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August 9th 2006
WSOP Championship: The Final Table awaits
When play started today at 12pm the 27 players who sat down at the felt knew that 18 of them would be going home. They also knew that three of them would be going home over one million dollars richer.
The unfortunate “bubble millionaire” was William Thorsson, yet another victim of the apparently unstoppable chip leader Jamie Gold. In that fateful hand Thorsson began by raising preflop to $250,000, Gold then re-raised to $1 million, before Thorsson pushed all-in for a further $2 million and was called. When the cards were on their backs Thorsson’s pocket jacks were well behind Gold’s pocket kings. Thorsson couldn’t find the board he needed and he was out in 13th place picking up a substantial $907,128 for his effort.
The day began as all other days in this year’s WSOP have started: at pace. The 27 players that began were down to 18 in just four hours and the million dollar mark was looming ever nearer. The next elimination was a big one. Earlier in the tournament David Einhorn announced he would be giving away 100% of his winnings to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research and when he finished in 18th place the charity was set to benefit to the tune of $659,730.
Einhorn was also a victim of Jamie Gold when the chip leader hit two pair on a flop of Q-J-6 after calling Einhorn’s raise preflop with Q-6. Einhorn had K-Q and was unable to get away from it on such a good flop. Speaking about Gold’s preflop call with Q-6 Einhorn graciously said: “It’s something you get to do when you have all those chips to play with.”
As the numbers shrunk players understandably began to tense up, with almost everyone hoping to slink into the last nine without putting their stack at risk. Of course it’s never quite that simple; increasing blinds and with premium pocket pairs tend to combine to force players to make moves they’d live to regret.
Past the million dollar payday mark and play remained tight, and possibly became even tighter as the final table approached. Watching the tournament live rapidly began to resemble watching paint dry, as hands were repeatedly folded and players avoided confrontations at all costs.
Eventually at 10pm John Magill moved all-in with pocket fives and was called by Fred Goldberg who held a better pocket pair. That spelled the end for him, as the board helped neither player, and Magill was out in 12th, receiving $1,154,529.
With 11 players left the pace, if anything, slowed further down. However for Leif Force time was still running too quickly. He had a very short stack and survived one all in when he and Jamie Gold both flipped over K-9, but he eventually fell when all-in with Ah-7h on a flop of Qh-8c-5h and was called by Eric Friberg with Q-T. He couldn’t catch the ace or heart he needed and was out to collect his check for $1.154 million.
Now down to ten the two remaining tables combined to one and play continued until the final player was eliminated, leaving nine players to return for the ESPN WSOP final table on Thursday.
Amazingly it took over two hours to get to that elimination, which occurred at 2:20am. For Fred Goldberg it was a horrible moment. With the blinds at 80k-160k and the antes at 20k there were $440k chips in the pot before the cards were dealt and he got caught with his hand in the cookie jar when he moved all-in from the cut-off for $2.8 million with Q-3 of suit. He was called by Richard Lee who held K-K in the small blind and that was that.
The nine 2006 WSOP final table players and their seat and chip counts are as follows:
Seat 1 - Richard Lee - $11,820,000
Seat 2 - Erik Friberg - $9,605,000
Seat 3 - Paul Wasicka - $7,970,000
Seat 4 - Dan Nassif - $2,600,000
Seat 5 - Allen Cunningham - $17,770,000
Seat 6 - Michael Binger - $3,140,000
Seat 7 - Doug Kim - $6,770,000
Seat 8 - Jamie Gold - $26,650,000
Seat 9 - Rhett Butler - $4,815,000
Players will have Wednesday off before returning on Thursday for the final table.
Submitted: 09/08/2006 11:50:51
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