2005 Poker Year in Review - Part I

The calendar forges forward as relentlessly as John Phan plays a gigantic stack, thus we have rapidly reached recap time. The seemingly boundless popularity of poker continued during the last 12 months. At the current pace, in 12 years we will have an entire planet of poker players, and I'll need a logarithm to track the growth of poker rooms, tournaments, and television contracts.

A Swing and a Miss for Poker

As we went to press with the 2004 recap, an interesting news event was transpiring. The Montreal Expos baseball franchise was up for grabs and poker became involved. Las Vegas competed, but Washington, DC nabbed the financially troubled organization. Alas, the rulers of our national pastime, not known for their sagacity, tabbed DC before ensuring all funding details concerning the Expos' new home were covered. Oops! It was belatedly determined that the current District of Columbia budget didn't include the necessary funding associated with renovating RFK Stadium, and then building a modern home for the soon-to-be ex-Expos. That's when poker revealed pocket aces. From behind cloud-covered cyberspace fences, Empire Poker proudly began its march to the mound. The deep-pocketed online poker room arrived and graciously extended $50 million to the newly named Nationals (possibly the Bluffers if baseball accepted the offer). This whopping bailout would easily satisfy all funding needs. Yikes, what a dilemma for Commissioner Magoo (Bud Selig) and politicians, who would be treated to glass-enclosed luxury box seats! Would Magoo be able to avoid adding another controversial subject to his overflowing plate? Could the Senate and House members pull strings to stop some of the very folks they are targeting for lost tax revenue, unlegislated gaming, and money laundering? Alas, the fear of seeing 52 playing cards on the Empire Poker Stadium outfield fences led to at least one councilperson's vote change, thus the stadium funding package, a controversial bill that the DC Council had battled over for nearly three months, finally passed by a 7-6 vote. The politicians proved they couldn't handle big-bet poker; they folded to Empire Poker's $50 million bet.

Daniel Negreanu, Shannon Elizabeth, John Phan, Evelyn Ng

Then, a Home Run
Putting baseball's problems in perspective was the heart-wrenching Tsunami disaster. Poker players banded together and opened their purse strings displaying continued, consistent, and strong charitable generosity. Tournament proceeds, individual contributions, and organized group involvement led to sustained support of the victims, and it continued throughout the year with celebrities such as Mimi Rogers, James Woods, Shannon Elizabeth, and Jennifer Tilly leading the way with their time and money.



Topsy-turvy Time on Thursdays
ESPN, the best small-screen friend of a sports addict like myself, gave us Tilt, a weekly Thursday evening one-hour drama about poker players. The show resembled our world of poker as much as I mirror Brad Pitt. The acting, other than Michael Madsen's decent performance, was routinely subpar and the story lines were predictable once a viewer realized that the creative goal was to "come over the top" in all subplots. This led to beatings, killings, police chief corruption, gaming commission malfeasance, and a denouement in which the three "good guys" make the final 10 in a field of 2,300 players. Oh yeah, the leading man won the $5 million first-place prize and the bracelet. I'm surprised the thought didn't occur to the writers to put the bad guy, played by Madsen, in a black hat at the final table. I'm sure Hoyt Corkins would have contributed one of his lids. I would be more damning, but I believe ESPN advertises with us from time to time. I'll let Doyle Brunson take over. When asked for an opinion of the show, Texas Dolly shot straight: "I think Tilt is a disgrace. I can't believe ESPN would air something like that and then try to promote poker. I'm really disappointed and angry, and so is the whole poker world."



Back to the Real World

In the calendar year's first World Poker Tour (WPT) event, John Gale, playing in his first live tournament, blew by the field by gathering chips early, taking a lead to the final table, and knocking off his final five opponents to capture $890,000 and the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure title. The burly, good-natured United Kingdom resident retired from his management consultant line of work and now plays poker full time.



The WPT then headed to Mississippi, where John Stolzmann, a University of Wisconsin student, prevailed in the sixth-annual Jack Binion World Poker Open (WPO) four-day championship event, hosted by the Horseshoe Casino-Hotel and Gold Strike Casino-Resort. The youngest-ever WPO champion made his first major win a memorable one, transporting $1,465,944 (less some tax withholding) from Tunica to Badgerland. The 23-year-old bested a strong field by arriving at the final table with the fourth-highest chip count and passing Scotty Nguyen, Daniel Negreanu, and (a grueling six hours later) veteran high-limit cash-game star Chau Giang to take the trophy. This 23-day tourney, along with many that were to follow, broke previous attendance and prize pool records (8,702 players entered the 20 events and $12,369,522 was paid out).



Hockey Passes the Puck

On Feb. 16, Commissioner Gary Bettman announced the National Hockey League's 2004-2005 season would be canceled. While blame was spread around, I maintain the NHL's failure to market its sport to television on a consistent and lucrative basis was the underlying problem. Hockey simply doesn't translate well from live action to the small screen (even to 62-inch screens), because the puck is difficult to follow and some of the best action takes place on the periphery. In contrast, poker tournaments burst beautifully onto television sets and are devoid of technical viewing problems. Poker capably filled the ESPN programming vacancy after hockey pulled its goaltenders. Reruns from past World Series of Poker (WSOP) contests and the previous U.S. Poker Open drew excellent ratings.



Flight or Fight on Friday Night

In addition, many new poker shows were seen by the nearly 80 million who play poker. One such fresh series was delivered by GSN (formerly the Game Show Network). The cable network set up 20 cameras at the Plaza Hotel in Las Vegas to bring us the Poker Royale Battle of the Sexes, a seven-episode Friday evening series that featured 12 professionals vying for points based on order of finish in six preliminary events. The men, led by Amir Vahedi's two wins, captured all six initial matches. That gave them some extra chips, but the fair-sex survivors (Evelyn Ng, Karina Jett, and Kathy Liebert) had their best run of cards in the finale, enabling them to accumulate more points than Vahedi, Antonio Esfandiari, and Layne Flack. Individual honors and $40,000 went to Liebert, a top performer on the tournament tour for the past 10 years. Kathy, all smiles, modestly, succinctly, and accurately explained, "I had the best hands and they held up."

Michael Mizrachi, Layne Flack, Chau Giang, Tuan Le

Mighty Michael Mizrachi Makes his Mark

As St. Valentine's Day became a moneymaking memory for Hershey's the WPT stopped at Commerce Casino in California, where 24-year-old Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi arrived at the final table with 41 percent of the chips. The young professional played carefully, later stating, "I let the other guys knock each other out first so that I could play heads up. I knew that heads up was my strongest game." Six hours later, including a one-on-one battle that lasted more than two hours, Mizrachi captured the $10,000 buy-in L.A. Poker Classic title and $1,859,909, along with a guaranteed seat in the WPT World Championship at Bellagio Hotel and Casino. Just 25 days before this huge win, Michael had shown signs of getting warmed up by finishing fifth to Stolzmann in Tunica.



Here's Hellmuth

March roared in with a great new tourney, the 2005 National Heads-Up Poker Championship. The event was taped by NBC at the Golden Nugget Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, and aired on four weekends in May. A random draw of the 64 invitees began the festivities. The winner would be the player who could send six consecutive opponents packing in heads-up no-limit hold'em matches.



As great as he is in no-limit play, I would have given Phil Hellmuth Jr. no better than 30-to-1 odds based on the strong field and Phil's propensity to get thrown off his game when encountering adversity. But aside from falling off his chair and landing clumsily on the carpet after being victimized by a Chris "Jesus" Ferguson 10-to-1 suckout, Phil played under control. In addition, the format helped him. Playing one opponent at a time does not compel a player to build chips and stay in range of the chip leaders in a large field. Thus, Phil's reticence to get involved in coin-flip hands wasn't a disadvantage. The 1989 world champion captured the $500,000 first prize after defeating Ferguson, the 2000 world champion. The finale couldn't have been scripted better if NBC had rigged the tournament. Hellmuth depleted Ferguson's chips in the first match of the two-out-of-three contest, and had him on the ropes in the second. But, Chris nailed a long-shot river 9 (he's good at hitting nines in key underdog situations), turned the tide, and got even. In the rubber match, Hellmuth held good cards and played them well, a combination that the always composed and cordial Ferguson found too much to overcome. Phil's road to victory included wins over Men Nguyen, Paul Phillips, Huck Seed, Lyle Berman, Antonio Esfandiari, and Ferguson.



Esfandiari and T.J. Cloutier shared third and fourth prize money by making the semifinals. Antonio, an accomplished magician, pulled a poker rabbit out of his hat when he battled back from a $900-$39,100 chip deficit against Howard "The Professor" Lederer, one of the best players in the game.



Hellmuth, poker's premier walking sound bite, gave us these gems:



• (Stammering after getting up from the carpet): "That's why, that's why, that's why I'm the best player in the world. Even the great players give their chips to me; at least they try to."



• (On his 18-month hiatus from the winner's circle): "This slump thing is starting to get very annoying. It's an insult. What, you don't win something for a year and a half and they forget who you are? All the eyes are on me, and I see it, and I feel it, and I remember why."



Views from the Cruise

Card Player Cruises hosted the PartyPoker Million IV WPT championship. An impressive 668 clickers won their way into the $10,500 limit hold'em event by qualifying online. Another 67 players reached into their deep pockets. Mike "The Kid" Gracz started with $10,000 in chips and finished with $7,350,000 in front of him when the last pot was pushed. The Raleigh, North Carolina, resident earned $1.5 million and picked up a paid entry to the WPT finale. This tournament marked a milestone: The WPT had now paid more than $100 million to its players. To put this amount into perspective, Steve Lipscomb, the president of WPT Enterprises Inc., stated, "We have lifted poker from a backroom game to a sport that is churning out a whole new generation of respected professional players making their living by competing in our tournaments around the world. $100 million is just a mind-boggling number, and it sends a message that the WPT and poker are here to stay. If you look back at the PGA, it took more than 30 years to reach $100 million in prize money."

Gracz proved his ability on dry land at the World Series of Poker (WSOP) by taking the bracelet and $594,460 at the conclusion of the $1,000 no-limit hold'em tournament that attracted 826 players and 1,495 rebuys (the largest number in WSOP history). The likeable young pro has a great poker future, having proved he can master large fields.



Spee Surprises the Stars

The WPT debarked and rolled into Reno, where Arnold Spee fooled almost everyone on April 1 when he emerged from a field of 631 to win the World Poker Challenge. The Reno Hilton seated 4,083 players in 19 events and distributed $3,253,753 in prize money. The tall young man who optimistically quit his sales job to pursue professional poker slipped past stoic superstar Phil Ivey and outlasted all-around gaming expert Blair Rodman to win the World Poker Challenge $5,000 buy-in no-limit hold'em main event. Spee, a Thousand Oaks, California, resident, took home $663,880 (which includes paid admission to the 2005 WPT World Championship) and a shiny silver watch.

Phil Ivey, Gavin Smith, Mike Gracz, Phil Hellmuth Jr.

Greenstein's Greenbacks

Barry Greenstein received poker's most prestigious accolade, the Brian Saltus Award. The expert player, author, and father of six not only donates his tournament winnings to Children Inc. and other charities, but plays skillfully with class and dignity, while bringing honor and prestige to the game, the traits Brian exemplified before leaving us way too soon.



April Showers, Tuan Le Towers

California's Tuan Le outlasted 451 opponents to capture the seven-day Five-Star World Poker Classic $25,000 championship at Bellagio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. The fearless chip pusher walked away with $2,856,150 and a shiny silver tray emblematic of the World Poker Tour (WPT) season-three championship. The 26-year-old, an avid tennis and basketball recreational player, needed sustained focus to handle the longest final-table action in WPT history (193 hands spanning more than seven hours of play). The next day, when I asked the rap music fan to give our readers some advice, he stated, "… the main thing is to find out what works for you and use it to your advantage. If you are a conservative person and tight player naturally, find out how to win with that style. If you are like me – they call me borderline reckless – find out how to best use your gambling tendencies to win. Learn about yourself and you will win. Don't try to imitate or duplicate what isn't right for you."



Poker Partners with Peace Games

A month after celebrities and poker professionals traveled to Scottsdale to raise funds for the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Arizona, the Hollywood stars came out in early May to support the second-annual Peace Games Celebrity Poker Tournament, an event designed to promote and fund projects for children who wish to become peacemakers in their communities through participation in games and projects that form partnerships with elementary schools, families, and young adult volunteers in an effort to develop safe classrooms and a safe community while endeavoring to change how society views our youth. More than $100,000 was raised thanks to poker players and screen luminaries such as Mimi Rogers, Jennifer Tilly, Laura Prepon, Gina Gershon, Allison Janney, Bijou Phillips, and Shannon Elizabeth (now, that's a hot table), along with sponsorship from GQ, Grey Goose, Calvin Klein, Aston Martin, and others. Commerce Casino graciously provided the tables.



Marvin "SlamBam" Lamm Mauls Mesquite

Staging a one-man wrecking crew, Marvin Lamm journeyed from his luxuriously landscaped lair in southwest Las Vegas to the Oasis Open in Mesquite. He ransacked the live games and burned up the craps tables for three days before heading home. Twice each year, Jan Fisher and Linda Johnson hold tournaments there, an hour or so north of Downtown Las Vegas. They attract an ever-increasing number of players with a wide range of playing experience. Lamm is a relatively new player. He has been drawn into poker through television shows and friends who are poker enthusiasts. After six months of study, two lessons from a top professional, and tribulations at the tables, SlamBam is comfortable in ring games and at tournament tables.



As we know, the prize money in major tournaments has become life-changing for those fortunate enough to cash in one of the top places. The Oasis Resort Hotel events do not target professionals (the top prize in an individual event rarely exceeds $10,000), but they are fun, run to perfection, and offer affordable buy-ins, and you simply cannot beat the great low-cost food and room prices ($15 per night).



Money Flows at the Mirage in May

The Mirage Poker Showdown lasted 18 days and offered players a choice of different games and buy-ins (starting at $1,060). The WPT season-four opening telecast, a four-day contest costing $10,000, drew 317 players who funded a $3,074,900 prize pool. Gavin Smith vaulted from 67th place on day one to second in chips at the close of play on day two. He did well enough on day three to arrive at the final table, but with less than 11 percent of the chips in play. The Canadian rapidly built his stack and held a $4,595,000-to-$1,760,000 lead over the accomplished Ted Forrest when heads-up play began. Four hands later, Gavin had all of the chips. Smith cashed for $1,153,778 (which includes a prepaid ticket to the 2006 WPT championship) and a cherished WPT trophy.

Men Mguyen, Laura Prepon, Scotty Nguyen
Ted Forrest, Amir Vahedi, Jennifer Tilly

Wynn Welcomes World

As May 27 became May 28, Steve Wynn opened Wynn Las Vegas and revealed a 27-table state-of-the-art poker room. Daniel Negreanu was tabbed "The Ambassador," and along with making sure the players were taken care of, he offered a challenge to all. He would play freezeouts with anyone, in almost any game, for sums between $100,000 and $500,000. Daniel is a real roving gambling man.



Beautification of Bellagio
The proactive Doug Dalton, never a man to get complacent or sit on a lead, increased the number of tables in his prestigious Bellagio cardroom to 40, and refurbished the top-level area – now known as "Bobby's Room," in honor of Bobby Baldwin – providing a sanctum for high-limit players who compete in games starting at $1,000-$2,000.

Lee will return in the next issue to recap the WSOP and more in Part II.