The World Poker Tour Championship

The 2004 World Poker Tour Championship event at Bellagio in Las Vegas was the culmination of a record-breaking $35 million World Poker Tour season (as compared to $10 million in season one). With more than $8.3 million in prize money and a whopping $2.7 million to the winner, this tournament paid out the largest prize pool in the history of poker (and for that matter, the largest first prize of any sporting event in the history of North America).

The World Poker Tour has brought class to the game, given poker widespread acceptance, benefited everyone in the poker industry, and turned poker into a "sports sensation." The number of entrants and the prize money in WPT events has tripled in one year's time. In the inaugural WPT Championship event in 2003, 111 players paid $25,300 to enter. This year, 343 players did.

The WPT championship event was a grueling five-day event that put players through a "stress test," the likes of which have never been seen before on the green felt. It featured greats of the game from all over the world. When the smoke cleared, it was Martin de Knijff (pronounced de Knave) from Stockholm, Sweden, who took home the trophy and more than $2.7 million in cash, and carved himself a place in poker history.

Martin was the chip leader going into the final table and never came close to relinquishing the lead. He put on a poker clinic in a fantastic wire-to-wire win. And don't think his victory was a fluke. In the inaugural event a year ago, de Knijff flew over from Sweden, put up his 25K entry, and finished 15th. He came back this year, again put up his 25K to enter, played magnificently, and was crowned "The King of Poker." Congratulations, Martin!

Hats off to all 50 players who finished in the money in this event. (Bellagio Tournament Director Jack McClelland said next year's WPT Championship will pay 100 places!) Hasan Habib, a professional player from Downey, California, was the runner-up. Hasan received nearly $1.4 million for the silver medal.

Finishing in third and fourth place were two online qualifiers. Matt Matros, a 26-year-old Yale graduate (honors in mathematics) and writer from Bronxville, New York, took home more than $700,000 for his $100 investment online, and Richard Grijalva, a 22-year-old student at UC Santa Barbara who now lives in Las Vegas, qualified online for $86 and pocketed more than $450,000. (Dust off those keyboards.)

I believe you're going to see many online qualifiers doing well in upcoming major poker championship events. The experience they gain by playing numerous online tournaments bodes well for them when they convert to "live" tournaments. To illustrate this point, in addition to the two players mentioned above, one of the great stories of the 2004 WPT Championship was about online qualifier Johnny Popper of London, England.

Popper is 31 and owns a public relations company (and is a sensational juggler). He parlayed $20 in an online satellite into a seat in the WPT Championship, and then made it all the way down to the second table. On the way to his 15th-place finish, he knocked out poker superstars Erik Seidel and two-time WPT champion Erick Lindgren. Popper took home $66,532 for his efforts, and had a week he'll remember for the rest of his life. And here's the best part: Prior to playing in the WPT Championship, Popper had never played one hand of live-action poker in his entire life!

Final-table results of the 2004 WPT Championship were as follows:

1. Martin de Knijff, Stockholm, Sweden – $2,728,356

2. Hasan Habib, Downey, CA – $1,372,223

3. Matt Matros, Bronxville, NY – $706,903

4. Richard Grijalva, Las Vegas, NV – $457,408

5. Russell Rosenblum, Bethesda, MD – $332,660

6. Steve Brecher, Reno, NV – $232,862

7. Tom Jacobs, Las Vegas, NV – $166,330

8. T.J. Cloutier, Richardson, TX – $133,064

9. Lee Salem, San Diego, CA – $116,431

Take care.

Mike Sexton is the host for PartyPoker.com and a commentator on the World Poker Tour, which can be seen every Wednesday on the Travel Channel.