Event 1 went above the $100,000
Prize pool mark in a hurry. "Coach" Carl
Nessel from Thousand Oaks, CA became 2004's first WSOP champion winning his first gold bracelet and a cool $40,000 to stick in his pocket.
The Coach has been coming to the WSOP since 1976 and finally lived his dream. Said Carl after the match, "To get to any final table,
let alone the World Series, is an accomplishment that goes beyond anything else in poker,". I'll have agree with the coach on this
one.
Next up was the first event open to the public and with the first "official" event, the staff always tries to get a feel about
what sort of numbers they should expect for the rest of the tournament. Event #2, the $2,000 Buy in No Limit Hold'em certainly did set the
tone. In the 35-year history of the world's biggest poker tournament, only the main event last year attracted a higher number (839 players).
Event 2 missed that mark by only 5 players. I think poker is finally catching on! James
Vogl, a local London professional, made it heads up with small business owner Shawn Rice at the final table. The final hand came down
to on of those "Classic Match-ups". Rice held K-Q and Vogl Held A-Q. The Ace-Queen held up for the 24 year old Vogl as a Queen
hit on the river to seal the deal. The prize pool for this event was well over the $1m mark settling out at $1,534,560. For 1st place Vogle
picked up and nice round $400,000. The modest Londoner seemed stunned at the end of the match stating "It's a strange feeling because,
I don't think I'm good enough to be a 'world champion,' it just all happened so quickly."
Event #3 7-Card Stud would be next. The buy in for this match was reduced to attract players, as 7-Stud over the years has seemingly lost
it's drawing power. Though everything goes in cycles, and Poker's original game still remains a favorite for many. As a testament to that,
Event #3 became the 1st non No-Limit Event to be recorded for TV as ESPN's coverage continues to expand it's horizons. With 258 players,
many of the poker elite made a pretty good run towards the final table of this event but it was one of the funniest pros that made it to
the all the money. Vegas Pro Ted
Forrest beat out Men 'The Master' Nguyen (3rd) and Chad Brown to pick up his first WSOP bracelet in 11 years. Ted banked $111,440 with
the win. Forrest, considered a very versatile player, added at the end of the match "My best game is whatever I'm playing at the time".
You've got to like that sort of confidence.
Moving along it was the first of the Limit Hold'em events. Event #4 Limit Hold'em was another $1,500 buy in event and figured to draw a
crowd. A record 608 players filled the card room and pushed the prize pool close to a million ($839,040). Miami John Cernuto (6th) and wife
of the 2001 WSOP champ Carlos Mortensen, Cecilia Mortensen, were both good enough to get to the final table, but it was California Pro Aaron
Katz that stole the show surviving a horrendous hour long run of cold cards only to get hot when it counted to win the match. So, how
did he keep his chips and survive to win the match? "I was bored and getting demoralized. So, I had a drink, a greyhound, during the
break to change my luck - and I won the first hand, and the second. Then, I bluffed a few times and won. Once you get an image of (a winner)
you can start firing a bit more and they often don't call." That just goes to show you that you should never give up hope in a tournament.
Katz won $234,940.
Up next was the first of the Omaha and Omaha Hi/Lo matches. Event #5 Omaha Hi/Lo Set another record, at those steaks attracting more players
in an Omaha match in WSOP history. Paul Phillips, who players know as one of the best players on the circuit found himself heads up for
all the money with high stakes Omaha player Charles
Bibbs. Bibbs, not normally a tournament player, felt confident that he could secure the bracelet as he's made a living playing shorthanded
Omaha for big money. All that confidence paid off as he called Phillip's flopped straight draw with top pair. The straight never made it
and Bibbs found himself with $160,000 in first place prize money. Watch for Charles to start playing more tournaments. After the match he
was brimming with confidence and commented, "I used to play in only a few tournaments a year. But this year, you're going to see me
a lot more."
Ever forward we go to Event #6 and Pot Limit Hold'em, another $1,500 buy in event. 363 players for this event, and if you were "fortunate"
enough to make it to the final table, here are some of the people you were going to have to make it through to take first: Barney Boatman
(10th), Huck Seed (8th), Kiril Gerasimov (5th) and Hoang Ta. More importantly, you'd have to make it though last year's Omaha Hi/Lo Champion.
Minh Nguyen, from
Spokane Washington, to take first. If you know Minh, he would be having none of that, as he was determined to pick up his 2nd Bracelet in
as many years. "I thought I was going to win," Nguyen said following his victory. "I told everyone that I would win in less
than four hours." Sure enough, the final table clocked in a 3 hours and 50 minutes. Nguyen picked up $155,420 for is time.
No time for rest, so we head to event #7 No-Limit Hold'em. This event featured rebuys for the first 2 hours of the match. So you know that
even if there weren't many players, the prize pool was going to be monstrous. Well not only was there an impressive 538 players there were
also 534 re-buys making the 2nd Prize pool over $1 Million for this year's event. There's certainly an art to re-buy tournaments and with
that, you know the Picasso's of the poker world would be well represented. How would you like this bunch at your final table in your local
home game: Howard Lederer (11th), Ram Vaswani (7th), Mike Matusow (5th), Paul Phillips (4th), Daniel Negreanu (3rd), John Juanda (2nd).
However, don't bother telling amateur Gerry
Drehobl how much those 6 players have won in their careers, because he doesn't care. Gerry, who only started playing poker 6 months
ago, picked off these pros in systematic fashion like he was a seasoned vet. For his victory Gerry took home a sweet $365,900. Exiting the
ESPN stage Drehobl put it best by saying, "This proves that if you have a passion for something and dedicate yourself to it, you can
succeed at it .
The following day we had another re-buy event. Event #8 Pot Limit Omaha featured a $2,000 buy in and drew 145 players to create a $569,440
prize pool. Europeans play a lot of pot limit games, and over the past few years we've seen a deluge of European players making it into
the money in pot limit events. Event 8 was not any different. 6 of the final 10 players in this event were from outside of the USA. However,
leave it to a 2-time WSOP Champ to spoil a visit from over seas. Las Vegas pro Chau
Giang picked up his 3 WSOP title. In addition to the victories in Ace-to-Five Lowball (1993) and Omaha High-Low Split (1998), Giang
added another $187,920 to his WSOP piggy bank and has been a consistent winner for many years.
Next we had Event #9 No Limit Hold'em, another of the featured $1,500 No Limit events. So far this year they've packed the poker room for
the NL events and things were no different in event 9, attracting another mind bending 831 players. With the Prize pool cracking $1 Million
yet again ($1,146,780), much of the final table were the fabled "unknowns", or players from out of town that no one has heard
of. That's not to take away from their skills, many of the top players were knocked out very close to the final table. "Blame the dealer"
may have been muttered under many a breath by knocked out players on this final table, but it wasn't the person tossing the cards that they
were talking about. It was Scott
Fischmann, a Las Vegas Poker dealer, the guy with a mountain of chips and taking pictures with all his winnings. "As a dealer you
are able to get a lot of experience sitting at the table watching everybody, and I think that helps to build your sense of the game."
Scott said in the post-game interview
On to Event #10 and 7-Card Stud Hi/Lo. An impressive 224 played this $2,000 event. Event 10 had 2004's first Female champ to get the gold
and take first place. East coast pro Cyndy
Violette, who has been coming to the WSOP for 20 years without a victory finally made her mark. The only question is weather the $135,900
covers all her expenses from the 20 years of trips to the dessert. So what did Cyndy do different this year? "My preparation this year
has been different. I started doing meditation, positive-affirmation, and other things (to help me)…. I've been a professional poker
player for 18 years and having a bracelet is something that's very important to me." Way to go Cyndy
Bright and early the next day we had the WSOP's most expensive buy-in to Date at $2,500 for Event #11 Limit Hold'em. With the elevated
buy in, only 237 players braved the field. Another local Vegas Pro added to his collection of WSOP gold in this event. Eli
Balas, not only won his 3rd Bracelet, he also joined the select rank of players to win over $1 Million in total tournament winnings
with is 1st place prize of $174,440. Surprisingly, he is only the 35th player to join the "Millionaires' Club." Must be quite
a nice feeling as that's quite an accomplishment. He holds the dubious distinction of being one of the few players to be on that list who
have not won the WSOP main event.
Next up was Event #12 H.O.R.S.E. Some argue that the HORSE format should be the game of the main event, since it's a test of over all game
knowledge and not just for 1 game Charlie's. Will that ever happen, probably not, but it makes for some pretty good debate. With the $2K
buy in, this game would be filled with the best of the best. Surprisingly there was a lot of unknown faces at the final table. But when
you're hot, you're hot as event 9 winner returned to the winner's circle to win his 2nd bracelet in almost as many days. In addition to
his winnings from event 9, Scott tacked on another $100,200. When asked about a the possibility of becoming only the fourth player to win
three gold bracelets in a single year, FISCHMAN
said, "Yeah, I would love it. No, I'm not going to predict it."
Next up was another big money game (as if they all aren't). Event #13 No Limit Hold'em, this time with a big fat $5,000 buy-in. 254 players
were enough to push the prize pool again over the $1 million mark. Many young players have faired well in this years WSOP. Event 13 wasn't
going to go against the grain as 23-year-old, Thomas
"Thunder" Keller, bolted to the money in a very quick final table. Keller got high praise from many onlookers as being one
of the better young players in the game today. This was Keller's first attempt at playing in a WSOP event and he took home $382,020.
Moving right along to Event #14 we had Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo for $1,500. 213 players took their seats at the start of play. Some times
the people you see win an event are people you know as top players. Personally I have seen Hasaan
Habib's name listed in more tournament money finishes than probably any other player. When Hasaan won this event I was surprised to
see that it wash is 1st WSOP title. When it was all over, Hasaan in his poetic way said, "The money comes and goes, but the gold bracelet
is something that I will always cherish."
The following day it was another $2k buy in with Event #15 Limit Hold'em. With 287 players and a prize pool over a half a million one of
my favorite poker personalities finally made it back to the winner's circle. PokerSchoolOnline Teacher, and noted poker author, Daniel
Negreanu won, to get his 3rd WSOP bracelet and in addition to his many other money finishes, another $169,100. Anyone who's read much
of Daniel's writing, he very much so values his family and Canadian roots. It was a nice scene to see Daniel joined at the final table by
his mother to be awarded his newest WSOP bracelet. It was warm and fuzzy all around. It was "Mamma Negreanu's" first visit to
a poker event and Daniel joked: "I can't believe it. I finally get heads-up, and then my mother chooses to run off to the buffet,"
he said jokingly. "But seriously, it's nice to have her here with me.
Action doesn't stop for a minute and the following day it was Event #16 No-Limit Deuce to Seven Draw for $5,000 a seat. WPO '04 winner,
Barry Greenstein,
took the 2 to 7 draw bracelet, but to me that wasn't the story here. Some people play for ego, some play because of a sickness, some play
just for the thrill of victory, But Barry plays for the love of the game. Greenstein, a independently wealthy man outside the poker world,
donates all of his poker winnings to charity, and with his first WSOP bracelet it was no different. That's a lot of cash if you look at
his recent winnings: 2003 California State Poker Championship -- $100,815… 2003 Party Poker Million -- $194,763… 2004 Five-Star
World Poker Classic -- $215,969… 2004 World Poker Open -- $1,278,370. Add on another $296,200 to those totals with this win. Nice one
Barry!
Event #17 Limit Hold'em Shoot Out, a new event to the WSOP. Poker's "First Lady" (to win $1 million) Kathy
Liebert endured a lengthy heads up battle against Kevin Song to capture her 1st WSOP title.
Ever forward we move to Event #18 No-Limit Hold'em Shootout. The $1,500 buy-in event attracted over 400 players. There's just something
about Vietnamese players with the last name of Nguyen (pronounced "win"). These guys seemingly have it engrained in their DNA
to be dominating poker players. Phi
Nguyen a popular Los Angeles Pro finally cracked the WSOP bubble and get his first piece of Horseshoe Jewelry and even better, $180,000.
Nguyen said of the win, "Many of us (Vietnamese players) have won gold bracelets. They are my friends. I want to be a part of that.
It's such an honor to win a bracelet."
Next up of course was Event #19 Omaha Hi/Lo for $2K a seat. Annie
Duke, one of the favorites to be the 1st woman to win the Main Event. Among other's she had to beat out her brother Howard Lederer,
to have a chance to win the $137,860 for this event, and guess what? That's exactly what she did. Duke was the only female contestant to
make it in the money and she showed the boys a thing or two about how to win an event. With the victory, Duke moved up into first place
on the all-time Ladies Money Winners list -- with over $600,000 in lifetime earnings in this tournament alone.
Moving along we come to Event #20 Ladies Limit Hold'em. We'll leave the debate about having "ladies only events" for another
day, but personally, I'm always interested to see who makes the final tables of these events because there are some great players out there
amongst the ranks of Poker's Ladies. This was a $1,000 buy-in event and attracted 201 of pokers finest. The sharp looking Huong
Doan from California. Doan came to the final table in fifth chip position and took the chip lead when play became short handed. It took
Doan about seven hours to defeat a day two lineup consisting of Renee Wexler, Karina Jett, Tracy Phan, Sarah Casey, Jeena Burnett, Susie
Isaacs, Bonnie McHugh, and Millie Shiu. Yet Another well-earned victory for the WSOP's newest champ.
Another Hold'em Event was on deck with Event #21 Pot Limit Hold'em for $1,500. Some of you might remember magician Antonio
Esfandiari taking on Phil Hellmuth in Season 1 of the WPT. Watching him play then, I knew we'd be hearing more from Antonio. Well, here
we are about a year later to find Antonio collecting a gold bracelet and a crisp $184,860 for his victory in event 21. His Old friend Phil
was at the final table again with him but he wasn't intimidated. And why should he be? He's Antonio Esfandiari, poker player, retired magician.
Onwards we go to Event #22, the Omaha Hi-Lo Split World Championship. This $5,000 event would crown this year's Omaha Hi/lo champ. Brett
Jungblut, a 26 year old Omaha prodigy won his 3rd WSOP title along with $187,720 by defeating the crafty Miami John Cernuto. Brimming
with confidence Junblut said of the win, "Omaha High-Low is my best game. Right now, I think I can play with anyone in the world. I'm
out to prove I'm the best in the world at this game." Brett, I think you just proved it, at least for another year.
Next up was another $1,500 No Limit Hold'em, Event 23. Some players play at the WSOP for 25 years and never get a bracelet. With the win
in event 21, through a record setting field of 834 players, Ted
Forrest now has 5. In 1993 he became the first player to win 3 events in one year. This year, he already has 2 and has his sights set
on number 3. To help him through the stress, he added another $300,300 to this year's total. "It's still a possibility for me to get
four (this year) Forrest said," as he was being photographed in the winner's circle. "One can dream, right?"
Another Championship Event was on deck for Event 24 Seven Card Stud World Championship. With only 144 players the Lebanese born, Vegas
Local Joe Awada won
his first bracelet after many tries. In Event #9 in the $1,500 buy-in No-Limit Texas Hold'em championship, Awada came within a single card
of winning the gold bracelet that day, only to see his poker dream shattered when his opponent caught two perfect "runner-runner"
cards to lose the biggest pot of tournament. The in event win was sweet justice for one of the most composed players at the table.
Ever closer to the main event, we come to Event #25 Pot Limit Hold'em. 22 year old Gavin
Griffin, from my home state if Illinois, represented the Land of Lincoln in fine fashion. Looking a lot like Edward Norton's "Worm"
from the movie Rounders, Gavin collected $270,420 in a fine effort. With all these young kids winning these events, I'm starting to wonder
if I've passed my prime at the ripe old age of 29! Well-done, Gavin!
Next up it was Event #26 Seven Card Razz. "The pro's game" as I like to call it, tends to be the most under attended event of
the WSOP year after year. Maybe because no one knows how to play it, or maybe it's because when you look at the sign up list for the event,
it's filled with poker best 1%. For instance, of the 194 players in the event, the money finishers included Chip Jett, Mike Werner, Mike
Sexton, Chris Bjorin, John Juanda, Howard Lederer, and Dutch Boyd. Would you want to play with those guys? Probably yes, but only with other
people's money! No player in poker has won more that the eventual winner though. TJ
Cloutier, still recovering from a heart attack earlier in the year showed that he hasn't lost a beat and when all was said and done
added another $90K to his record. With this win, in his career TJ has won over $3 million in tournament winnings…. But yet doesn't
have a main event victory. That's a lot of money for not ever having won the Big One. Yes, he's that good
Next it was Event #28 Seniors No-Limit Hold'em. The requirements to play this event are you have to be at least 50 years of age. Now, I'm
not sure if that qualifies as "Senior", but I guess it'll do for Poker players. This event broke a record for WSOP senior events
attracting 519 players. I think this is another one of those events that will continue to get bigger over the years. As ex-champs can get
away from those fast playing whippersnappers and play the game they've spent a lifetime learning. Gary Gibbs won the event and took home
$136,960 for his hard work.
Event #29 Limit Hold'em was up next. This is the Championship event for the Limit Hold'em games at the WSOP. 213 players paid $5,000 a
piece for their shot at the title. Another Star studded final table and it was an exciting one. John Hennigan, who plays professionally
but rarely plays tournaments, took the win and $325,360. After winning his 2nd bracelet he added, "This bracelet was much harder to
win. There was much more play to it (longer rounds) and it was a long grind. After 24 hours of play, I'm happy to be sitting here with the
bracelet on."
We played the last of the No Limit Hold'em matches before the Big One in Event #30. The $3K event attracted a very nice 651 players, almost
enough to crack the $2 million mark for the 1st time in WSOP history (non-main event history). Mike Sica from New Jersey took home the gold
as well as $503,160.
Two more events to go until the main event and it was Event #31 Pot Limit Omaha. East coast pro Ted
Lawson beat out a field of 145 to win an even $500,000. Freddy Deeb, Howard Lederer, and Daniel Negreanu also made the final table and
were awarded their piece of the $1,499,800 prize pool.
Next up was Event #32 A-5 Draw Lowball. Norm Ketchum, from Rockford, IL and picked up the lowest 1st place prize of the entire event. Not
that $84,500 is anything to sneeze at, I'm sure the bracelet and the cash were just as easy to take.
Finally it was the day everyone had waited for. It was Day one of the $10,000 main event. There was an astounding 2,576 players to round
out the prize pool at a record setting $24,214,400. Biggest payout in poker history! So many players showed up for the event that they had
to have 2-day 1's split into two groups. After the dust settled on Day 3 ABE MOSSERI was in the lead with $335,300 in chips but it wouldn't
last long as the chips were moving fast and furious. We here at PokerPages and PokerSchool online were all watching in earnest as one of
our students at PSO, Mattias
'Pokermats' Andersson was making a run towards the final table, at the end of day 5 he was sitting well with $558,000 in chips. I wouldn't
say we were surprised, but we were all very pleased that at the end of day 6 Mattias was heading to the final table, 8th place in chips.
In a fine effort Mattias took 8th place and $575,000. Proving once again that PSO pays for itself.
The final table consisted of many unknowns, and for the 2nd time in 2 years a "virtual" unknown took the poker world by storm
by winning the WSOP from a $100 online satellite tournament. Greg
Raymer became the 2004 WSOP champion with a full house and earned himself a staggering $5 million 1st place prize.
Next year's WSOP will he held at the Rio in Vegas with the Binions Horseshoe final table. Start saying your prayers and saving your pennies
folks because the early estimate is that there'll be over 6000 players next year, and many are calling that a lowball figure!
Until Next time, I'm all in,
Tim Kopp
PokerPages Cardroom
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Poker In Europe
Kevin Pratt
The Fortuna Spring Cup, Estonia and Taleon Masters, Russia.
With all eyes on the WSOP its easy to forget that poker was also being played in Europe, with Estonia holding the Fortuna Spring Cup and
The Taleon Club holding the Taleon Masters.
Event 1 in Estonia was won by Geir
Nesset fom Norway who pocketed €388 for the €12 buy in Dealers Choice. Roman
Perevostsikov from Estonia took event 2 Pot Limit Omaha and €433. Roman finished 1st in 2003 in the stud event picking up just
under €1,000 and is clearly one of the home grown favorites. Event 3 say a rise in the buy in to just over €100 and Tiina
Korpela from Finland emerged victorious from a field of 33 picking up €1015. Tiina does well in Estonia as she came third in the
€102 Pot limit Omaha event 4 winning €1,680 behind overall winner Jarni
Karke of Finland who collected €3,600. Alexsandr Alimov won event 5 €45 Seven Card Stud and €1,160 and the main event
€320 No Limit Hold'em went to Seppo
Parkkinen from Finland €3,897. Thank you to poker manager Andres Burget for providing the results and photos.
Over in the beautiful Taleon Club in St Petersburg Russia we had the Taleon Masters. Event 1 was a $200 Pot Limit Hold'em with unlimited
rebuys. Jari Salonen
from Finland outlasted the other 46 players in winning $7,800, Jari is a regular winner on the European tour with his biggest win coming
in 2002 at Casino Ray Helsinki where he won the €2,000 No Limit Hold'em taking €17,402. Next up was the $500 Pot Limit Omaha with
Jari Salonen continuing his fine form with 3rd place, good for another $8,100 however it was Cypriot Demetrious Demetriou who took the spoils
and $8,100. Event 3 was $500 Pot Limit Hold'em which saw Emile
Elias from France collect $8,000. Emile has a string of places in major European tournaments but this was his best win. $250 was the
buy in for the Pot Limit 7-Card Stud and it saw 36 entries making a prizepool of $23,750 after rebuys. Jacob
Nepomniaschiy won $7,800 in his first European win. The $300 pot Limit Omaha saw 33 players battle it out for a prizepool of $24,600
after rebuys. Sergei Varentsov took first place and $7,900.
The main event was $1,000 No Limit Hold'em and saw 29 players enter with a first prize of $7,900 which went to Finland's Jari Salonen so
all told not a bad week for Jari. Sergey Svidler won the final event $ 200 Pot Limit Omaha Hi-Lo / 7 Card Stud Hi-Lo and $6,100.
Next up in Europe I will be reporting on the Torneo Di Poker in Slovenia and the Austrian Masters.
Kevin
BugsysClub
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Poker in the U.K.
Gary J Male
UK Players at the World Series of Poker.
The UK players made a great start to the 2004 World Series of Poker as Londoner James
Vogl took the bracelet on offer in Event #2, the $2,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold'em. 834 players started but Vogl's A-Q beat Texan Shawn
Rice's K-Q on the final hand to net $400,000. "It's a strange feeling because, I don't think I'm good enough to be a 'world champion',
it just all happened so quickly," said the economist and backgammon enthusiast.
Event #4, the $1,500 buy-in Limit Hold'em saw another Londoner make it to a heads-up battle, but starting the battle with a 8-1 chip deficit
Richard Gardner-Brown
was always the underdog and had to settle for the runner-up prize of $121,480. Not bad as this was only the second time he'd played limit
poker!
The even-numbered events we proving good for the UK's players as Tony "The Lizard" Bloom made it to 7th place in Event #6, the
$1,500 Pot-Limit Hold'em. Bloom is yet another London player and this finish was worth $20,040. Barny
Boatman just missed out on the final table with his $6,020-earning 10th place, with Dublin's Roy Brindley making an even $5,000 for
his 13th place.
Event #7 was No-Limit Hold'em with rebuys, and turning his $1,000 into $50,460 was Ram
Vaswani from Hendon. Fellow Mobster Ross Boatman also moneyed in this event, pocketing $3,160 when eliminated with 6 tables to go. It
was a bigger payday for David
Colclough and Mel Judah.
Both these London players got eliminated with 2 tables to go and picked up $11,360 and $8,840 respectively.
Pot-Limit Omaha has always been a favourite of the Europeans, so it was no surprise to see 5 UK players at the final 2 tables of this $2,000
buy-in Event #8. Nottingham's Bruce Corman was the first to leave, his 18th place good for $5,700, followed by Sayed Sarkeshik (Northampton)
and Chris Bjorin
(London). Sarkeshik's 13th place was worth $6,840 but by outlasting him by one spot Bjorin was able to collect $7,980. Paul
Maxfield of Stoke on Trent and David Colclough of Birmingham were the UK's chances at the final table. Maxfield left in 8th place, comforted
by $17,080 while a 4th place finish for Colclough was worth a handy $45,560.
Paul Maxfield made it to his second final table of the World Series in Event #11 Limit Hold'em. His initial buyin of $2,500 was boosted
to an impressive $38,160 by virtue of a 4th place finish. This was a magnificent ladder climb as he only had 2% of the chips in play starting
the final table, outlasting 5 others. His demise came while holding A-K, but Paul is proving himself to be a fine all-round player.
There were no UK representatives at the final table of the $5,000 Event #13 No Limit Hold'em, but James Vogl is showing the world how strong
he is at No Limit play by virtue of another money finish to go with his bracelet from Event #2. This time his 27th place finish earned James
"only" $7,160. Joe Beevers was eliminated a little later in this event, 14th place being good for $11,940.
Beevers didn't have to wait long for his next money finish, Event #15 Limit Hold'em providing the hunting ground. $2,000 became $6,340
as Joe once again just missed the final table. Ram Vaswani wasn't too far behind, leaving the tournament with 3 tables still playing.
Event #21 was Pot Limit Hold'em, and the buyin was $2,000. Making it all the way to 13th out of the initial field of 324 was Warren Wooldridge
of London. Again, the UK just missed out on being present at the final table but Warren does take $5,960 way from the event.
Irish eyes were smiling in Event #23 No Limit Hold'em, as Peter Roach outlasted 99% of the 834 entrants to reach the final table. His 237,000
in tournament chips meant he started Day 2 with the chip lead and could be considered a favourite for the event. But the hopes of the man
from the Fitzwilliam Card Club were dashed as he took his A-K up against Ted Forrest's 7-7, the 7-7 holding up. Roach still had chips, however,
but these vanished as his A-7 failed to improve against pocket 10s. But with this being an almost record-breaking field 9th place in this
$1,500 buyin event was worth $23,020. Don O'Dea came close to joining his countryman at the final, but departed in 15th place for $10,360.
James Vogl continued his impressive showing at Horseshoe, picking up $12,660 for 12th place.
Event #25 Pot Limit Hold'em saw no less than 2 Englishmen come back for play on the second day, as Gary Bush and Ram Vaswani took their
seats at the final table. It was the man from Hendon that was the first Briton to fall, "Crazy Horse" taking his J-10 suited up
against Gavin Griffin's
A-Q when all the chips went in preflop. No help for either player meant the 2000 European Poker Champion left in 5th place with $53,320.
Gary Bush made it to the heads-up battle against Griffin, with a 700k to 250k-chip advantage and a rabid cheering section. 45 minutes later
the European Player of the Year 2003 had been worn down to just 100k in chips and made his move with 7-7 in the hole. "The Whacker"
ran into Griffin's Pocket K-K and it was all over. Although Bush won't be taking a bracelet away from Las Vegas, $139,540 is more than a
small consolation prize.
Event #26 was Seven Card Razz, and the buyin was $1,500. 4 representatives from the British Isles made it to the last two tables, but only
Chris Bjorin of London could make the final 8. Even then, with his small stack the 2-time bracelet winner could make no further impact being
the first to leave with $8,080. Donn O'Dea, Robin Keston and Mike Werner picked up $3,220, $3,760 and $4,300 for their respective 17th,
16th and 11th places.
John Duthie made
the biggest impression of all the Brits in Event #29 Limit Hold'em, but the former Poker Million champion could only increase his $5,000
buyin by another $1,000 with his 19th place result.
The top 63 in Event #30 No-Limit Hold'em were all able to visit the payout window; amongst them were British Isles players Surinder
Sunar (38th, $5,380), Barny Boatman (34th, $6,280), and Frank Callaghan of Dublin (14th, $16,180). However, the British Isles had no
less than 3 representatives at the final table: Alan Kelleher of Ireland, and Englishmen John Kabbaj and Ram Vaswani. After a titanic battle
Kelleher left in 4th place, good for $125,780. But with just 3 players left another World Series first happened - play was suspended until
an unprecedented Day 3! This left Kabbaj and Vaswani, along with the American Mike
Sica. Vaswani was the first out on Day 3, leaving him $143,740 richer. Kabbaj couldn't win the heads-up battle and so left with $260,520,
but frustratingly no bracelet.
George McKeever of Ireland made a nice profit in Event #31 Pot Limit Omaha, turning $5,000 into $60,000 for finishing 7th. Tony "The
Lizard" Bloom (London) and Fariborz Badimansour (Birmingham) both walked away with $21,000. Badimansour's 11th place was just one position
further than Bloom, but both received the same payday.
Event #32 A-5 Draw Lowball attracted 184 players, the $1,500 entry fee making a very attractive prize pool for this game. Mick Wernich
made the final table but was unable to progress any further. His 8th place was worth $7,620. Mel Judah went 3 steps further, and was able
to carry away $16,500.
Event #33 was the $10,000 Championship event, where no less than 2,576 players either bought or won their way into the biggest poker tournament
ever. The British Isles money finishers were:
Neil Channing (London, 205, $10,000)
Paul Jackson (Birmingham, 183, $10,000)
John Wheeler (London, 164, $15,000)
Lucy Rokach (Stoke,
159, $15,000)
Carl Quinton (Liverpool, 147, $15,000)
Andy Church (London, 129, $15,000)
Tod Skarecky (London, 119, $15,000)
David "Devilfish"
Ulliott (Hull, 72, $30,000)
Edward Foster (Northampton, 67, $30,000)
Patrick O'Connor (Dublin, 38, $60,000)
Julian Gardener
(Manchester, 32, $80,000)
Just failing to reach the final 2 tables was Harry Demetriou. Although the Londoner finished in 18th place, this was shared with Richard
Fullerton of Colorado. They share the 19th and 18th place money between them, each walking away with $147,500.
The British player that survived the longest was the young London professional Gary Jones. His 17th place finish put him in the top 1% of
all the World Series entrants and won him $175,000. Jones's A-9 was always going to struggle against A-K, and found no help on a board of
8-J-2-4-3. Gary Jones has a long career ahead of him and it wouldn't be surprising to see him lift the crown of World Champion in the near
future.
Gary J Male
PokerSchoolOnline
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Poker Down Under
David Parlor
The Melbourne Holdem Championship was held at Crown Casino earlier this month and attracted more entries than this event had ever seen
in previous years. Poker management at Crown listened to many local players in preparation for this event and catered to the requests of
lower limit tournaments. The beginning of the week saw three $125 events all attracting in excess of 100 entrants, predominantly made up
with locals. Some interstate players and a group from New Zealand also entered, taking advantage of the low airfares available at the moment.
New Zealand players planing on making the journey for the Victorian Poker Championship in August can book flights for $99 through www.virginblue.com.au
Many players may have been pleased with their results during the Melbourne event, none more so than local player Stella Coe. Stella secured
a seat in next years Aussie Millions on Saturday and then followed this up on Sunday by winning the Main Event and collecting another $12,000.
I look forward to seeing her compete against some of the worlds best in January and hope to see her amongst it on the final table. Another
player that would equally be pleased with his results during the week is Ian Schoots who won both the $125 Limit and No Limit Hold'em events.
Ian has performed well in weekly events at Crown and is now proving he can take some beating in larger events. Ian will be a player to watch
in the Victorian Championships as he moves into bigger events.
Looking forward, the next tournament in Australia is the South Australian branch of The Australian Poker Association Championship (SA,
APA). This event is being run by a group of players that play regular games through their association. Entry is open to all that are interested
although a yearly membership fee of $20 is payable prior to entry. With no casino Poker in Adelaide, the association offers cash games and
small tournaments on a regular basis. Full details of this event are available by clicking
here
On the live game front, Crown Poker Management is considering trailing a No Limit Hold'em cash game, Sundays only, for one month, providing
another live game alternative for players. Buy-in is proposed to be $40 to a maximum of $100 (top up at any time to a maximum of $100) and
two $1 blinds. This will coincide with regular Sunday No Limit Holdem tournaments with a buy-in of $55. Sunday tournaments will commence
from May 23.
David Parlor
Guess Who June? Win $50.
Guess Who? is a competition introduced on PokerPages for BugsysClub.com where you can win $50 in a Real Money account at BugsysClub. Read
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Play for free on our PokerPages software and win a chance to join PokerSchool Online! Just download the PokerPages software here!
If you have registered and downloaded our software and
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If you are an existing school member you can still play in the Fun Play cardroom and win Poker Dollars towards your existing school membership.
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