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August 11th 2006
WSOP 2006: Gold storms to victory
Well, don’t say I didn’t warn you. Jamie Gold, the runaway leader from Day Four battered his way to victory at around 3:30am today to be crowned World Series of Poker Champion for 2006. He beat Paul Wasika into second place after dominating the final table to the extent that his victory was almost never in doubt. But it could have been so different.
The possible turning point came with the elimination of Michael Binger in third place. By this time Allen Cunningham had long since hit the rail; a victim of bad cards and bad breaks, the man who was many people’s pick to win simply couldn’t get things going when it mattered most. He lost a number of pots after getting his money in as the favourite and then hit a run of bad cards to see his stack dwindle to around 6 million. He then moved all-in with pocket tens and Jamie Gold made the call with K-J of diamonds. A king hit on the flop and Cunningham couldn’t catch the ten he needed to stay alive. Third place was good for $3,628,513.
With three players left the pivotal moment arrived at 3:05am when Michael Binger raised to $1.5 million before the flop and was called by both Gold and Wasika. The flop came Tc-6s-5s ad Wasika checked. Binger then bet $3.5 million only or Gold to re-raise all-in. Clearly wanting to call, Wasika sat for a long time saying “this is sick” over and over before finally mucking his hand. Binger then called turning over Ah-Th for top pair top kicker and Gold turned over 3-4 for a straight draw. As had been happening all day, Gold hit his straight on the turn and that was the end of Binger. He got $4,123,310.
But the real drama was in the cards that were folded. Wasicka later revealed that he had folded 8-7 of spades, which would have given him a straight and a flush draw as well as a straight flush draw. In fact he would have been favourite over almost any hand. As it happened he would have hit his flush on the river, and almost tripled up. Had he made the call, which by all accounts he should have, he would have moved up to $33 million in chips, and would have had a real shot at winning the title. By folding his hand he effectively surrendered any hope of winning, leaving himself just $11 million to fight Gold’s monster stack of $78 million. It was a decision he will live to regret.
Speaking after his elimination Binger agreed, saying: “I don't see how he can fold there, unless he was playing to lock up second.” About Gold he said: “I think he's a very good player and he plays his big stack really well; I think he has some leaks in his game that can be exploited. He's like a vacuum cleaner – he picks up all of the pots that no one wants. He's gotten an incredible string of cards and he got paid off on them, so that's a credit to him.”
The “vacuum cleaner” wasted no time sucking up the rest of the chips on the table when he won the tournament just 7 hands later. On that soon to b famous last hand Gold raised preflop to $1.75 million and was called by Wasicka. The flop came Q-8-5 and Paul Wasicka bet $1.5 million only for Gold to move all-in. Wasicka called showing T-T but Gold turned over Q-9 for two pair, and that was that. No ten appeared on the turn or river and we had a champion.
Wasicka collected $6 million for second and Gold won $12 million or first. But more importantly he was crowned poker World Champion.
Overall if truth be told it was fairly disappointing final table. When one player starts with such a massive chip advantage the neutral is always looking for someone to catch up to him, or for him to fall back closer to the pack. This never happened, and never looked like happening. Gold got such a great run of cards and played his big stack so strongly, that it was clear from early on that everyone else was playing for second place.
This meant we never really got to see the kind of poker we hoped for, where a number of evenly matched stacks could battle it out on a level playing field. Whilst Gold played extremely well, you only have to look at some of the hands he had to see how well he was being treated. Twice Gold had pocket queens when an opponent had pocket jacks. He flopped a set with pocket twos against an opponents AK. He flopped tripped nines at the same time Cunningham flopped trip nines, but Gold’s kicker was better. Now for an average stack such a run of cards would make them a strong favourite. But for a man who began the day with nearly half the chips in play it pretty much sealed the deal. And so much the worse for the spectacle.
But with all that said and done. Congratulations Jamie. You played terrific poker and deserved the victory.
Here are the final table finishers and their prize money:
Jamie Gold - $12 million
Paul Wasicka - $6 million
Michael Binger - $4,123,310
Allen Cunningham - $3,628,513
Rhett Butler - $3,216,182
Richard Lee - $2,803,851
Doug Kim - $2,391,520
Erik Friberg - $1,979,189
Dan Nassif - $1,566,858
Submitted: 11/08/2006 17:40:14
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