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August 16th 2006
Jamie Gold: who is he? (and how did he do it?)
Jamie Gold is well known to the poker world. At least he is now. But the 2006 World Series of Poker main-event champion and winner of $12 million was a relative unknown before the championship began. So who is he, really?
The 36-year-old Jamie Gold is, or was, a Hollywood talent agent, responsible for such massive stars as James Gandolfini from “The Sopranos” and Felicity Huffman from “Desperate Housewives”. Six months prior to the WSOP however, Gold traded in his talent agent job to become a television producer.
But life for Gold is much more than just being a Hollywood big shot. Life is about poker! For contrary to the belief of some observers Jamie Gold is not a poker virgin. He is not fresh out of a PartyPoker $0.50/$1 NL Hold’em game and neither is he another hopeless recent celebrity convert to the game.
Quite the opposite in fact. Gold is pretty much obsessive when it comes to poker, saying he plays about 40 hours a week at the Commerce Casino in Los Angeles. “I’m all about poker,” said Gold. “Every moment I’m not working, I play.” He actually plays in the Commerce’s version of “The Big Game,” a high stakes cash game, and has already won a number of minor tournaments.
Gold famously met Johnny Chan roughly two year’s ago while representing him during a movie. Once Chan started training Gold and telling him he could win the WSOP his poker started on an upward trajectory that would lead to immortality. With a seat courtesy of Bodog.com who also paid for Dean Cain (Superman) and Mekhi Phifer to participate; just one of the many perks of living the celebrity life, the journey began.
Playing a bullish game from the off Gold accumulated $107,000 on his first day (Day One D), ending in fifth place for that day and ninth place for Day One overall. It was an ominous sign of things to come. Day Two B was a little slower for Gold however, and although he ended in 17th place with $170,000 chips he had lost significant ground on the runaway chip leader Dmitri Nobles, who accumulated a monstrous $553,000 chips. No matter; it’s who’s in front at the end that counts.
Day Three saw Gold move back up the leader board, finishing the day in 8th place with $515,000 chips, just $135,000 behind the overall leader David Chiu. But it was Day Four when the wheels were really set in motion. Gold rocketed to the top of the leaderboard after an incredible run of cards that saw him simply destroy his opponents. With AK overcoming QQ, pocket nines flopping a full house, 3c-2c flopping a flush and countless other monsters the man simply couldn’t lose. And a bit of trash talking didn’t do any harm either. In one case Michael McClain was thinking about his move on the river when Jamie Gold said: “There’s no shame in checking.” With the board showing Jd-6s-5h-7d-7c McClain responded by saying: “Check, huh? I’m all-in.” Gold called instantly showing pocket fives for a full house. It spelled the end for McClain, who held A-7 for trip sevens. A few hours later Gold was heading to bed having accumulated $3.7 million chips, a full $1.4 million more than second place.
The momentum continued into Day Five as Gold’s stack continued to grow ever bigger. In fact it grew so big that it needed a seat all for itself, with Gold sitting in Seat Three’s position while his stack occupied that of Seat Two! The Golden Boy ended with $7.3 million chips.
Day six saw Gold move away from the pack as he used his big stack like a club to take total control of his table, raising and re-raising with abandon and forcing his opponents to play nothing but premium hands. With almost inconceivable good fortune Gold consistently managed to avoid coming out on the wrong side of two good hands, and it seemed that when his opponents had good cards he either had better ones, or total rags. However he did it, he ended the day with $13 million chips, almost double Erik Friberg’s second placed stack.
On Day Seven a field of 27 played down to the nine final table finalists. Again Gold dominated, using the same strong arm tactics as he had the day before. By now Gold’s stack was so big it was possible for him to re-raise on almost any flop, safe in the knowledge that his opponents would have to have balls of steel or monster hands to play back at him. Most of the time calling a raise or re-raise from Gold would mean putting their tournament on the line, and there weren’t many prepared to do it. Those that were, more often than not, were walking to the rail soon after.
There was one player who put up a challenge on Day Seven; a certain Allen Cunnigham, multiple bracelet winner and the 2005 WSOP Player of the Year. He managed to accumulate $17.7 million chips, to at least get within shouting range of Gold’s $26.6 million.
Certainly Cunningham’s rise to second place made the tournament a bit more exciting, and for the first time in a few days it seemed like the eventual winner might come from more than a group of one. Indeed some observers even installed Cunnigham as the favourite going into the final table.
Those who hoped the final table would be a contest were in for a disappointment however, as Gold simply steamrolled it like any other. On just the fifth hand of the day he knocked out Dan Nassif when he flopped a set of two’s against Nassif’s AK. He then took a huge pot from Cunnigham when both players flopped a trip nines but Gold had the better kicker.
Gold was then responsible for the elimination of Erik Friberg. It was a no-brainer as Friberg moved all-in when Gold was sitting on pocket queens. Friberg had J-J and didn’t improve. Then he landed the big one. On the very last hand before the dinner break a carbon copy of the Friberg elimination occurred. This time however, it was Richard Lee, lying second in chips, whose jacks failed to improve against Gold’s queens. It was a decisive blow from which the tournament would never recover. With $51.2 million chips compared to second place’s $14 million the contest was all but over.
After eliminating Rhett Butler in fifth and Allen Cunnigham in fourth (both times Gold had K-J) Gold had accumulated $57 million in chips, more than $40 million more than his nearest rival, Paul Wasicka. He vanquished the last two in quick succession and the title was his.
After winning the event Gold was bullish about his ability. “I crushed every table I played at except the one with Daniel Negreanu. I’ve never played in the WSOP before but I believed I could do it, and so did Johnny Chan.”
And the man who conquered the biggest field of all time will be sure to return to defend his crown. “Unless I’m in hospital somewhere I’m going to be here. I can’t wait.”
And so that, ladies and gentlemen, is Jamie Gold: the who and the how.
Submitted: 16/08/2006 17:40:58
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