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May 18th 2006
Stan Weiss wins WPT Mirage Poker Showdown
Stan Weiss, a poker player from Nashville, Tennessee, has won the 2006 Mirage Poker Showdown, defeating Harry Demetriou at the heads-up stage to collect the first prize of $1,294,755.
It has been a pretty extraordinary week for Stan Weiss. Prior to May 4th he had what could only be described as a less than fearsome tournament record: one cash in the 2005 WSOP and another at a WSOP circuit event in January this year for total career tournament winnings of $3840. How quickly things can change.
Weiss began the 2006 Mirage Poker Showdown by winning the very first event, a $500 No-Limit Hold’em freezeout. He came out on top of a field of 406, collecting the first prize of $65,349 and, you guessed it, entry to the main event – worth $10,200. The rest, as they say, is history.
The televised WPT final table began at 4pm (PST) yesterday, with Stan Weiss heading the chip count over Robert Mizrachi, Devin Porter, David Williams, Harry Demetriou and Steve Frederick in last, who with $545,000 had five times less chips than Weiss.
But the first player out was quite unexpected. After two hours play the following hand occurred. With Devin Porter on the button Stan Weiss raised to $190,000. Porter then reraised to $440,000 and Mizrachi, with pocket queens, reraised all-in. Weiss then called, and Porter folded. When the cards were flipped they represented Mizrachi’s worst nightmare – Weiss had pocket kings. A flop of J-9-8 gave him outs (any ten or queen) but they never materialised and the player who started the day in second place with over $2 million in chips was the first to be eliminated. He earned $129,476.
The next player out was no surprise. Steve Frederick had just $155,000 when he moved all-in and David Williams, despite holding only 9-5, saw value in calling from the big blind. It proved a fortuitous play, as he hit a 9 on the turn and a 5 on the river to better Frederick’s Ac-Kc.
At this point Weiss had a huge stack of $4,700,000, with Williams, who had been very active from the start, the closest to him on just $1,350,000. But as we know, things can change in a heartbeat in this game, and that’s exactly what happened. First Demetriou doubled through Williams when his J-J held up against Williams’ 9-9. Then Stan Weiss made the most bizarre play of the day…
With over half the chips in play and a 3-1 chip lead over second place, Stan Weiss suddenly had what we call in the business ‘a moment’. Apparently he’d had a falling out with his chips, and decided to give them away. First in the queue was Harry Demetriou, who, with pocket aces, must have been delighted to see a pre-flop reraise from Weiss. Delight turned to ecstasy after Weiss then called Demetriou’s reraise all-in and flipped over, wait for it………Kc-5c.
Just like that, in one hand, Weiss had gone from $4,200,000 to $1,500,000 and Demetriou suddenly had a $3 million chip lead. When Devin Porter knocked out David Williams a few hands later Weiss was in last place and looking shaky.
Indeed his tournament was as good as dead just five hands after that. With a board showing Kc-5s-2s-2h Weiss, with J-5, decided to move all-in against Porter. He couldn’t have timed it worse as Porter had hit trip two’s on the turn and called in a flash. Only a 5 could save Weiss: he was behind on chips and was drawing to a two-outer to stay in the tournament. But incredibly the river was the 5h, dealing a cruel blow to Porter, but a miraculous lifeline for Weiss.
Even so, when Porter was eliminated in third place Demetriou had a 4 to 3 chip lead over Weiss and was favourite to win. But favourites don’t count for much in this game and after grabbing the chip lead from Demetriou after 16 hands of the heads up, Weiss finished the job with another miraculous river. For the first time in the heads up battle both players were all-in. Weiss had K-5 but was dominated by Demetriou with K-6. Once again however, the miracle 5 hit on the river for Weiss and this time it brought him the Championship. Demetriou had battled hard, but it clearly wasn’t meant to be. He picked up $673,272 for second place.
Finishing positions and prize money
1 – Stan Weiss – $1,294,755
2 – Harry Demetriou – $673,272
3 – Devin Porter – $332,937
4 – David Williams – $221,958
5 – Steve Frederick – $166,469
6 – Robert Mizrachi - $129,476
Submitted: 18/05/2006 11:38:02
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