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Poker Tournament Results

37th Annual World Series of Poker

Event #25 - WSOP Shootout - No Limit Hold'em

July 16, 2006 at 12:00 PM
Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino
Tournament Schedule

Buy-In	$2,000
Prize Pool	$1,109,035
Entries	600
Report Available

David Pham

Place	Name	Prize
1	David "Dragon" Pham (Bell Gardens, CA, USA)	$240,222
2	Charlie Sewell (Edmond, OK, USA)	$124,488
3	Roland de Wolfe (London, UK)	$65,520
4	Jerald Williamson (USA)	$49,140
5	Chad Layne (Las Vegas, NV, USA)	$43,680
6	Jason Dewitt (Mishawaka, IN, USA)	$38,220
7	David Bach AKA "Gunslinger" (Athens, GA, USA)	$32,760
8	Dustin Woolf AKA "Neverwin" (Los Angeles, CA, USA)	$32,760
9	Adam Kagin (Henderson, NV, USA)	$21,840
10	Jeff Heiberg (Buffalo, WY, USA)	$16,380
11	Kathy Liebert (Las Vegas, NV, USA)	$16,380
12	Yoshio Nakano (Long Beach, CA, USA)	$4,805
13	John Kincaid AKA "JohnnyK" (Omaha, NE, USA)	$4,805
14	Will Durkee (Pittsburgh, PA, USA)	$4,805
15	Mike Cooper (San Francisco, CA, USA)	$4,805
16	Chris Clampitt AKA "BLUE EYES" (Irmo, SC, USA)	$4,805
17	David Singer (Las Vegas, NV, USA)	$4,805
18	Frank Blumlein (Germany)	$4,805
19	Robert Goldfarb (Scottsdale, AZ, USA)	$4,805
20	Mike Sexton (Las Vegas, NV, USA)	$4,805
21	James Worth AKA "krazykanuck" (Toronto, ON, Canada)	$4,805
22	Alan Adler (Bakersfield, CA, USA)	$4,805
23	Captain Tom Franklin (Gulfport, MS, USA)	$4,805
24	Kevin Phillipson (Las Vegas, NV, USA)	$4,805
25	Carlo Citrone (Manchester, UK)	$4,805
26	William Lin (Denver, CO, USA)	$4,805
27	Marek Kolk (Lithuania)	$4,805
28	Chris Smith AKA "Hawaii" (New York, NY, USA)	$4,805
29	Vladislav Mezheritsky (Brooklyn, NY, USA)	$4,805
30	Blair Rodman (Las Vegas, NV, USA)	$4,805
31	Aaron Ogus (Redmond, WA, USA)	$4,805
32	Ian Woodley (London, UK)	$4,805
33	Andreas Krause (Heilbrown, Germany)	$4,805
34	Terry Ballew (Reno, NV, USA)	$4,805
35	Thung Huynh (Los Angeles, CA, USA)	$4,805
36	Gerald Rhoades (Las Vegas, NV, USA)	$4,805
37	Sam Korman (Caufield, Australia)	$4,805
38	Joseph H Neiman (Teaneck, NJ, USA)	$4,805
39	Tobias Christensen (Aarhus, Denmark)	$4,805
40	Gary Hammer (San Francisco, CA, USA)	$4,805
41	Roy Vandersluis (London, UK)	$4,805
42	Joe Pelton (Newport Beach, CA, USA)	$4,805
43	Mario Esquerra AKA "Super" (Whittier, CA, USA)	$4,805
44	Emil Bayan (Fremont, CA, USA)	$4,805
45	Sverre Sundbo (Norway)	$4,805
46	Mark Warner (Las Vegas, NV, USA)	$4,805
47	Tracy Scala (Del Ray Beach, FL, USA)	$4,805
48	Josh Arieh (Atlanta, GA, USA)	$4,805
49	Todd Brunson (Las Vegas, NV, USA)	$4,805
50	J.C. Tran (Sacramento, CA, USA)	$4,805
51	Jair Beltran (Toronto, ON, Canada)	$4,805
52	Marcel Luske AKA "The Flying Dutchman" (Amsterdam, Netherlands)	$4,805
53	Michael Davis (Spokane, WA, USA)	$4,805
54	Mark "The Shark" Seif (Las Vegas, NV, USA)	$4,805
55	Gavin Griffin (Fullerton, CA, USA)	$4,805
56	James Woods AKA "Shark" (Beverly Hills, CA, USA)	$4,805
57	Marcello Del Grosso (Toronto, ON, Canada)	$4,805
58	Jason Fishbein (Chicago, IL, USA)	$4,805
59	Chris "Jesus" Ferguson (Pacific Palisades, CA, USA)	$4,805
60	Ramzi Al-Rashid (Austin, TX, USA)	$4,805
61	Shane Littlefield (Manchseter, MD, USA)	$4,805
62	Layne Flack (Las Vegas, NV, USA)	$4,805
63	John Pires (San Jose, CA, USA)	$4,805
64	Randy Holland (Winnetka, CA, USA)	$4,805
65	Antanas Googa (Vilnius, Lithuania)	$4,805
66	Michele Lewis AKA "The Black Widow" (Houston, TX, USA)	$4,805
67	Keith Naughton (Los Angeles, CA, USA)	$4,805
68	Frederico Barbosa (Kennesaw, GA, USA)	$4,805
69	Joe Paigo (Albany, NY, USA)	$4,805
70	Robert Turner AKA "Chip Burner" (Downey, CA, USA)	$4,805
71	Brad Anderson (Missoula, MT, USA)	$4,805
72	Jeff Cohen (Parkland, FL, USA)	$4,805
73	Patrick McGuire (Riverside, CA, USA)	$4,805
74	Kevin O'Donnell (Scottsdale, AZ, USA)	$4,805
75	Thomas Fuller (Boulder, CO, USA)	$4,805
76	Unknown	$4,805
77	Vanessa Selbst (Brooklyn, NY, USA)	$4,805
78	Francois Scapula (Paris, France)	$4,805
79	Carlos Zambrano (Copiague, NY, USA)	$4,805
80	Alan Sass AKA "TheUsher" (Las Vegas, NV, USA)	$4,805
81	Chau Giang (Las Vegas, NV, USA)	$4,805
82	Michael Anderson (San Marcos, TX, USA)	$4,805
83	Ken Goldstein (Los Angeles, CA, USA)	$4,805
84	Jinyun Lin (San Jose, CA, USA)	$4,805
85	Ricky Sherrill (Calico Rock, AK, USA)	$4,805
86	Richard Freire AKA "Knucklehead" (Miami, FL, USA)	$4,805
87	Jared Okun AKA "Smokinokun" (Las Vegas, NV, USA)	$4,805
88	Stephen Jacobs (Ardmore, PA, USA)	$4,805
89	Daniel Alaei (Las Vegas, NV, USA)	$4,805
90	Columba Duffy (New York, NY, USA)	$4,805
91	Michael Koegler AKA "the Silver Surfer" (New York, NY, USA)	$4,805
92	James McClendon (Henderson, NV, USA)	$4,805
93	John Duthie (London, UK)	$4,805
94	Paul Friedberg (Berkeley, GA, USA)	$4,805
95	Thomas Bihn (Frankfurt, Germany)	$4,805
96	Van Marcus (Mill Park, Australia)	$4,805
97	Evelyn Ng AKA "Evybabee, Evy" (Las Vegas, NV, USA)	$4,805
98	Bruno "King" Fitoussi (Paris, France)	$4,805
99	Jeff Shulman (Las Vegas, NV, USA)	$4,805
100	Arnold Spee (Agoura Hills, CA, USA)	$4,805

Tournament Report

The Dragon Catches Fire
David 'Dragon' Pham Wins His Second WSOP Gold Bracelet
Vietnamese-born poker champ collects $240,222 top prize in No-Limit Hold-em Shootout

Las Vegas, NV - If America is the 'land of opportunity,' then poker is the amphitheater for fast-track success. The green felt provides equal opportunity for just about everyone to become rich and famous. Things which are important to the rest of society - such as race, religion, age, sex, education, language skills, family ties, personal background, and job title - have absolutely no bearing on who wins or loses at the poker table. Indeed, poker is the most 'democratic' of all games. Short, tall, skinny, fat, black, white, male, female - none of these things matter when the cards are dealt.
David 'Dragon' Pham arrived in the United States at the age of 17. During the mid-1980s, he was one of many Vietnamese immigrants who left everything behind in search of a better life. They crammed into small lifeboats which floated around the South China Sea for days, before being rescued and brought to the United States.
Pham eventually settled down in the Los Angeles area and worked a number of low-wage jobs before being introduced to the game of poker by his cousin. Pham-s cousin had won several major poker tournaments and was quite well-known within the local Vietnamese-American community. He even shared some of his prize money with family members. The cousin-s name was Men 'the Master' Nguyen.
Pham started playing poker about ten years ago, and tutored by his mentor 'the Master,' he gradually improved his game. Before long, Pham was one of the best tournament players in poker. Pham got so good so fast, that he won Card Player magazine-s 'Player of the Year' in 2002. Pham was anointed as 'the Dragon,' an odd nickname considering that Pham is one of the calmest and most polite poker players on the tournament circuit. Prior to this year, Pham won his only WSOP gold bracelet back in 2001, in the S.H.O.E. championship, a contest of four different games.
At the 2006 World Series of Poker, presented by Milwaukee-s Best Light, Pham was one of 600 players who paid $2,000 each to enter the No-Limit Hold-em Shootout. It took two days to eliminate 590 competitors. That left ten players to return for the third day to compete for the championship.
Since the finale was a shootout format, this meant every player at the final table arrived with the exact same number of chips. Although there were some tough competitors amongst the final ten, David Pham had to like his chances in this field. He was the only previous WSOP gold bracelet winner of the final ten players.
The bust-outs started fast. Jeff Heiberg went out in tenth place and received $16,380. Adam Kagin went out next when his ace in the pocket paired on the turn, but lost to two-pair on the river. Ninth place paid $21,840.
Dustin 'Neverwin' Wolf was the next player to exit. The Los Angeles-based pro, well-known to many online poker players, went out with queen-jack suited against an ace-king. Wolf, who finished 32nd in the main event last year, took eighth-place on this occasion. He received $27,300.
David 'Gunslinger' Bach was eliminated when his pocket queens were shot down by pocket kings. Bach, who holds a college degree in psychology from the University of Georgia, tried to figure out the meaning of a seventh-place finish, which paid $32,760.
Jason DeWitt has been playing poker for only two years. This was his first WSOP appearance. DeWitt went out in sixth place when his pocket fours were steamrolled by a higher pair. DeWitt received $38,220. Chad Layne was the next player ejected. The insurance broker from Las Vegas cashed out for $43,680 when his ace-ten was topped by pocket jacks. Layne ended up fifth.
Reno Williamson went out next. The manager of a pipe fitting company, Williamson was drilled into a fourth-place finish. Williamson tried to steal from the button on his final hand of the night, got called, and then lost the hand. Fourth place paid $49,140.
Roland De Wolfe was the only non-American to play at the final table. The English writer turned poker pro took a tough beat when his ace-seven was edged out by David Pham-s ace-eight after an ace flopped. The higher kicker played and De Wolfe was sent away to howl about his fate. For third place, De Wolf received $65,520.
When heads-up play began, David Pham enjoyed a dominating 6 to 1 chip lead over Charles Sewell. It didn-t take long for the end to come. The final hand of the tournament was dealt when Sewell moved all-in holding ace-eight. Pham called with pocket jacks. The board didn-t help either player, so Pham-s jacks held up. Pham took the final pot.
As the runner up, Charles Sewell received $124,488. Prior to the event, Sewell joked that his Las Vegas trip had been a complete disaster. First, the resident of Okalahoma City was involved in a serious car wreck. Then, a short time later, Sewell was run over by a taxi cab.
Perhaps the hundred grand-plus in prize money he won at the World Series made up for what has been a harrowing experience, thus far.
David 'Dragon' Pham has also seen and experienced more than his fair share of personal hardships. Years ago, Pham started off with nothing, and through sheer talent and ambition, he became a highly-successful poker player. By winning, Pham collected $240,222 in prize money and received his second WSOP gold bracelet.
by Nolan Dalla
Overall Tournament Statistics (through end of Event #25):
Total Entries to Date: 22,441
Total Prize Money Distributed: $ 47,404,592
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For additions news and information from the 2006 WSOP, please contact: nolandalla@aol.com
World Series of Poker Commissioner - Jeffrey Pollack
Director, Sponsorship and Licensing -- Ty Stewart
Director, Communications and Operations - Gary Thompson
Director, Broadcasting and New Media - Craig Abrahams
Vice President of Specialty Gaming -- Howard Greenbaum
WSOP Tournament Director - Robert Daily
WSOP Tournament Director / Director of Poker Operations for Harrah-s Entertainment - Jack Effel