Events 1 to 5 | 6 to 10 | 11 to 15 | 16 to 20 | 21 to 25 | 26 to 30 | 36 to 40 | 41 to 45

2006 World Series of Poker
Events 31 to 35

Event #31 July 21 -- No-Limit Hold'Em
Buyin: $2,000.00
This was a monster sized tournament with 2,050 players, a money pool that grew to $3,731,000 with payouts going to 144 entrants. Lots of big names were seen at the tables like David Benyamine, Jan Sorenson, Chip Jett, Phil Hellmuth Jr., Erica Schoenberg, Josh Arieh, David Williams, Greg Raymer, Clonie Gowen, WSOP champ and actress Jennifer Tilly, Mike Matusow and Barry Greenstein were part of the huge crowd seen today. Action moved quickly considering the numbers on Day 1 but around 2:00 a.m. on July 22nd, 144 players survived to go to Day 2.

As the second round begins at 2:00 p.m., the goal is to play from 144 to the 9 for the final table. A number of players gave notable performances as they finished in the top 100 which is the top 5% of the field. They include Jennifer Tilly (99th), Chris Reslock (71st), John Spadavechia (42nd) and WSOP champion Dan Harrington (23rd) who seemed to take out players like a lawn mower tidys up an unruly lawn. But two that made the final table had outstanding finishes on the day namely Justin Scott with $1,500,000 in chips and Nathan Templeton with $832,000 chips. Justin stack jumped up $400,000 when he won a big pile off of Templeton in 1 hand. Nathan's poker angel was on his shoulder as he never seemed to be in any real trouble, taking out many a player in the quest for the gold bracelet.

Final table play began at 3:00 p.m. after the participants were introduced to the cheering crowd. Farzad Rouhani hit a big hand tripling up at one point with 4 - 9's in a 3 way pot with Nathan Templeton and Jason Johnson. He also doubled up in another separate hand against Templeton with 3 of a kind A's. Justin Scott took out Jason Johnson (8th), Carl Olson (6th), Nathan Templeton (5th), Greg Glass (4th) and Bob Bright (3rd) to narrow down the remaining players. Justin Scott was a definite powerhouse at the final table to put it mildly. When the heads up began Justin had $3,800,000 in chips to Farzad Rouhani's $300,000. In 17 hands the event champion was decided. On the final hand, Rouhani is all in because he has so few chips he can't cover the big blind and is called by Scott. Rouhani has 8c 8d and Scott produces Qh 6s. The table shows As Qs 6c 4h 3d which gave Scott a pair of Queens and the win.

1. Justin Scott -- $842,262
2. Farzad Rouhani -- $429,065
3. Bob Bright -- $261,170
4. Greg Glass -- $186,550
5. Nathan Templeton -- $149,240
6. Carl Olson -- $130,585
7. Josh Wakeman -- $111,930
8. Jason Johnson -- $93,275
9. Bryan Micon -- $74,620

Event #32 July 22 -- Pot-Limit Hold'Em
Buyin: $5,000.00
378 players attended, prize pool amount was $1,776,600 and payouts went to the top 36 positions. Lots of the biggest names in poker came to the tables for this one. Having this many top pros can make for tough tables in a WSOP event. One table featured Burt Boutin, Cyndy Violette, Mike Matusow, David "DevilFish" Ulliot, Victor Ramdin and Johnny Chan. Everyone got a good laugh when a player who bet hard on the river bluffed Phil Hellmuth and made him fold pocket Kings. The other player showed 6 8. Scotty Nguyen was in good spirits laughing and joking during play. His relaxed demeanor may have helped him as he stacked his chips higher and higher. At the end of Day 1 there were 35 players left for the next round.

Day 2 eliminations came pretty hard for some players. Erik Seidel's pocket Q's could not hold up against Joe Beevers pocket K's after the table gave Beevers more cards for a King high full house. Cyndy Violette busted out a number of players on Day 2 including Jim Rumptz (29th) and Mark Teltscher (33rd). Nick Guagenti had pocket A's and thought he would cripple Michael Tedesco (As 10d) on a big pot. Unfortunately Michael pulled off a straight and left Nick with only 5K in his stack. Nick was visibly upset and had to walk around before resuming play. He was busted by Laura Fink 5 minutes later. Around 10:00 p.m. only 9 were left for the final table and play was ended for the day.

The final table got underway at 2:00 p.m. and the action began with the eliminations of Kirill Gerasimov (9th) and Tommy Smith (8th) happening in the first hour. Michael Tedesco sent Emad Tamtouh out for a soda in 7th place. Then Jason Lester eliminated Gregg Turk in 6th, followed by Stuart Fox busting out Michael Tedesco in 5th along with Stuart Fox in 3rd. Tony Hartmann went out in 4th courtesy of Alan Sass, and then it was heads up time to see who would be champion. After a flop of 9s 3d 2h, Sass bets with Lester raising and Sass (6h 4h) decides to go all in. Lester (9c 7d) calls and the turn card is a Qc with the river card a Kh. This gave Lester a pair of nines and the gold bracelet!

1. Jason Lester -- $550,746
2. Alan Sass -- $284,256
3. Stuart Fox -- $142,128
4. Tony Hartmann -- $124,362
5. Michael Tedesco -- $106,596
6. Greg Turk -- $88,830
7. Emad Tamtouh -- $71,064
8. Tommy Smith -- $53,298
9. Kirill Gerasimov -- $35,532

Event #33 July 22 -- Seven Card Razz
Buyin: $1,500.00
409 entries which was an all time WSOP record for this event and $558,285 for the prize pool amount. Money went to the top 40 players. The field was full of top talent like 2005 Seven Card Razz champion O'Neil Longson, Joe Sebok, David Chiu, Juan Carlos Mortensen, Barry Greenstein, Chris Grigorian and Robert Williamson III to name a few. Play began at 2:00 p.m. and ended at 4:30 a.m. the next day, leaving 41 players that will move on to Day 2.

The heads up showdown was between Juan Carlos Mortensen and James Richburg. They went on for two hours until the last deciding hand was played. At 4:45 a.m., Mortensen pushed all of his chips to the middle and Richburg produced 3 4 6 8 9 3 6 for the winning hand. Mortensen did not show his cards so we have no idea as to what he held. But James Richburg cheered for himself as he picked up his first WSOP bracelet as the sun peaked over the horizon. Razz is not like other exciting poker games like Texas No Limit Hold'Em and can be frustrating. Nolan Dalla described Razz as a test of patience, which may be why the champion who won the bracelet was surrounded by hundreds of empty seats on the last hand. But trust us, he didn't care who saw as long as he walked away with something for the record books.

1. James Richburg -- $139,576
2. Juan Carlos Mortensen -- $94,908
3. Steven Diano -- $61,411
4. Cliff Josephy -- $39,080
5. Ron Ritchie -- $30,706
6. Richard Sklar -- $25,123
7. John Cernuto -- $19,540
8. Jamie Brooks -- $13,957
9. Chad Carpenter -- $7,258

Event #34 July 23 -- No-Limit Hold'Em with Rebuys
Buyin: $1,000.00
This tournament had $2,340,238 in prize pool money, 754 players and money going out to the top 73 positions. Within minutes of the start players were rebuying more chips. Daniel Negreanu kept $25,000 in rebuy chips next to him, instead of going back and forth for them as he did in Event #14. He spent $48,000 in rebuys total. Erick Lindgren kept more than $100,000 in rebuy chips at his side. And in a bit of fun, Erick Lindgren also announced that he was placing a $500 bounty on Mike Matusow's head. During a hand with Mark Seif, Vanessa Rousso and another player, Vanessa offered Mark $1,000 to go all in so she could double up. Mark accepted and won the hand busting out Vanessa. Vanessa gave Mark the $1,000 and walked away from the table laughing out loud. A lot of players had fun with the rebuys going all in with out looking at their cards, cracking jokes along with other mindless acts. By the time the day ended there were 61 players for Day 2.

Day 2 action took off on a fast start with one player busting out on his very first hand. Gregg Merkow busted both Champie Douglas (53rd) and Mark Seif (54th) winning an all in preflop move between the three of them in the first 15 min of play. A tournament director gave James Van Alstyne a 10 min penalty after James called him an "idiot" in a debate over a $5,000 chip in his stack when they had not been issued yet. James stated he received the chip from another director on Day 1 when he asked to color up his stack. Phil Hellmuth was outstanding today as he busted Kevin Ho, Shane Schleger, Jordan Morgan and Humberto Brenes to end up going to the final table as chip leader with $760,000. The only one close to him was Daryn Firicano having $450,000 and Juha Helppi with $436,000 in chips. Toss in John Spadavecchia, Tony Guoga, David Plastik and Ralph Perry and you have one tough final table.

Phil Hellmuth in flawless play busted out Ralph Perry in 8th, David Plastik in 7th, Elio Cabrera in 6th and John Spadavecchia in 4th in a hand where he drew 3 of a kind Aces to seal that deal. When the heads up came between WPT champion Juha Helppi and 9 time WSOP bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth, Phil had $850,000 in chips to Juha's $1,650,000. But in less than an hour, a champion was named. Here is what happened on the last hand. Hellmuth on the button limps in and Helppi (Ad 9h) decided to go all in which draws an immediate call from Hellmuth (As Jh). The cards that landed on the table were Qs 8s 2c Ks 6c. And that is how Phil Hellmuth Jr. won his 10th WSOP bracelet, placing him in the stratosphere realm with Johnny Chan and Doyle Brunson.

1. Phil Hellmuth Jr. -- $631,863
2. Juha Helppi -- $331,144
3. Daryn Firicano -- $187,219
4. John Spadavecchia -- $163,817
5. Terris Preston -- $140,414
6. Elio Cabrera -- $117,012
7. David Plastik -- $93,610
8. Ralph Perry -- $70,207
9. Tony Guoga -- $46,805

Event #35 July 24 -- Seven Card Hi/Low Split
Buyin: $1,000.00
788 players each paid $1,000.00 to get a shot at the gold bracelet and the $172,091 prize money for first place in this tournament. The payout schedule showed that cash would go to the top 72 finishers. Playing the low antes and limits visibly frustrated some who were at the tables. One player jumped up from his seat and said to another, "Don't (F-bomb)ing talk to me!". And yes a tournament official who was right behind him decided he needed a 10 min time out for his potty mouth. A number of players hung on as much as possible, showing spectators the meaning of playing with "a chip and a chair". Allen Kessler was actually down to his last $25 chip on one hand on fourth street as he sat in his seat. Fortunately for Allen he won that hand and ended up with $3,000 to continue in the tournament. With the low antes and limits being played, by 11:30 p.m. there were few players who were over $10,000 in chips. By days end at 2:45 a.m. there were 98 players that would move on to Day 2.

Action picked up on Day 2 with $150 antes, a bring in of $300, and limits of $800/$1,600. Bill Edler busted out a player with 4 Aces, ending up with 30,000 in chips after that hand and continued on to the final table. Cyndy Violette was on a wild roller coaster ride with her stack going up and down until she lost a hand with Reza Payvar and left in 31st position. Others who followed Cyndy were David Sklansky, Annie Duke, Chris Grigrorian, Jean Gaspard, Tom Franklin and John Juanda. Play went on to 3:45 a.m. the next day when the remaining 8 players stopped to rest for Day 3.

Play went very slow at the final table, with some commenting that this would outlast the Main Event. But eliminations did take place leading to the heads up for the championship. Jeff Madsen who has been on fire this 2006 WSOP with two bracelets to his credit, went out in third place after losing a hand to Pat Poels. That made 2 wins and 2 3rd place finishes in 2006 for him. This led to the showdown between Pat Poels and Greg Dinkin. At 3:20 a.m. the final hand was dealt. Dinkin (9s 7s 10h 5c) on the short stack after Poels crippling him in the past few hands, puts all the chips to the center before the river card came up and Poels (Jh Qh Ks Qs) makes the call. River card helped neither player and Pat Poels has a high hand of Q Q and no low. This gives Poels the win and his 2nd WSOP gold bracelet.

1. Pat Poels -- $172,091
2. Greg Dinkin -- $102,542
3. Jeff Madsen -- $65,971
4. Mark Bershad -- $49,479
5. Bill Edler -- $39,439
6. Hoyt Verner -- $32,269
7. Rod Pardey -- $25,098
8. Leo Fasen -- $17,927