Caesars Palace opened in August of 1966, and since then it has become legendary on the Las Vegas Strip. Although new hotels have been built around it since that time, Caesars Palace has remained at the top. It also has become more involved in the world of poker in recent years, recently remodeling its poker room and hosting the
NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship the last three years. In October, it hosted the first
Caesars Palace Classic, and the poker world responded;
287 players took their seats and were ready to compete for the $1 million first-place prize. It was the first $10,000 buy-in open tournament to take place in Las Vegas since the main event of the
World Series of Poker in July, and the players were eager for it to begin. Photos of poker legends of the past, as well as great players of the present, adorned the walls of the tournament poker room, and it gave the setting a level of historical ambiance. "Shuffle up and deal" was announced shortly after noon, and the players' fate was left to the gods of the felt.
Days One and Two - A Guarantee is a Guarantee
The action during the first two levels of the day was defined by the usual silence of the early stages of an event. With $15,000 stacks and $25-$50 blinds to start the action, deep-stack poker was the order of the day. The biggest news of the day came shortly after the beginning of the third level of play. Tournament Director Jason Halperin announced that the event had attracted a total of 287 players, which created a total prize pool of $2,728,222. He continued by saying that Caesars Palace had added $126,967 to the prize pool to ensure that there would be a $1 million first-place prize. This was met with a round of applause from every player in the room. "It should be like that; everybody should copy this and give the money back to the players," said Kido Pham when asked about the added money.
The players now knew what they were playing for and turned their attention back to the felt with renewed diligence. The magic money-bubble number of 27 was reached by 8:45 p.m. on the second day of play. Shawn Chaconas was the first player to get paid when he was eliminated in 27th place by a full house that was held by David Singer. The action continued, and the final table was reached shortly after 2 a.m., after some notable players had recorded a cash in the event. They included Jimmy Tran (25th - $16,369), Lee Watkinson (23rd - $16,369), "Captain" Tom Franklin (19th - $16,369), and Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi (14th - $27,282). Nine players remained, and here is how things looked at the end of day two:
Day Three - Hail, Singer!
Final-table action began at a little after 3 p.m. on day three. At times it resembled a sprint, and at others, a marathon. The early action was the sprint, as the players with small stacks tried to double up fast rather than become victims of the rising blinds and antes. Vivek Rajkumar was the first player to fall on hand No. 11 in ninth place ($54,564). Three hands later, George Unich pulled the trigger and moved all in, but he was no more successful than Rajkumar. Scott Fischman held aces up, which were enough to send Unich home in eighth place ($81,847).
The mayhem continued two hands later when Jose Valdes drew a line in the sand: He was all in for his tournament life when he turned up the A
Q
. He had the A
7
of Tony Cousineau dominated, but the 9
6
2
5
8
hit the
table, and Cousineau made a straight to eliminate Valdes in seventh place ($109,129). Alex Bolotin was now precariously low on chips, and this situation forced his hand when he moved all in four hands later against Justin Bonomo. Bonomo's jacks were good enough to take down the pot, and Bolotin was the sixth-place finisher ($136,411).
The action had started quickly at the final table, and Fortuna, the Roman goddess of fortune, had smiled only upon the rich up to this point. Five solid professionals remained, and all eyes turned to the player with the smallest stack, David Singer. He now sat at the moment when fate would either send him home or double him up to survive. His pocket kings held up against Fischman when he moved all in for $200,000, and from there he built his stack even more. He moved all in on the very next hand to collect the blinds and antes, then took more than
$110,000 from Fischman a few hands later, and crippled Bonomo when he doubled up through him with big slick in the hole and a king on the board. Singer was the most active and aggressive player during this stretch, and his chip stack was a testament to that aggression. Bonomo would not recover from the hand in which Singer doubled up through him, and he fell in fifth place ($163,693). "I just tried to play my own game, and when you're playing against good players like that, you have to be thinking on a few levels. … I can't give you a simple answer, but you try to get inside their heads and make a move when you can," said Singer, when asked about his climb to the top against formidable competition.
At this point of the final table, the action began to slow down. All of the remaining players had a fair amount of chips, and considering the size of their stacks relative to the blinds and antes, there was room for a lot of play. The length of final-table play nearly doubled before Cousineau fell in fourth place ($190,976). His pocket kings were outrun when Kido Pham spiked a third queen on the flop.
The stacks were about even at the start of threehanded action, and play got serious. The final trio traded off winning pots until Fischman got his entire chip stack into the middle. On a board of K
6
5
A
5
, Fischman moved all in and Singer called. Singer turned over the A
6
and Fischman showed the A
8
. Fischman was eliminated in third place ($245,540) and Singer took a monster chip leader into heads-up play:
David Singer - $3,250,000
Kido Pham - $1,050,000
Caesar himself then appeared to present the trophy, a Breitling watch, and $1 million in cash to the champion. The heads-up match began on the 100th hand of the final table, and little did anyone know at the time that this was just the halfway point of play. Pham and Singer tested each other for weaknesses over many hands; they were like two sword fighters each waiting for the other to make a mistake. "Especially against Kido, I was going to play small pots. … I anticipated it taking a long time," said Singer. The two played small ball for more than 100 hands before the final hand was dealt. It was on the 103rd hand of heads-up play (the 204th of the final table) that Pham limped in and Singer raised $110,000. Pham went into the tank, and then reraised $300,000 more. Singer moved all in, and Pham instantly called. Pham flipped up pocket kings and Singer showed the A
9
. The board came 10
8
5
7
6
, and Singer's rivered straight ended the tournament. Singer won $1 million and Pham took home $480,167.
Singer was very happy after the win, and the tournament had made quite an impression on him: "Caesars was awesome, they put in $125,000. They are a first-class organization, they ran a great tournament, and I can't say enough about what a good job they did."
This was Singer's first $10,000 buy-in win, and he now has more than $3 million in career earnings. This title only helps enhance his larger body of work, which includes back-to-back final-table appearances in the
World Series of Poker $50,000 buy-in H.O.R.S.E. event in the past two years. "I'm very excited. When I play, I try not to get too excited, but I'm thrilled to win this; this is really a good tournament, and I couldn't be happier," said Singer.
