Day 4 - The 2006 WSOP Main EventHachem's Title Defense Comes To An End; Negreanu Falls; Field Down To 135 |
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Tournament officials expected 600 players to participate on day 4 of the 2006 World Series of Poker main event. They got 481.
The disparity came about not because of a scheduling conflict or entrants oversleeping, but as a result of the day 3 post-money-bubble elimination frenzy that claimed 140 players in the first 15 minutes.
While the shortened field may have affected players' strategies, the tournament schedule remained unchanged.
Action kicked off at noon PDT and the level 16 action featured $2,000-$4,000 blinds and $500 antes.
The big story of day 4 centered on Joe Hachem and his continued title defense. The 2005 champion entered play with $139,000.
The returning field also included three of today's most successful female players, Annie Duke, Kathy Liebert, and Cyndy Violette. While Liebert (275th - $38,759) and Violette (400th - $30,512), both serious short stacks from the beginning of play, failed to survive action, Duke raked enough pots to amass over $900,000 and finish the day in the top half of the leaderboard.
Three-and-a-half hours into play, Kyle Bowker became the first player in the 2006 main event to reach the $1 million chip mark. On a Q
6
2
2 board, Bowker reraised all in and his opponent, John Magill, mucked the Q 7 face up. Bowker showed the A 10 semibluff, but the ESPN rabbit camera revealed that the river was going to be the A.
The pot bumped Bowker's stack up to $1,115,000.
Bowker gained attention for his milestone win, but the focus of the media, fans, and players soon switched back to Hachem.
With only one early double-up as Hachem's biggest hand, ESPN cameras rushed over to the former champ when he moved all in preflop against Andrew Schreibman and another opponent. The 2006 bracelet winner appeared to be on the verge of doubling up for the second time when he flipped up pocket aces to Schreibman's pocket jacks and the other opponent's A-Q.
The title defense, and Hachem's reign as poker's world champion, came to end when a jack landed on the flop.
Upon his elimination, fans, players, and Harrahs staff gave Hachem a standing ovation. Then, when tournament officials announced that the defending champion had been eliminated, the Amazon Room again erupted in applause for last year's winner.
Hachem walked off the tournament floor as the 238th place finisher ($42,882).
Nine eliminations later, another massive fan favorite exited play. Daniel Negreanu, surrounded by railbirds wherever he sat, struggled through a day that saw more downs than ups.
"Every time I made a climb up to respectability," Negreanu explained, "somebody kicked me down."
At 6:44 p.m. PDT, Negreanu pushed all in for his remaining $43,000. David Woo made the call and showed K J to Negreanu's Q 10. The J
7 5 4 2 board paired Woo's jack, and ended Negreanu's 2006 main event run with a 229th-place finish ($42,882).
Despite his disappointment, Negreanu managed to find a silver lining to his elimination. "As for the next couple weeks," Negreanu told Card Player's John Stapleton, "it's a good time to just…golf."
As day 4 progressed into the later levels, a new name emerged from the remaining field, Jaime Gold. The Malibu, California poker player, with no previous WSOP cashes, took the chip lead when his A K hit trip aces on the flop to crack Rick Solomon's pocket queens. The win gave Gold a $1,670,000 chip stack, and he never looked back.
Gold then eliminated four more opponents en route to amassing $3,700,000, nearly a $1,500,000 lead over his closest competitor, Max Reele.
At 1:25 a.m. PDT, with five levels of play on the books, action concluded for day 4 of the 2006 WSOP main event.
The top five chip counts are as follows:
1. Jaime Gold - $3,700,000
2. Max Reele - $2,358,000
3. James Routos - $2,279,000
4. Kyle Bowker - $2,272,000
5. Michael Binger - $1,889,000
Some pros who moved on to day 4 included Prahlad Friedman ($1,558,000), Jeffrey Lisandro ($1,208,000), Annie Duke ($919,000), Thomas Wahlroos ($884,000), Humbreto Brenes ($835,000), and Allen Cunningham ($503,000).
Joining the list of eliminated notables were Mark Vos (457th - $26,389), David Danesghar (412th - $30,512), Ted Forrest (408th - $30,512), Allyn Jaffrey Shulman ($30,512), Tom McEvoy (371st - $34,636), Hoyt Corkins (364th - $34,636), Surinder Sunar (324th - $34,636), and David Chiu (147th - $47,006).
Complete final day 4 chip counts and payouts can be found via the "Featured Chip Count" link on the CardPlayer.com home page.
The road to the final table continues at noon PDT when the 135 remaining players return to the Amazon Room for day 5.
Stay tuned to CardPlayer.com for live updates, chip counts, photos, videos, and for a new episode of "The Circuit."
For more information on bracelet winners and other WSOP news stories, please visit http://www.cardplayer.com/tournaments/wsop/2006s.
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