Greg Raymer, when recently asked if Jamie Gold would get respect or not as the 2006 WSOP champion, said that he (Greg) and Joe Hachem weren't truly respected as champions until they'd won another tournament. Greg said that if Jamie Gold could win another tourney, maybe he'd earn some respect from fellow players and the poker community. Greg wisely didn't comment on what an epic douchebag Jamie Gold was at the WSOP.

Well, Jamie Gold just won another poker tournament, but will it earn him the respect he wants?

The 2006 World Series Champion took a break from his reality show about America's Hottest Mom and sat down at a tourney put together by his sponsor, BoDog dot lame. He worked his way through a deadly field, populated by such notables as UFC champ Phil "The NY Badass" Baroni, CFL Hall of Famer Tom Europe, and multiple-bracelet holder* Michael Eklund, who you may know from Bloodrayne II. When the bodies were counted, Jamie Gold stood atop them all, winning a shiny new watch. Seriously.

Wow, Jamie. Way to get out there and earn that respect, man!

So . . . uh . . . if beating a bunch of D-list celebrities is all it takes to earn respect in the poker world, I expect to be invited to every tournament in the world from here on out.


*Ha! Ha! Not really.

The winner of the 2006 World Series of Poker Main Event is Jamie Gold from Malibu, California. He will bring home a staggering $12 million dollars and the championship bracelet. Congratulations, Jamie! My choice, Allen Cunningham, came in 4th.

Here are the top 9 and their prize money:

1. Jamie Gold $12,000,000
2. Paul Wasicka $6,102,499
3. Michael Binger $4,123,310
4. Allen Cunningham $3,628,513
5. Rhett Butler $3,216,182
6. Richard Lee 2,803,851
7. Doug Kim $2,391,520
8. Erik Friberg $1,979,189
9. Dan Nassif $1,566,858

I've been away from my house for the majority of this week, so have missed what is happening at the World Series. You know what they say - you miss a day, you miss a lot, well I had no idea I missed something this huge.

I have to admit, I really didn't think he would do it this year. But, Phil Hellmuth has proved all the nay-sayers (including me) wrong. Phil earned his 10th World Series of Poker bracelet after winning Event #34, which was $1000 No Limit Hold'em. This once again ties him with Johnny Chan and Doyle Brunson for most WSOP bracelets, who each earned their tenth last year.

In addition to the bracelet, Phil is also taking home $631,863 for his efforts.

Final nine in this competition were:

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. Rafael Perry $70,207
9. Tony Guoga $46,805

Last night, before I left the Amazon room, I made a prop bet with Pauly. "I'll take Ivey, and you can have Reese," I said.

"Okay, but we're both hoping that Andy Bloch wins, because he's the nicest guy in the world, right?"

"Of course," I said.

I got myself back to my hotel in time to hit my self-imposed bedtime of "right around midnight," but the final table play was just too damn compelling, and it wasn't until exhaustion dragged me down around 3 that I finally gave up, turned off my laptop, and went to sleep.

Pauly's blog, Cardplayer, and Pokerwire have in-depth, hand-by-hand recaps of the entire action, which is going to be insanely hard for ESPN to edit into an hour-long broadcast (if they're smart, they'll make the heads-up portion of the match, which was the longest in WSOP history, its own episode.)

Many of the pros I talked to before yesterday's final table of the 50K HORSE event were putting their faith (I didn't ask them about their money) on Phil Ivey, who is widely regarded as the best no-limit player in the world. With players like Dewey Tomko, Doyle Brunson and Andy Bloch at the table, though, everyone had a shot at the bracelet, regardless of chip count. In fact, as they played all night long, Andy and Chip traded the lead several times, with huge swings in their respective leads, from the typical 2:1 up to 6:1, then all the way up to 22:1 shortly before the end.

I'm sure Chip Reese doesn't need to hear it from the likes of me, but congratulations are in order, so here there are: Congratulations to Chip Reese, winner of the inaugural 50K HORSE event. Everyone agrees that Chip is the best all-around player in the world. In fact, the story goes, he stopped in Las Vegas on his way to Stanford, won 40,000 in a tournament, and never left. Chip routinely plays in cash games where you can buy a new car with one round of bets, so he doesn't need the 1.7 million dollar first prize, but the pros here have said all along that it's not about the money; it's about the bracelet, and though this was Chip's first bracelet since 1982, it was probably worth the wait.

Here is a quick look at the 2006 World Series of Poker bracelet winners and final table finishers over the past few days:

Event #9, $5000 No Limit Hold'em
Total Prize Pool: $2,293,400
Entries: 622

This must have been an epic event to watch - Phil Hellmuth was vying for his tenth World Series of Poker Bracelet in a final heads-up match against Jeff Cabanillas, however had to settle for second place and $423,893. First place finisher Cabanillas claimed the bracelet and $818,546. To make things even more exciting, Marcel Luske and Isabelle Mercier were also competing at the final table, though they went out in fourth and fifth place, respectively. Quoc Al 'Vinnie' Vinh, who has lifetime tournament earnings of over $2 million dollars, also made the final table and finished in eighth place.

Final standings:

1. Jeff Cabanillas $818,546
2. Phil Hellmuth Jr. $423,893
3. Eugene Todd $233,872
4. Marcel Luske $204,638
5. Isabelle Mercier $175,404
6. Thomas Schreiber $146,170
7. Douglas Carli $116,936
8. Vinnie Vinh $87,702
9. Dan Smith $58,468

Event #10, $1500 Seven-Card Stud
Total Prize Pool: $652,470
Entries: 478

David Williams has over $5 million dollars in tournament earnings to date, 3.5 million of which was earned for placing second in the 2004 WSOP Main Event. This marks his first-ever World Series of Poker championship bracelet though, and places David in 4th place on Card Player's 2006 Player of the Year race, only behind Michael Mizrachi, Nam Le, and Anthony Reategui. Final nine players in the $1500 Seven-Card Stud event were:

1. David Williams $163,118
2. John Hoang $110,920
3. Jack Duncan $71,772
4. Mitchell Ledis $45,673
5. 'Miami' John Cernuto $35,886
6. Ivan Schertzer $29,361
7. Johnny Chan $22,836
8. Matt Hawrilenko $16,312
9. Mark Dickstein $8,482
   

I'm surprised at the number of people who entered event #8 - Omaha Hi/Low Split. It's one of my favorite games, but not usually as popular as some of the others. However, 670 players ponied up $2000 each for a total prize pool of $1,219,400 - that is 255 more players than in event #7 - Limit Hold'em. A new trend, perhaps? Negreanu cashed again, this time earning $48,776 for 7th place. The bracelet winner though was Jack Zwerner who earned $341,426 for his first place finish. Final nine and their prize money:

1. Jack Zwerner $341,426
2. Florante Mandap $176,813
3. Jeff Madsen $97,552
4. Cuong Do $85,358
5. Bob Mangino $73,164
6. Robert Collins $60,970
7. Daniel Negreanu $48,776
8. Russ Salzer $36,582
9. Steve Lustig $24,388

Event #7, $3000 Limit Hold'em, completed on Tuesday evening. 415 players entered making the total prize pool $1,145,400. William Chen took down the championship and the bracelet, earning a very nice payday of $343,618. Top nine finishers and their prize money were as follows:

1. William Chen $343,618
2. Yueqi Zhu $184,409
3. Henry Nguyen $91,632
4. Karlo Lopez $80,178
5. Danny Ciaramella $68,724
6. Larry Thomas $57,270
7. Allan Puzantyan $45,816
8. Ernie Scherer $34,362
9. Jeffrey Lisandro $22,908

Ok, I am almost caught up. You miss a few days of the World Series and you miss a lot, apparently. Event #6 was No Limit Hold'em with a $2000 buy-in. Carlos Mortensen made his second final table of the 2006 WSOP, but finished in 9th place once again. The championship bracelet went to Mark Vos, along with $803,274 in cash.

Top nine finishers and their prize money were:

1. Mark Vos $803,274
2. Nam Le $401,647
3. John Reiss $209,555
4. Thomas Hunt III $160,659
5. Willard Chang $136,211
6. Kevin Peterson $115,255
7. Vanessa Selbst $101,285
8. David Wells $87,315
9. Juan Carlos Mortensen $73,344

Now that we are all caught up on what did happen, you can go check the following people for live updates on the current events. I'll be posting recaps and updates as they come in, as well as some other stuff so stay tuned.

Live from Vegas:

Pauly at Tao of Poker
Otis at the Official PokerStars Blog
Jason Kirk at Bluff Magazine
Amy Calistri and Jen Leo at Breakfast Club Poker
CardPlayer
PokerWire

There are a handful of events that I would really like to see live over the others, and this would have been one of them. The $2500 NLHE short-handed (6 players per table) event finished on Sunday, and I can only imagine it was pretty entertaining to watch. Short-handed tables move a lot faster since your starting requirements are lower, but when you have a final table that includes Dutch Boyd, Joseph Hachem, and Daniel Negreanu, you have to know the action never stopped.

Dutch Boyd walked away as champion, earning the 5th World Series of Poker bracelet of 2006. Top nine finishers and their prize money were:

1. Dutch Boyd $475,712
2. Joseph Hachem $256,800
3. Jeff Knight $153,511
4. Michael Goodman $115,607
5. Pete Hassett $91,917
6. David Solomon $68,227
7. Mirza Nagji $42,642
8. Daniel Negreanu $38,852
9. Vegard Nygaard $35,061

Again, don't forget to check out the following people who are live in Vegas covering the events:

Pauly at Tao of Poker
Otis at the Official PokerStars Blog
Jason Kirk at Bluff Magazine
Amy Calistri and Jen Leo at Breakfast Club Poker
CardPlayer
PokerWire

Event #4, $1500 Limit Hold'em, finished on Saturday night. Unlike the past two, this final table was surprisingly not littered with big-name professionals. Kianoush Abolfathi took down the win, earning the fourth bracelet of the 2006 World Series of Poker and $335,289.

Top nine finishers and their prize money were:

1. Kianoush Abolfathi $335,289
2. Eric Buchman $174,938
3. Josh Schlein $101,318
4. Michele Lewis $72,891
5. Vipul Kothavi $58,313
6. Hank Sparks $51,024
7. Patrick Maloney $43,735
8. Lars Hansen $36,446
9. Matthew Elsby $32,801

Don't forget to check out the following people who are live in Vegas covering the events:

Pauly at Tao of Poker
Otis at the Official PokerStars Blog
Jason Kirk at Bluff Magazine
Amy Calistri and Jen Leo at Breakfast Club Poker
CardPlayer
PokerWire

Continuing with my look at the winners so far at this year's World Series of Poker, Event #3 - $1500 Pot Limit Hold'em -  finished on Friday night. Rafe Furst, who is probably best known as Phil Gordon's closest friend, was also the guy who busted out first in the 2004 World Series of Poker Main Event. However, he seemed to get it together for this event and claimed the first place prize of $345,984 and the 3rd bracelet at the 2006 WSOP.

Top nine finishers and their prize money were:

1. Rafe Furst $345984
2. Rocky Enciso $180508
3. Eric Lynch $104544
4. George Bronstein $75252
5. Burt Boutin $60169
6. Can Kim Hua $52648
7. Richard Chase $45127
8. John Juanda $37606
9. Alan Gilbert $33854

Don't forget to check out the following people who are live in Vegas covering the events:

Pauly at Tao of Poker
Otis at the Official PokerStars Blog
Jason Kirk at Bluff Magazine
Amy Calistri and Jen Leo at Breakfast Club Poker
CardPlayer
PokerWire

As I mentioned in my last post, I have had internet problems over the past few days so I am going to do a quick run through of the winners so far at this year's World Series of Poker.

Event #2 Results: Though Carlos Mortensen was one of the strongest stacks throughout the tournament, it seems he couldn't place higher than ninth on the final day. Since that was worth more than $70,000, it still can't be a bad day for him. Brandon Cantu was the eventual winner though, and will took home $757,839 and the second bracelet of the 2006 World Series.

Top nine finishers and their prize money were:

1. Brandon Cantu $757,839
2. Phong Ly $416,816
3. Drew Rubin $226,597
4. Lee Padilla $176,579
5. Brent Roberts $151,570
6. Don Zewin $126,940
7. Ron Stanley $107,614
8. Mark Swartz $88,668
9. Juan Carlos Mortensen $71,617

Don't forget to check out the following people who are live in Vegas covering the events:

Pauly at Tao of Poker
Otis at the Official PokerStars Blog
Jason Kirk at Bluff Magazine
Amy Calistri and Jen Leo at Breakfast Club Poker
CardPlayer
PokerWire

Chris Gros was the first person to win a bracelet at the 2006 World Series of Poker in the $500 buy-in Casino Employees event. He outlasted a field of 1231 to win the title and $127,496 cash.

Top 9 players and their prize money were as follows:
1  Chris Gros $127496
2  Bryan Devonshire $66528
3  R.J. Wright $38531
4  Scott Clark $27720
5  Christopher Himmenger $22176
6  Craig Federspiel $19404
7  David Wortham $16632
8  Marsha Waggoner $13860
9  Barry Goldberg $12474

(Source: CardPlayer.com)