WSOP - Event #2 Official Report

[Talking Poker]

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

Event #2
No-Limit Hold’em
Buy-in: $1,500
Number of Entries: 2,305
Total Prize Money: $3,180,900

Official Results:

1. Allen Cunningham Las Vegas, NV $725,405
2. Scott Fischman Las Vegas, NV 352,125
3. David ‘Devilfish’ Ulliott Hull, England 232,205
4. Can Kim Hua Rosemead, CA 200,395
5. Liz Lieu Los Angeles, CA 177,000
6. Charlie Huff Geneva, OH 136,780
7. An ‘the Boss’ Tran Las Vegas, NV 104,970
8. Randy Edmonson Columbus, MS 73,160
9. Heath Boutwell Atlanta, GA 54,075

10. Jeremy Flynn $34,990
11. Burton Boutin $34,990
12. Travis Green $34,990
13. Minh Ly $28,630
14. Andrew Kelsall $28,630
15. Robert Newton $28,630
16. Daniel Schmiech $22,265
17. Keith Clarke $22,265
18. Robert Amereno $22,265
19. Josiah Trager $15,905
20. Diego Cordovez $15,905
21. Eric Sarkissians $15,905
22. Daniel Tran $15,905
23. Charles Dawson $15,905
24. Phillip Hellmuth $15,905
25. Patrick Moore $15,905
26. Jeremy Brom $15,905
27. Kerry Small $15,905
28. Farzad Arastoozad $11,135
29. Daniel Moore $11,135
30. Rory Monahan $11,135
31. Jason Steinhorn $11,135
32. Kenneth Robbins $11,135
33. David Fried $11,135
34. Kevin Keller $11,135
35. Darren Woolard $11,135
36. Joseph Pelton $13,135
37. Tom Lee $9,225
38. James Plateroti $9,225
39. John Evans $9,225
40. Christopher Russo $9,225
41. Matthew Fletcher $9,225
42. David Ho $9,225
43. Joseph Goldstein $9,225
44. Michael Matusow $9,225
45. Rami Owera $9,225
46. Thomas Fougeron $7,475
47. Arnold Tolee $7,475
48. Terry Weimer $7,475
49. Jay Smith $7,475
50. Shreeniwas Kelkar $7,475
51. Aaron Donovan $7,475
52. Joshua Olson $7,475
53. Mark Seif $7,475
54. Steve Shkolnik $7,475
55. Michael Byers $6,360
56. Cyndy Viollete $6,360
57. Kevin Kyblock $6,360
58. Daniel Benjamin $6,360
59. Marc Bradley Lome $6,360
60. Loi Phan $6,360
61. Sam Von Duhn $6,360
62. James Bechtel $6,360
63. Thomas Savitsky $6,360
64. Melvin Swancy $5,565
65. Ky Vu $5,565
66. David Tuchman $5,565
67. Ronnie Yambra $5,565
68. Jeffrie Rine $5,565
69. Gavin Writer $5,565
70. Allie Prescott $5,565
71. Andrew Reanrungroch $5,565
72. Emad Alabdi $5,565
73. Jeff Calkins $4,770
74. Marcello De Grosso $4,770
75. Vincent Devita $4,770
76. James Lester $4,770
77. Boris Shats $4,770
78. Charles Ruggerloi $4,770
79. Mark Scott $4,770
80. Brandon Wong $4,770
81. Kenneth Taylor $4,770
82. Saso Perduloski $3,975
83. Carlton Jerome $3,975
84. David Levi $3,975
85. Jason Rich $3,975
86. Greg Raymer $3,975
87. Jeff Gibralter $3,975
88. Daniel Vogel $3,975
89. Gregg Smallowitz $3,975
90. Mark Chapic $3,975
91. Mark Kozin $3,500
92. Eric Taylor $3,500
93. James Pursifull $3,500
94. Jeremy Stein $3,500
95. Steve Kim $3,500
96. Cecilia Reyes $3,500
97. Kevin Bott $3,500
98. Unknown $3,500
99. Roberto Gordon $3,500
100. Ralph Schwartz $3,500
101. Kenneth Goldstein $3,180
102. Ben Davenport $3,180
103. Ben Foster $3,180
104. Zackary Hon $3,180
105. Daniel Smith $3,180
106. Paul Westly $3,180
107. Steven Greenberg $3,180
108. David Dandeshgar $3,180
109. Timothy Miles $3,180
110. Christopher Sapirman $3,180
111. Lanzi Nicholas $2,865
112. Michael Ortiz $2,865
113. Chad Logsdon $2,865
114. Senthil Kumar $2,865
115. Jon Moonres $2,865
116. Jan Hoitmann $2,865
117. Brian Hebert $2,865
118. Robert Blechmen $2,865
119. Bradley Anderson $2,865
120. Frederick Wolf $2,865
121. Jonathen Shelton $2,865
122. Keith Love $2,865
123. Max Scharf $2,865
124. Glyn Banks $2,865
125. Michael Waterstradt $2,865
126. Amos Sharpe $2,865
127. Kevin Tucci $2,865
128. Gary Walters $2,865
129. Evelin Ng $2,865
130. Keith Rittenhouse $2,865
131. Susau Austin $2,865
132. Gary Ringhofer $2,865
133. Richard Sharpe $2,865
134. Adolfo Crespo $2,865
135. Jeffrey Stoff $2,865
136. Russel Krueger $2,865
137. Anthony Licastro $2,865
138. John Hurst $2,865
139. Casey Bogus $2,865
140. Ken Goldin $2,865
141. Jordan Devenport $2,545
142. Mark Ristine $2,545
143. Donald Sjulstad $2,545
144. Gennady Leviten $2,545
145. David Peat $2,545
146. Janes Pechac $2,545
147. Benjamin Owens $2,545
148. Thomas Dull $2,545
149. George Bronstein $2,545
150. Avi Mukherjee $2,545
151. Greg Lasica $2,545
152. Kevin Fox $2,545
153. Michael Stapleton $2,545
154. Victor Amereno $2,545
155. Brian Lesser $2,545
156. Unknown $2,545
157. Dumitru Gazetovici $2,545
158. Angel Juarez $2,545
159. Emad Rayyan $2,545
160. Unknown $2,545
161. Johan Storakers $2,545
162. James Bakvnowicz $2,545
163. Seth Angel $2,545
164. Thomas Rawlins $2,545
165. Thomas Slater $2,545
166. Jesse Danial $2,545
167. Gary Yates $2,545
168. Michael Rosario $2,545
169. Larry Etherington $2,545
170. Thomas Christensen $2,545
171. Amawattie Mahabir $2,225
172. Brian Schwanz $2,225
173. Matthew Glantz $2,225
174. Marco Traniello $2,225
175. Adam Green $2,225
176. Robert Landaver $2,225
177. Unknown $2,225
178. Canio Sabia $2,225
179. John Morris $2,225
180. Jeffrey Shulman $2,225
181. Allen Hausman $2,225
182. George Nichols $2,225
183. Blake Toungate $2,225
184. Bob Buyce $2,225
185. Chris Mccormack $2,225
186. Seth Lindsley $2,225
187. David Anderson $2,225
188. Terry Fleischer $2,225
189. Denny Crum $2,225
190. Jerry Bernetzke $2,225
191. Walter Joslin $2,225
192. Olivia Mandell $2,225
193. Ann Escobedo $2,225
194. Bart Rothwell $2,225
195. Eric Mizrachi $2,225
196. Brian Owens $2,225
197. Rubin White $2,225
198. Robert Sanders $2,225
199. Russell Laverdiere $2,225
200. Marco Patacios $2,225

(continued)

[Talking Poker]

A Very Good Time to be a Poker Player
Allen Cunningham wins WSOP gold bracelet number four – captures $725,405 in record-setting event

Poker entered a new age on June 5, 2005 when 2,305 players jammed into the Rio Pavilion to enter the first open event of this year’s World Series of Poker. The number of entries amounted to the second largest field in the 36-year history of the WSOP. Only last year’s world poker championship, with 2,576 entries, attracted more players. The total prize pool amounted to a whopping $3,180,900. To give this number some perspective, this was more money than was awarded in the main event of the 1998 world championship. Indeed, it’s a very good time to be a poker player.

The tournament attracted so many entries that the Rio (Harrah’s) and ESPN jointly decided that it would become a three-day event. All events with entries numbering 1,500 or more will now be three day events, as well as all televised events.

Considering the humongous fields and so many new poker faces, it was a surprise to see several familiar names at the final table. Four of the finalists were former gold bracelet winners – Allen Cunningham (with 3 wins), Scott Fischman (with 2 wins), and David ‘Devilfish’ Ulliott as well as An ‘the Boss’ Tran (with one win each). In fact, Scott Fischman arrived as the defending champion in this event.

Based on the starting chip counts, it looked like the final table might end with a Cunningham-Fischman showdown – which is exactly what happened. The final nine players assembled in front of a standing room only crowd and ESPN television cameras with the following chip counts:

THE FINAL TABLE:

SEAT 1: Heath Boutwell 204,000 in chips
SEAT 2: Scott Fischman 707,000 in chips
SEAT 3: David ‘Devilfish’ Ulliott 270,000 in chips
SEAT 4: Allen Cunningham 728,000 in chips
SEAT 5: Charlie Huff 500,000 in chips
SEAT 6: Randy Edmonson 89,000 in chips
SEAT 7: Can Kim Hua 440,000 in chips
SEAT 8: Liz Lieu 177,000 in chips
SEAT 9: An ‘the Boss’ Tran 337,000 in chips

Players were eliminated as follows:

9th Place – A few minutes into play, Richard ‘Heath’ Boutwell was dealt A-Q and went up against pocket jacks. Bouotwell failed to hit his overcards and the computer programmer from Atlanta, GA was disconnected from the final table. He collected $54,075.

8th Place – Randy Edmondson, who was making his third final table appearance at the WSOP (all in Omaha-related events) arrived as the shortest stack. He moved ‘all in’ with 9-9 against Allen Cunningham’s A-10. An ace flopped and Edmonson was down to just two outs. He missed and ended up in 8th place. Edmonson, a high school football coach from Mississippi, was punted away with $73,160 in prize money.

7th Place – An ‘the Boss’ Tran gets his brassy nickname because he likes to call everyone ‘boss.’ The Vietnamese-born poker pro, who won a gold bracelet in pot-limit Omaha in 1991, played his final hand and lost with pocket jacks to Cunningham’s set of eights. This was Tran’s 36th time to cash at the WSOP, and fifth final table appearance. He received $104,970.

6th Place – At this point, Cunningham was dominating play at the final table. He was better than 2 to 1 in chips over all opponents and from the looks on the faces of each player, no one was happy with the way things had gone during the initial hours. Things were about to get really bad for Charlie Huff. The construction tradesman from Ohio was dealt A-5 and found his hand dominated by Scott Fischman’s A-K. Neither player made a pair, which meant Fischman’s A-K played. Huff departed with $136,780.

5th Place – Liz Lieu was the first woman to make it to a final table at this year’s WSOP. Last year’s championship series produced three female gold bracelet winners (Liebert, Duke, and Violette). But Lieu’s bid to become this year’s first female winner was crushed when she was getting low on chips and went out with a marginal hand in 5th place. Lieu, who is originally from Vietnam and now plays high-limit hold’em (mostly $400-800 limit) in Los Angeles, earned $177,000 for 5th place.

4th Place – Can Kim Hua was one of three Vietnamese-born poker pros in the finale. He lasted the longest of the three, but finally went bust with K-J after the flop came Q-J-9. Allen Cunningham had Q-J, good for top two pair. Two blanks fell on turn and river and Can was eliminated. He received $200,395.

3rd Place – The remaining trio was an all-star lineup, as well as a clash of styles and personalities. Each was aggressive in his own right, at times. But Cunningham’s significant chip lead clearly gave him an extra arsenal of weapons. Chips counts stood at 1,900,000 for Cunningham; 845,000 for Devilfish; and 680,000 for Fischman. David ‘Devilfish’ Ulliott, quite likely the most famous poker player in England and easily one of the game’s most charismatic personalities, found himself trapped between two very tough opponents. He lost half of his chips to Fischman and then decided to gamble hoping to double up, and ended up walking to the rail. After falling into third place, Devilfish semi-bluffed his way to elimination. Holding the J-10 of hearts, Devilfish moved ‘all in’ when the flop came 6-4-3 (with two hearts). Allen Cunningham called the bet with pocket 8s. The middle pair held up and Devilfish swam off the finale table as the 3rd-place finisher with $232,205.

Heads-up play began with Allen Cunningham holding the chip lead – approximately 2,200,000 to 1,600,000. It took only five minutes for Cunningham to destroy the defending champion’s aspirations of staging a comeback by repeating in this event and winning a third bracelet.

On the final hand of the tournament, Fischman got into a raising war with Cunningham on the turn, holding 5-4. The board showed 10-6-3-5. Fischman had a pair with an outside straight draw. Cunningham was delighted to call the ‘all in’ raise holding 6-3, good for two pair. A harmless ace fell on the river, which locked up gold bracelet number four for Cunningham.

Scott Fischman was cheered on by a large and enthusiastic band of friends and family, but was disappointed with the outcome. However, $325,125 in prize money helped to ease the pain.

Meanwhile, Allen Cunningham acted as if he had just spent another long day at the office. He was visibly thrilled with the victory, but noted that in comparison to other WSOP victories, this was not as satisfying as his first title – which came back in 2000.

Most interesting is the current race for all-time gold bracelets which is now taking place between poker legends Doyle Brunson, Phil Hellmuth, and Johnny Chan (with nine WSOP wins each). There is another competition taking place, between a younger generation of players, including Layne Flack (5), Phil Ivey (4) and now Cunningham (4). One must wonder – twenty years from now, will this gold bracelet won by Cunningham add to his long legacy of victories? Cunningham enjoys the advantage of now being on a “World Series of Poker freeroll.” He could play in every single event from now until the end, not cash once, and would still walk away with over a half-a-million in profits. But that’s not Cunningham’s goal.

He’s now shooting for Number Five.

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

[Zybomb]

Just realized this... 30th place a guy named Rory Monahan

He has an online e-book called Texas Hold Em Secrets I think, through some way or another I got on his list. I never ordered the book for obvious reasons, but besides promoting the book he sends out newletters with some tips (some of which are pretty decent) every week or so which I do read..... still cool for him to finish in the money, if he got to the final table I wonder if his e-book sales would go through the roof.

Was just reading this and figured Id comment

[Penguinfan]

Funny you mention that, I got on his e-mail list somehow as well and am certain I never signed up for it. Like you I do read them though and find some things very insightful.

[Reel Deal]

Ditto... lol.