Ten Millionaires and the Year's Only a Quarter GoneAlan Goehring Leads Tournament Money List With More Than $2 Million |
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After three months of major tournament play that had pros repeatedly crisscross the country and even head to the Caribbean twice, an astounding amount of money has already been won on the tournament trail.
It doesn't look like anything can slow it, or the players, down.
At the beginning of March, six players had already made $1 million or more in poker tournaments in 2006. Only a month later, and that number has nearly doubled.
With the year just a quarter gone, 10 players have won $1 million or more. If the trend continues, there's a good chance last year's record of 34 people winning $1 million or more on the tournament trail will be broken.
Current Card Player Magazine cover boy Alan Goehring stands at the top of the 2006 money list after winning the L.A Poker Classic in February. That tournament attracted an astounding 692 players and generated a prize pool of $6,643,200.
By finishing first, Goehring won $2,391,550. The tournament was so big, the runner-up, Daniel Quach took home $1,162,560. Quach's second-place finish was good enough to land him fifth on the current money list.
Card Player Magazine's current Player of the Year points leader Michael "the Grinder" Mizrachi is second on the money list with $1,907,577, thanks to a 19-day run in which he made two World Poker Tour final tables, finishing no worse than second.
First he took second at the Gold Strike World Poker Open on January 23, winning $566,352, then he won the Borgata Winter Poker Open on Feb. 1, which was good for $1,173,373. To top the run off, 10 days later he took second in a $2,500 buy-in no-limit tournament at the L.A. Poker Classic, winning another $124,402.
The next five names on the money list became millionaires this year (some for the first time, some again) by simply making a final table of a large event. All but Quach won his event.
Third through seventh on the current money list are: Steve Paul-Ambrose won $1,388,600 by winning the PokerStars Caribbean Poker Adventure; Nam Le won $1,198,300 for finishing first in the Bay 101 Shooting Star; Quach finished second in the L.A Poker Classic for $1,162,560; Jeff Williams received $1,082,070 for winning the Pokerstars.com European Poker Tour Grand Final; and Mike Simon got $1,052,890 by winning the World Poker Challenge.
Rounding out he bottom of the millionaire's list are Scotty Nguyen with $1,020,720, Kenna James with $1,005,014, and Mike Schneider with $1 million.
Most of Nguyen's winnings, $969,421 to be exact, came from winning the Gold Strike World Poker Open in January. He also finished fourth in the $3,000-buy-in no-limit event there for $18,434, as well as two low cashes in WPT events totaling $32,865.
James, who trails only Mizrachi in the Card Player PoY points race, won $700,000 for a second-place finish at the Party Poker Millions cruise, $242,251 for winning the $2,500-buy-in event at the L.A. Poker Classic, and $62,763 for finishing ninth at the Aussie Millions event, for a total of $1,005,014.
Mike Schneider sits at the bottom of the list with $1 million, which all came from outlasting James and taking first at the Party Poker Million.
And tournament poker doesn't slow down for the entire year. Two WPT events take place this month, including the Foxwoods Poker Classic that starts today and the Five-Star Poker Classic that caps off season four of the show. Tournaments that will be filmed for season five start again in May.
Three World Series of Poker Circuit events also take place from now until the start of the WSOP this summer, where plenty more millionaires will make the list. The only question is how deep will the list go this year?
Stay tuned.