2006 Mirage Poker Showdown - The Season Begins

Does professional poker really have a season? Does the game begin on a certain date and build to a final cumulative event? Do players have an off-season? In the land of the World Poker Tour, the answer to these questions is yes, and opening day is the Mirage Poker Showdown.

The MPS marked the official start of season five of the successful poker tour/Travel Channel show. The $10,000 buy-in event drew some of the game's biggest names and brightest young stars. Every player, from Phil Ivey to Daniel Negreanu to the satellite winners, showed up with one goal - winning the first-place prize of $1,294,755 and a $25,000 seat in the Bellagio WPT
Championship event.

In the spirit of opening-day spectacle, the WPT unveiled a few new editions to the game. A sleek, futuristic set debuted on the final day of the tournament, and WPT founder Steve Lipscomb officially introduced Sabina Gadecki as the show's new host for season five.

Two big surprises, a field of 384 players, more than $3.7 million in prize money, and a new chance to become the WPT player of the year: Welcome to the Mirage Poker Showdown.

Day One - Throwing Out the First Pitch
Like the first game of any season, the early play at the MPS started tentatively. However, any lack of action did not dissuade the railbirds from sticking around, as many of the top pros faced off from the start. Two tables in particular had seat positions that read more like poker all-star rosters than random draws.

The first table featured Greg "FBT" Mueller (seat No. 1), T.J. Cloutier (seat No. 2), James Van Alstyne (seat No. 3), Phil Ivey (seat No. 4), Minh Nguyen (seat No. 8), J.C. Tran (seat No. 9), and Billy Baxter (seat No. 10). The second included Amir Vahedi (seat No. 1), defending champ Gavin Smith (seat No. 2), Ted Forrest (seat No. 6), James "KrazyKanuck" Worth (seat No. 7), and Freddy Deeb (seat No. 9).

Survival became the prevailing strategy at both marquee tables as most of the big guns tended to stay out of each other's way. The first elimination from either group did not occur until the very end of the second level when Billy Baxter's pocket nines failed to improve against Minh Nguyen's pocket jacks.

Jennifer Harman, Joe Sebok, Layne Flack, Allen Cunningham, and Mike Matusow all bowed out within the first few hours, but the real day-one carnage happened in levels three and four. The list of pros bounced from play during this time included Tuan Le, Joe Bartholdi, Amir Vahedi, T.J. Cloutier, Freddy Deeb, Mimi Tran, Martin de Kniff, Carlos Mortensen, Scott Fischman, John D'Agostino, Dan Harrington, and Erick Lindgren.

As day one came to a close, David Williams, who arrived nearly an hour late to the event, led the pack with $209,550 in chips. For him, and the rest of the survivors, the next day's goal of whittling 195 players down to 27 meant one thing: The final table was a long, long way off.

Day Two - No Middle Relief
With the excitement of day one subsided, the air among the players gathered for day two had a much different feeling - pressure. Short stacks felt the pressure to survive, chip bosses felt the pressure to maintain, and everyone felt the pressure to endure hour after hour of high-stakes poker.

Daniel Negreanu found an entertaining way to deal with the tournament stress; he had fun. Negreanu started the day with only $4,000 in chips, but drew a large crowd with his aggressive short-stack play and table banter. A faithful group of "Negreanites" cheered each time "Kid Poker" moved all in. When his A 8 ran up against pocket aces, Negreanu led the crowd in a "spade" chant, but he missed the flush and was eliminated exactly one hour after the noon start time.

Some other notable pros to fall during the first levels of day two included Barry Greenstein, Kenna James, and Chip Jett.

Gavin Smith, the reigning WPT player of the year and defending Mirage Poker Showdown champ, entered day-two action in 10th place with $91,525 in chips. He survived a formidable table on the first day, and battled with Ted Forrest and Huck Seed for most of the second, but his run ended in the waning minutes of level eight.

With the question of whether or not Smith would repeat now answered, a new issue generated buzz on the tournament floor: When would the money bubble burst? At the 7 p.m. dinner break, 66 players remained. Four hours later, Roberto Romanello finished in 37th place. Pop!

With players now in the money, the focus switched back to 27, day two's cutoff number. A wave of eliminations - including Kristy Gazes, the 29th-place finisher and the only female player to make the money - soon followed. Nearly an hour after talks of an "early" finish started, Jason Lester became the final elimination of day two in 28th place.

Day Three - The Six-Man Roster
The 27 remaining players entered day three with one guarantee: They made the money. How much was yet to be determined.

The day began with $4,000-$8,000 blinds and $1,000 antes, which meant players on short and medium stacks needed to make moves in order to survive. During the first level alone, 12 players, including John Juanda (27th) and Hasan Habib (15th), were eliminated.

After Haralabos Voulgaris finished 11th, players came back from a break to discover that play would remain hand-for-hand, with two separate tables of five. The decision drew criticism from players and fans, and tournament personnel combined the action to one table at the 33-minute mark of level 15.

The unofficial "final table" featured, among the 10 players, a few big names (David Williams, Alan Goehring, David Singer, and Harry Demetriou), a big surname (Mizrachi, but not "The Grinder"), and one big virtual name ("TranquilChaos," aka online poker pro Devin Porter).

Robert Mizrachi, the brother of Card Player Player of the Year front-runner Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi, entered day two in second place with $693,000 in chips. When the two tables were combined, the Mizrachi "entourage" (Michael, brother Eric, and Michael's wife, Lilly "Mrs. Grinder") had front-rail seats and cheered loudly for Robert.

Devin "TranquilChaos" Porter, who had a fourth-place finish at the WPT Aruba event, continued to prove the argument that poker pros can cut their teeth in online cardrooms just as successfully as in brick-and-mortar casinos. However, in spite of his online winnings, Porter expressed a strong interest in making a permanent transition to live play.

"I play online, it's what I do, it's my job," said Porter, "but these are better. I'd like to do these instead. Maybe I'll win this, stop playing online, and just travel the circuit."

The eclectic final 10 made for interesting play as different styles and personalities clashed in pursuit of the WPT televised final table.

At 6:52 p.m., Champie Douglas became the 10th-place finisher when his pocket queens ran into Tam Van Nguyen's pocket aces. Nguyen, exactly one hour after eliminating Douglas, had his pocket nines cracked when Mizrachi spiked a king on the river.

The hand caused quite a stir among the Mizrachi entourage, and tournament personnel were forced to ask friends and family to stay behind the rails.

Shortly after the dinner break, Alan Goehring moved all in preflop with pocket nines, only to be called by Steve Frederick, who held pocket kings. Goehring's eighth-place finish meant that the remaining players were all on the bubble for the final six spots.

At 9:26 p.m., a Stan Weiss runner-runner club flush defeated David Singer's two pair, and the bubble burst.

The Final Table - Winning Time
Three days after a field of 384 arrived at the Mirage Poker Showdown, the final six players sat down at the WPT's brand-new set to decide which one of them would leave with $1,294,755 and a $25,000 seat in the WPT Championship event.

The chip counts coming into the final day of action were as follows:
1. Stan Weiss - $2,437,000 (seat No. 5)
2. Robert Mizrachi - $2,019,000 (seat No. 2)
3. Devin "TranquilChaos" Porter - $964,000 (seat No. 1)
4. David Williams - $921,000 (seat No. 6)
5. Harry Demetriou - $822,000 (seat No. 3)
6. Steve Frederick - $545,000 (seat No. 4)

After a short ceremony to award Gavin Smith the 2005 WPT Player of the Year award, the action started at 4:40 p.m. with $15,000-$30,000 blinds and $3,000 antes.

Fans in attendance not only witnessed the unveiling of poker's newest arena, but also were privileged to one hell of an entertaining final table.

Robert Mizrachi Falls First
It took nearly two hours for the final table to see its first casualty. The style of play among the six players appeared to be divided right down the middle, as Williams, Mizrachi, and Demetriou struck early and often, while Frederick, Porter, and Weiss opted for a more defensive approach. Mizrachi was eliminated when he reraised all in before the flop with pocket queens, only to be called by Weiss, the one person with enough chips to knock him out, who was holding pocket kings.

Sixth place and $129,476 was a decent finish, but one could sense that Mizrachi, and his entourage, entered the day expecting so much more.

Steve Frederick Out Minutes Later
Frederick, coming off a win at the WSOP Tournament Circuit Caesars $1,000 event, played the entire final table as the short stack. Six minutes after Mizrachi exited the tournament, Frederick moved all in from the button with the A K. Williams, the big blind, called, then smiled as he flipped over the 9 5. After an A 7 6 flop, Williams caught a 9 on the turn and 5 on the river to make two pair and knock Frederick out in fifth place, which was good for $166,469.

David Williams Takes Fourth
Williams' impressive run at the Mirage Poker Showdown started the moment he arrived and ended one spot away from the top three. He bucked the current trend of day-one chip leaders failing to reach the final table, and impressed fans and opponents with his consistent play.

After flopping a straight and doubling up through Demetriou, Williams (with J-6) entered a pot with Porter (with the K 3) and pushed all in after the K J 10 flop. When a 6 came on the turn, Williams seemed on the verge of doubling up for a second time, but a king on the river gave Porter trips and Williams was eliminated in fourth place, earning $221,958.

The Man With Two Outs
The second most memorable hand of the night (stick around to see the first) began when Demetriou limped in from the small blind and Weiss checked. After a K 5 2 flop, Weiss fired $200,000 into the pot and Demetriou called. Demetriou checked the 2 turn, but immediately called Weiss' all-in bet. Demetriou, holding the 10 2, had Weiss' J 5 dominated, but the 5, one of only two cards left in the deck that could save Weiss, hit on the river, and he doubled up to more than $2 million in chips.

After the tournament, when asked by The Circuit host Scott Huff about the hand, Weiss joked, "Well, everybody told me I only had two outs, but I actually had three - the two fives and outta here."

Devin Porter Improves on His Last WPT Finish
Porter, now two-for-two in WPT final-table appearances, saw his impressive run come to an end after he was short-stacked and forced to move all in. A K 9 4 8 10 board gave Demetriou two pair, and the online poker pro finished in third place and took home $332,937 in prize money. After his last two showings, few doubt that Porter will soon become a regular face on the professional tournament circuit.

The Final Two - Stan Weiss and Harry Demetriou
With Porter gone, the day-two and day-three chip leaders squared off for $1,294,755 and the Mirage Poker Showdown title.

Weiss, a soft-spoken, part-time poker player from Nashville, Tennessee, spent most of the tournament near the middle or top of the leader board. Despite being in a position to take home more than $1.2 million in prize money, Weiss assured fans and media that, along with having no idea what he would do with the money, he had no intentions of turning pro.

Demetriou, an animated, gregarious tournament circuit player, wanted the title badly, but not just for the hefty cash prize and WPT victory. Notorious for making unusual prop bets (one of which included paying a male friend $100,000 to have breast implants), a win for Demetriou meant he could take off the MartinsPoker shirt he had been forced to wear since losing a wager to fellow poker pro Martin de Kniff.

The Mirage Poker Showdown came to a memorable end on the 158th hand of the day. Fighting the $100,000-$200,000 blinds and Weiss' near $5 million stack, Demetriou moved all in preflop. After the call, Demetriou flipped over K-6 and Weiss showed K-5. As the board came J-9-7-3, Demetriou was a huge favorite to win or at least chop the pot. With the WPT audience on their feet, Weiss rivered his second miracle 5 of the night and won the hand.

Demetriou, doomed to wear the MartinsPoker shirt for at least one more event, congratulated Weiss and graciously accepted the second-place, $637,272 finish.

After the event, Weiss, now a WPT champ with a $1,294,744 poker bankroll, seemed to take the victory in stride. "I've been playing poker since I was 6 or 7 years old," Weiss said. "I do it for the fun."

Whether he turns pro or not, Weiss will be back in Vegas next April, when he will take his $25,000 seat at Bellagio in the WPT Championship.