Events 6 to 10 | 11 to 15 | 16 to 20 | 21 to 25 | 26 to 30 | 31 to 35 | 36 to 40 | 41 to 45

2006 World Series of Poker
Events 1 to 5

Event #1 June 26 -- Casino Employee No-Limit
Buyin: $500.00
The first event drew casino employees to the tables like little kids to a candy store as 1,232 entrants participated, smashing the record of 662 participants who entered last year. First day of event 1 was also of mega proportions as the field was lowered to 18 players from 1,232 which took over 17 hours to accomplish. Payouts went to the top 101 entrants and the prize pool was $554,400.

Second day took around 8 hours for Chris Gros to be declared the victor of WSOP's Event #1. His winning hand came just after midnight when in the heads up with Bryan Devonshire, Bryan raised preflop of which Chris decided to call. Flop showed 8h 3s 3d. Bryan bets, Chris raises and then Bryan moves all-in with Chris calling immediately. Bryan has Ac Kc, but Chris shows 4h 3c giving him 3 of a kind. Turn card was 10h and river was 7s, ensuring Chris the title of tournament champion. Here are the final table results:

1. Chris Gros -- $127,496
2. Bryan Devonshire -- $66,528
3. R.J. Wright -- $38,531
4. Scott Clark -- $27,720
5. Christopher Himmenger -- $22,176
6. Craig Federspiel -- $19,404
7. David Wortham -- $16,632
8. Marsha Waggoner -- $13,860
9. Barry Goldberg -- $12,474

Event #2 June 27 -- No-Limit Hold'Em
Buyin: $1,500.00
This was a monster tournament with 2,776 entering to play, taking 3 days to complete. The result was a massive prize pool of $3,789,240. Prior to the tournament WSOP officials said the because so many people wanted to play, they decided to cap the field at 2200 players and 500 alternates. They were pretty much true to their word on this one. Payouts went to the top 277 players! And speaking of players Phil Ivey, Greg Raymer, Mike Matusow, Johnny Chan, Layne Flack, David Williams, Jennifer Harman, Clonie Gowen and Allen Cunningham were among the top pros seen.

By June 29th, the 9 for the final table got together to see who goes home with the bracelet with play beginning at 2:00 p.m. 10 hours later it is down to two players Brandon Cantu (2,419,000 in chips) and Mark Ly (1,745,000 in chips). Things did not go well for Ly as he went down to 10,000 chips in 15 min. The final hand went like this, Mark Ly (10c 2h) went all in on the blind and was called by Brandon Cantu (Qs 5h). The board showed Ad 5d 4d Qc 8d, leaving Brandon Cantu the event champion and WSOP bracelet holder.

1. Brandon Cantu -- $757,839
2. Mark Ly -- $416,816
3. Drew Rubin -- $226,597
4. Lee Padilla -- $176,579
5. Brent Roberts -- $151,570
6. Don Zewin -- $126,940
7. Ron Stanley -- $107,614
8. Mark Swartz -- $88,668
9. Juan Carlos Mortensen -- $71,617

Event #3 June 28 -- Pot-Limit Hold'Em
Buyin: $1,500.00
1,102 players came to the tables to take a chance at a WSOP bracelet playing Pot Limit Hold'Em. Prize pool size was $1,504,230. Payouts went to the top 99 players. The action was extremely fierce even by tournament standards. By 7:00 p.m. only 200 were left in the tournament. At the end of Day 1 there were 71 players left to advance. Day 2 which was played down to the 9 for the final table saw some who were on fire, get stopped suddenly like sugar was poured into their gas tanks. Players like Michael Mizrachi sent to the rails by Randy Jensen, Chris Ferguson, Victor Ramdin who seemed unstoppable and Dewey Tomko who left in 10th position just missing the final table to name a few.

The third day started with Alan Gilbert leaving in 9th place and John Juanda in 8th, both courtesy of Can Kim Hua. Richard Chase lost a hand to Eric Lynch and left in 7th. Next Can Kim Hua (6th) who played in excellent fashion lost out to Burt Boutin. Then Burt Boutin (5th) lost to Eric Lynch's full house and went to the sidelines. George Bronstein went in 4th after mucking his hand after an all in 3 way with Lynch and Furst. Then Eric Lynch lost out to Rocky Enciso and went out in 3rd.

Rafe Furst became the winner of Event #3 and here is how it happened. Rocky Enciso bet and Rafe raised after a flop of 10h 8s 4h. Rocky calls and both see the turn card of 10s. Rocky bets 400,000, Rafe puts him all in and Rocky calls. Both players show cards and Rocky Enciso (Jh 4s) along with Rafe (8d 4d) watch the river card of 2d come up. Rafe won with the higher two pair and received his first WSOP bracelet.

1. Rafe Furst -- $345,984
2. Rocky Enciso -- $180,508
3. Eric Lynch -- $104,544
4. George Bronstein -- $75,252
5. Burt Boutin -- $60,169
6. Can Kim Hua -- $52,648
7. Richard Chase -- $45,127
8. John Juanda -- $37,606
9. Alan Gilbert -- $33,854

Event #4 June 29 -- Limit Hold'Em
Buyin: $1,500.00
With the World Series of Poker reporting this being one of the largest player fields for Limit Hold'Em in poker history, 1,068 entrants lined up for the tables. The prize pool was a juicy $1,457,820 in size. Payouts went to the top 100 players. With this tournament being spread out over 3 days, Day 1 saw fast action having the field whittled to 69 players by 12:50 a.m. in the morning. Having the funnel close by that much meant a lot of players didn't get through. Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi went out in the first hour. Others who followed were Barry Greenstein, Mark Seif, Phil Hellmuth Jr. Patrik Antonius, Chris Ferguson a.k.a. "Jesus", Layne Flack, Daniel Negreanu, Jean-Robert Bellande and Tony Ma.

Day 2 saw Greg Mueller leave in 33rd, Chris Tsiprailides leave in 24th, Phil Ivey go out in 21st and Joe Cassidy in 20th in the quest for the final table. One player to note was 80 year old Kuei Chi Chang also known as "Mama Chang" from Taiwan who went out in 52nd place. She outlasted many professional poker players and proving that anyone can play the game if they want to.

The final table took just under 8 hours to complete and Kianoush Abolfathi, a 29-year-old Iranian-born student from Los Angeles became the winner. After a 90 min battle, Kianoush Abolfathi (10d 6s) and Eric Buchman (9c 8d) were all in pre flop. The table showed Kh 10s 4c 4d 7d, giving Abolfathi two pair and the win!

1. Kianoush Abolfathi -- $335,289
2. Eric Buchman -- $174,938
3. Josh Schlein -- $101,318
4. Michele D. Lewis -- $72,891
5. Vipul Kothari -- $58,313
6. Hank Sparks -- $51,024
7. Patrick Maloney -- $43,735
8. Lars Hansen -- $36,446
9. Matt Elsby -- $32,801

Event #5 June 30 -- No-Limit Hold'Em Short Handed (6/table)
Buyin: $2,500.00
This event had 824 players, $1,895,200 for a prize pool and payouts to the top 90 entrants. But it was the action that made this a hot event. From Day 1 the pros were on fire. Daniel Negreanu busting out people left and right, Phil Hellmuth, 2005 Main Event champion Joseph Hachem, Dutch Boyd, Erick Lindgren, Mike Matusow, Gavin Smith and others were so dominate that you could almost see who was going to be at the final table from the beginning. The first round brought the number of players down to 39.

Day 2 was even more insane as Daniel Negreanu was sent home in 8th place after having his pocket A's cracked by Dutch Boyd who won with 3 of a kind 7's. Dutch also busted Erick Lindgren too. Michael Goodman said goodbye to Mike Matusow after his three 5's beat Matusow's pair of Jacks. But when the final table was played, the surrounding space was so full of spectators that we couldn't get to the table to see the action. The area around this table was packed 10 deep. (Had to watch the big screen to view anything going on.)

People were ooohing, aaahhing and screaming as eliminations took place. And when it got down to Joseph Hachem looking for his second bracelet and Dutch Boyd for the heads up, it was war. They went back and forth for two hours before the winning hand came up. What happened was Hachem raised 60,000 chips and Boyd went all in of which Hachem called. Hachem produces As Qc and Boyd has Ad 5h. Flop showed Ah Kc 9s which has Hachem with his fist in the air. Turn card was J but the river card was a 5d. Nolan Dalla described Hachem as "emotionally-wrecked...was curled over in stoned silence with eyes shut". But Dutch was with his crew jumping up and down, hollering like kids that had too much candy. When this comes up on ESPN, you have to watch it.

1. Dutch Boyd -- $475,712
2. Joseph Hachem -- $256,800
3. Jeff Knight -- $153,511
4. Michael Goodman -- $115,607
5. Pete Hassett -- $91,917
6. David Solomon -- $68,227