WSOP - Event #7 Official Report

[Talking Poker]

2005 World Series of Poker
Rio All-Suites Casino-Resort
Official Report

Event #7
No-Limit Hold’em (with re-buys)
Buy-in: $1,000
Number of Entries: 826
Number of Re-buys: 1,495
Total Prize Money: $2,201,630

Official Results:

1. Mike Gracz Raleigh, NC $594,460.00
2. Cheung Tai Law Middlesbrough, England $311,555.00
3. Chuck Thompson Santa Cruz, CA $176,145.00
4. David ‘the Dragon’ Pham Cerritos, CA $154,125.00
5. Shane Schleger New York, NY $132,110.00
6. Shae Drobashevich Moline, IL $110,090.00
7. Pascal Perrault Paris, France $88,070.00
8. Phil ‘Tiltboy’ Gordon Las Vegas, NV $66,055.00
9. Meng La Torrance, CA $44,035.00

10. Eli Elezra $24,220.00
11. Nam Le $24,220.00
12. Tony Cousineau $24,220.00
13. Frank Sinopoli $19,815.00
14. Robert Mizrachi $19,815.00
15. Marlon Santos $19,815.00
16. Frank Vizza $15,415.00
17. Marco Traniello $15,415.00
18. William H. Cole $15,415.00
19. Jack Mahalingam $11,010.00
20. Barry Greenstein $11,010.00
21. Ram Vaswani $11,010.00
22. Hoyt Corkins $11,010.00
23. Bob Kirkeby $11,010.00
24. Marc Aubin $11,010.00
25. David Lewis $11,010.00
26. Gavin Smith $11,010.00
27. John Pellak $11,010.00
28. Matthew McManus $7,705.00
29. Timothy Whaley $7,705.00
30. Wayne Ward $7,705.00
31. Randy Thomson $7,705.00
32. Anne Duke $7,705.00
33. Christoffer Stahle $7,705.00
34. David Williams $7,705.00
35. David Hurley $7,705.00
36. Mimi Tran $7,705.00
37. Phi Nguyen $6,385.00
38. Torstein Iverson $6,385.00
39. Robert Williamson III $6,385.00
40. Christopher Barash $6,385.00
41. Michael Lutes $6,385.00
42. Steve Zolotow $6,385.00
43. Phuoc Nguyen $6,385.00
44. Thomas Fougeron $6,385.00
45. Kenny Goldstein $6,385.00
46. Jon Brody $5,285.00
47. Matthew Szymaszek $5,285.00
48. Jen Harmon $5,285.00
49. Ted Lawson $5,285.00
50. Adam Naglich $5,285.00
51. Bill Ferrand $5,285.00
52. An Tran $5,285.00
53. Bruce Yamron $5,285.00
54. Scott Fischman $5,285.00
55. Blair Rodman $4,405.00
56. James Higgins $4,405.00
57. Robbie Frank $4,405.00
58. Aviv Shahaf $4,405.00
59. Dustin Woolf $4,405.00
60. David Hedley $4,405.00
61. Freddy Deeb $4,405.00
62. Alvin Willis $4,405.00
63. Anthony Camillery $4,405.00
64. Scott Numoto $3,745.00
65. John Birtles $3,745.00
66. Bryan Heatherly $3,745.00
67. Paul Lom $3,745.00
68. Richard Sharpe $3,745.00
69. Kenneth Wagner $3,745.00
70. JC Tran $3,745.00
71. Gregory Peters $3,745.00
72. Michael Chow $3,745.00
(continued)

[Talking Poker]

The Road to Riches
Tournament millionaire and WSOP winner Mike Gracz has some good advice for young aspiring poker pros

Playing poker is great. But education is far more important. My parents made me stay in school and complete my degree. Then afterward, that’s when I made the move to become a poker player.
-- Mike Gracz (2005 WSOP Champion -- $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em)


Poker players came to the World Series from all 50 states and dozens of foreign countries. For each player, the road to the world’s most prestigious tournament takes a different path. There are highways, detours, and roadblocks. There are even crashes. And then, there are drivers who cross the finish line on cruise control.

Michael Gracz was born in Warsaw, Poland. He immigrated to the United States as a child. Gracz understood the importance of education early. His mother arrived in the US to pursue post-doctoral studies and eventually became a fully-tenured university professor. His father was a physical therapist. He also happened to be a poker player.

“When I was a teenager, I used to watch my father play. He wouldn’t let me play, but I could watch,” Gracz recalled. “(Later) I found a low-limit game with these older guys and I used to take my paycheck there and lose it every week. I guess losing inspired me to learn how to play the game better. I went out and bought books and got proficient to the point where I could beat them.”

When Gracz enrolled as a student at North Carolina State, he began playing poker regularly. Eventually, he was spending more time at the tables than studying or going to class. “My mother kicked me in the butt and told me I need to stay in school and made me finish getting my degree in finance. Then, after I graduated, I started playing in tournaments, and now – here I am.”

Indeed, barely out of college and aged 24, Mike Gracz’s journey to the 2005 WSOP was a bridge – a turbo-charged path from one tournament win just a few months ago to another, in what is the world’s most challenging competition. He did encounter a bit of heavy traffic, however.

There were 826 entries and 1,495 re-buys in this event. The total prize pool amounted $2,201,630 – the second event thus far which has exceeded $2 million. The final table composition included two former gold bracelet winners (David ‘the Dragon’ Pham and Meng La), and one television celebrity (Phil Gordon, commentator of “Celebrity Poker Showdown”). The chip leader was poker tournament veteran Chuck Thompson:

THE FINAL TABLE:

Seat 1: David Pham 323,000
Seat 2: Shae Drobashevich 248,000
Seat 3: Phil Gordon 91,000
Seat 4: CT Law 516,000
Seat 5: Mike Gracz 173,000
Seat 6: Shane Schleger 134,000
Seat 7: Pascal Perrault 225,000
Seat 8: Chuck Thompson 549,000
Seat 9: Meng La 71,000

Players were eliminated as follows:

9th Place – Meng La arrived as the shortest stack and didn’t last long. He was down to 40,000 in chips and moved in with K-Q, which was topped by C.T. Law’s A-8. The ace-high played and La was out. Meng La, who was born in Cambodia, won a WSOP gold bracelet in the $1,500 buy-in limit hold’em event in 2002. He earned $44,035 for 9th place.

8th Place – A short time later, Phil Gordon got axed with a bad beat. The TV commentator was dealt pocket aces and played a 200,000 pot with David Pham, holding 10-10. A ten on the turn crushed Gordon’s hopes of winning his first gold bracelet. Gordon, who is the co-founder of the charity “Put a Bad Beat on Cancer,’ has worked tirelessly to promote the cause within the poker community. Hopefully, his final table appearance will spark more interest and player donations to this worthy cause. Gordon’s winnings amounted to $66,055.

7th Place – C.T. Law took the chip lead when he hammered Parisian poker player, Pascal Perrault. On Perrault’s hand of doom, he showed top pair with eights, which was stripped by Law’s nut flush. Perrault became the first player this year to make two final table appearances. He finished 10th in the Omaha High-Low Split tournament (Event #5) a few days ago. This time, it was a 7th place finish, which paid $88,070. That hand put Law up to about 900,000 in chips.

6th Place – Shae Drobashevich went out next. He was getting low on chips and moved in with A-6, which was dominated by C.T. Law’s A-Q. A six failed to leap from the deck and rescue Drobashevich, which meant a 6th-place finish. ‘DB,’ as he prefers to be called, is a graduate of the University of Chicago (fittingly, in economics). He picked up $110,090 in additional funds.

5th Place – Shane Schleger described himself as a semi-professional poker player. He admits to holding several “ditch digging jobs” in the past. But Schleger won’t be working for minimum wage anytime soon. He went out next (with K-J) when he tried to bluff Mike Gracz, who made an gutsy call on a river bet with no pair, ace-high. Schleger made about $6,000 an hour the hard way – three days of poker playing translating into a payout of $132,110.

4th Place – David ‘the Dragon’ Pham got torched when he put 140,000 into the pot with A-5 after the flop came A-Q-8. C.T. Law had pocket eights and flopped a set. That pretty much extinguished the Dragon’s hopes of victory. Pham, who won the mixed game S.H.O.E. event at the 2001 WSOP, collected $154,125.

3rd Place – If any player has paid his dues in poker, it’s Chuck Thompson. The 66-year-old veteran of many tournament wars was making a bid to win his first gold bracelet. Cheered on by his two sons in the audience, Thompson arrived at the final table as chip leader. But after losing half of his stack in the first few hours, Thompson was never able to use his depth of experience to his advantage. On his final hand, Thompson’s A-J was smashed by Mike Gracz’s pocket eights when the board showed A-K-8-K-9. Thompson received $176,145 in prize money, but was understandably disappointed he did not capture the elusive gold bracelet.

2nd Place – The heads-up duel between Mike Gracz and C.T. Law was memorable in many ways. It had just about everything needed to enter the long legacy of legendary final tables in the 36-year history of the WSOP. Play lasted nearly three hours. The chip lead changed at least seven times. In fact, both players were in peril at various times and just when it looked as though the night would end, a dramatic hand would return lost chips and restore faith.

Law demonstrated certain tendencies. Gracz picked up on them and used them effectively. When Law missed, he often bet out small on the river, trying to steal the pot. Gracz called frequently (with nothing) and won a number of 100,000 pots, which added up significantly as the night went on. There were key hands as well, such as when Gracz made a straight, and took half of Law’s stack. Gracz won another big pot when he turned a baby flush (4-3 suited, matching three suits on board) and cracked Law’s big pair.

The final hand came when Law and Gracz got into a raising war after the flop came J-8-5. Law had Q-J and called an ‘all in’ re-raise (with top pair). Gracz was making a grandstand play, holding second pair. Law was in the lead and it looked like another swing back in forth in chips. Then, the poker gods intervened on Gracz’s behalf and dealt him a beautiful card – a third 8. Gracz had gone from big dog to huge favorite. There was still one card to come. Later, Gracz was asked the first moment he contemplated that he might win the tournament. “When the (blank) six of clubs fell on the river,” Gracz replied. Indeed, the final card failed to resurrect Law and Gracz was the victor.

Runner-up Cheung Tai (‘C.T.’) Law is a Hong Kong-born restaurant owner who now lives in northeastern England. He is married and has four children. Law received praise from Gracz, who said of his opponent, “I thought he played great. I was very fortunate to beat a player of his caliber.” Law’s cut of the action amounted to $311,555.

1st Place – The winner was Mike Gracz. He is 24 years old and currently lives in Raleigh, NC. Gracz has now won a whopping $3 million in tournament poker this year. Despite the staggering amount of prize money and his recent millionaire status, Gracz’s appreciation for the historical significance of the World Series of Poker gold bracelet was both respectful and refreshing.

“I was playing for the bracelet. The ambiance around the World Series is something very special. To have the gold bracelet on my wrist is something I would give up all this money for. That’s how much this bracelet means to me.”

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