The Biggest Party in Poker

What do you have with a ship filled with poker players who are playing in a tournament for nearly $4 million in prize money? Yes, you do have lots of bad-beat stories, but what you really have is the PartyPoker.com Million – "The Biggest Party in Poker."

The PartyPoker.com Million III was held on Holland America's MS Ryndam recently, and it was a historical event in the poker world. For the second consecutive year, the PartyPoker.com Million was the largest event on the World Poker Tour. It was by far the largest limit hold'em tournament in history in terms of prize money, and it was also the first time an entire cruise ship has been chartered strictly for poker players.

First prize in the PartyPoker.com Million was $1 million! There were 546 players "cruisin' to a million," 468 of whom qualified online (for as little as $25) at PartyPoker.com to win a cruise package (which included a cruise for two and a paid entry into the finals) worth $9,000. And, honestly, had more cabins been available, that number would have been much larger.

Hats off to the 90 players who made the money, and especially to the 2004 PartyPoker.com Million champion – Erick Lindgren. Lindgren (a top professional player) qualified online at PartyPoker.com to get into this event. Amazingly, he finished on the "TV bubble" last year (seventh place) and came back to capture the title this year. This was his third appearance at a WPT final table in season two (more than any other player), and his second win this season. Congratulations, Erick!

It was a great final-table lineup. Some called it "David versus five Goliaths." Finishing second was poker sensation Daniel Negreanu ($675,178). The third-place finisher, Chris Hinchcliffe from Olympia, Washington, was "David" (the lone amateur) at the final table. He qualified online for $25 and pocketed $441,463 for his investment! Tournament veteran Steve Zolotow finished fourth ($259,684), Barry "Charity" Greenstein fifth ($194,763), and former World Champion Scotty Nguyen sixth ($129,842). Well done, men.

The PartyPoker.com Million is a very unique event. It's a poker tournament surrounded by a dream vacation. It's where poker players get to play in a WPT event and enjoy themselves at sea for a week. Steve Zolotow had a great line regarding the growth of the PartyPoker.com Million (which more than tripled in size from a year ago). He said, "Within a few years, it will take a fleet of ships to host the PartyPoker.com Million, and the goal of every player will be to get to the last ship."

Everyone had a great time participating in this event, including Hollywood celebrity James Woods. Poker has become a passion of his. He is a student of the game and loves to play every chance he gets. He loves the World Poker Tour and thinks it has done wonders to bring poker to the masses. And don't be surprised to see Woods at a final table of a WPT event someday. He has the potential to become a very good poker player.

Special thanks to Card Player Cruises (Linda Johnson, Mark Tenner, and Jan Fisher) and their staff for doing such an outstanding job of organizing the cruise and running the tournament. (They have hosted the PartyPoker.com Million all three years of its existence.) It's not easy to run an event of this magnitude, and they do a magnificent job.

Qualifying for next year's PartyPoker.com Million is now under way. (Go to www.partypoker.com for details.) Take a chance and go for the gusto, as the prize pool for PPM IV is estimated to be $7 million!

I hope to see you at "The Biggest Party in Poker" next year.

Take care.

Mike Sexton is the host of PartyPoker.com and a commentator on the World Poker Tour (which can be seen every Wednesday evening on the Travel Channel).