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| $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. Event #20 2006 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Final Results |
2006 World Series of Poker
Rio All-Suites Hotel and Casino – Las Vegas
Official Results and Report
Event #20
H.O.R.S.E. World Poker Championship
Rotation of Games: Limit Hold’em, Omaha High-Low Split,
Razz, Seven-Card Stud, Eight-or-Better, No-Limit Hold’em
Buy-In: $50,000
Number of Entries: 143
Total Prize Money: $6,864,000
Defending Champion (2005):
None -- First-Time Event
Official Results:
Rio All-Suites Hotel and Casino – Las Vegas
Official Results and Report
Event #20
H.O.R.S.E. World Poker Championship
Rotation of Games: Limit Hold’em, Omaha High-Low Split,
Razz, Seven-Card Stud, Eight-or-Better, No-Limit Hold’em
Buy-In: $50,000
Number of Entries: 143
Total Prize Money: $6,864,000
Defending Champion (2005):
None -- First-Time Event
Official Results:
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| Chip Reese |
| Place Name Hometown Prize |
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
Chip Reese
Andy Bloch
Phil Ivey
Jim Bechtel
T.J. Cloutier
David Singer
Dewey Tomko
Doyle Brunson
Patrik Antonius
Robert Williamson III
Gavin Smith
Barry Greenstein
Joe Cassidy
David Levi
Rafael Perry
Cong Do
Andy Bloch
Phil Ivey
Jim Bechtel
T.J. Cloutier
David Singer
Dewey Tomko
Doyle Brunson
Patrik Antonius
Robert Williamson III
Gavin Smith
Barry Greenstein
Joe Cassidy
David Levi
Rafael Perry
Cong Do
Las Vegas, NV
Las Vegas, NV
Las Vegas, NV
Gilbert, AZ
Dallas, TX
Momaroneck, NY
Winter Haven, FL
Las Vegas, NV
Las Vegas, NV
Dallas, TX
Las Vegas, NV
Rancho Palos Verdes, CA
Cheyenne, WY
Las Vegas, NV
Las Vegas, NV
Brigantine, NJ
Las Vegas, NV
Las Vegas, NV
Gilbert, AZ
Dallas, TX
Momaroneck, NY
Winter Haven, FL
Las Vegas, NV
Las Vegas, NV
Dallas, TX
Las Vegas, NV
Rancho Palos Verdes, CA
Cheyenne, WY
Las Vegas, NV
Las Vegas, NV
Brigantine, NJ
$1,784,640
$1,029,600
$617,760
$549,120
$480,480
$411,840
$343,200
$274,560
$205,920
$205,920
$205,920
$205,920
$137,280
$137,280
$137,280
$137,280
$1,029,600
$617,760
$549,120
$480,480
$411,840
$343,200
$274,560
$205,920
$205,920
$205,920
$205,920
$137,280
$137,280
$137,280
$137,280
Tournament Report
Standing the Test of Time
Poker Legend Chip Reese Outlasts the Competition and Wins $1,784,640
in First WSOP Victory in 24-Years
Poker marathon lasts 43-grueling hours over four days and nights
Las Vegas, NV – The latest World Series of Poker match was a throwback to
an earlier era when poker all was about seemingly endless games, creaky
bones, and weary faces. Card after card after card had been tossed and
turned and reshuffled again and again. Exhausted spectators who had been
standing and cheering hours earlier were now crashed around all sides of the
gallery. And in the middle of the darkened poker room, an overhead beam
illuminated a green felt table, anchored on each side by two aspiring
champions, their faces chiseled with determination.
It all began four long days earlier. The biggest buy-in poker tournament on
the planet took place at the Rio All-Suites Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.
Consider that it cost fifty grand -- more than the list price of a brand new
Cadillac just to sit down in the big game. The 20th event on the 2006 World
Series of Poker schedule attracted the toughest compilation of poker talent
ever assembled inside one arena. While the world championship main event
is still two weeks away, a spectacle that will shatter every previous record in
poker history, this far more exclusive competition proved to be the ultimate
test of overall poker skill.
Players played a rotation of poker’s six most popular games – symbolized in
the acronym H.O.R.S.E. – which stands for Hold’em (both limit and no-limit),
Omaha High-Low Split, Razz, Seven-Card Stud, and Eight or Better. A field of
143 of the world’s best poker players competed over a grueling four-day
marathon, which became as much a test of mental and physical endurance as
poker skill. For instance, the first day took 14 hours to complete. The second
day was even longer. Day Two began at 12 noon and ended at 9:00 am the
next day. After playing 21 straight hours, the nine surviving players got
some well-deserved rest and returned for a final table which began at 9:00
pm on Friday night.
The 2006 World Series of Poker presented by Milwaukee’s Best Light offered
spectators and an ESPN television audience one of the most extraordinary
final tables ever assembled in the history of the game. The nine players in
the H.O.R.S.E. championship had previously won a whopping 27 WSOP gold
bracelets combined. Present were former world champions, living poker
legends, celebrity superstars, and a few aspiring younger champions who
hoped for a breakthrough victory.
The nine finalists in the event were as follows:
SEAT 1: Jim Bechtel – 1993 World Series of Poker champion; one WSOP gold
bracelet
SEAT 2: Doyle Brunson – Inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame; 1976 and
1977 World Series of Poker champion; ten WSOP gold bracelets
SEAT 3: David “Chip” Reese – Inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame; three
WSOP gold bracelets
SEAT 4: Dewey Tomko – High-stakes poker player; runner-up in the main
event twice; three WSOP gold bracelets
SEAT 5: Andy Bloch – Formally on the M.I.T. blackjack team immortalized in
the book “Breaking Vegas”; Harvard Law School graduate; successful
winning poker player for past ten years
SEAT 6: T.J. Cloutier – Former professional football player; top tournament
player in lifetime cashes, final table appearances, and wins; six WSOP gold
bracelets
SEAT 7: David Singer – Top tournament professional with many cashes and
millions won at the poker table
SEAT 8: Patrik Antonius – Top European poker pro; many tournament
cashes and wins throughout Europe
SEAT 9: Phil Ivey – Superstar poker icon; five WSOP gold bracelets
The first player to exit was the charismatic European pro, Patrik Antonious.
Just three hands into play, the perilously short-stacked Finnish player was
eliminated. Ninth place paid $205,920.
The next player out took everyone by surprise. Many hoped, and some even
expected poker legend Doyle Brunson to win his record-breaking 11th gold
bracelet in this tournament. Those hopes were demolished when “Texas
Dolly” went out in eighth place. Brunson, the genial Texan with a million
dollar smile and arguably poker’s greatest player ever, collected $274,560.
Dewey Tomko, who finished second in the WSOP main event on two
occasions, had to settle for seventh place. Tomko had spent over twenty
years traveling in the same tight-knit poker circles with colleagues Brunson
and Reese. So, it was fitting that three of poker’s most revered icons were
seated side-by-side in this event. The three-time gold bracelet winner from
Florida received $343,200.
David Singer, who has recently emerged on the poker tournament scene as
one of the game’s top players was hoping for a monstrous career
breakthrough in this event. He certainly proved he can compete with the
best in the world by making it to the big stage against such fierce
competition. But Singer fell short of victory and ended up with a sixth-place
finish. Singer earned $411,840.
T.J. Cloutier has won just about everything in poker except the main event of
the World Series. Cloutier, who lives in Dallas, has the best overall
tournament record of any player alive. However, Cloutier came up short in
this event and ended up as the fifth-place finisher. His prize amounted to
$480,480.
Jim Bechtel, a no-limit specialist from Arizona was the next victim of
elimination. Bechtel, winner of the 1993 World Series of Poker championship,
received $549,120 for his fourth-place finish.
When play became three-handed, Phil Ivey was at a competitive
disadvantage. Even a supremely-gifted player like Ivey needs chips and
good cards to win. He got neither during his final hour at the table and
ended up with mixed results – a disappointing third-place showing, but a
healthy profit amounting to $617,760
The final contest between Andy Bloch and Chip Reese posed two gladiators
of similar styles and character. Reese first arrived in Las Vegas 31-years ago,
fresh out of college (Reese is a graduate of Dartmouth University). He was
on his way to attend law school in California, but instead found his passion
and talent for cards and gambling. Since 1974, Reese has won tens of
millions of dollars in high-stakes poker games and earned a well-deserved
reputation as the world’s best all-around player.
Bloch arrived in Las Vegas with a shorter, albeit similar story. Bloch
graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and later earned
his degree from Harvard University Law School. Like Reese before him, Bloch
opted to gamble professionally rather than work in a more conventional
career. He also shared Reese’s cerebral personality to a large extent –
favoring substance over style, tranquility over bravado, and contemplation
over haste.
At 1:00 am, as $1.7 million in cash was brought out to the table, no one in
the audience nor over the worldwide listening audience on the Bluff Radio
Network (carried live by Sirius) could possibly have forecasted the epic match
that was to follow. When the sun cracked over the horizon the following
morning, the two contenders were still sitting there face to face – thinking,
planning, contemplating, strategizing, and searching for the evasive holy
poker grail that would pummel the defiant into submission.
Together, they played an astonishing 300-plus hands heads-up, twice as
many hands as it took to eliminate the first seven players. At one point,
spectators who had left the night before began returning to the poker room
again, and saw that neither player had yielded an inch in the battle of
endurance and psychology.
At precisely 9:12 am, Chip Reece and Andy Bloch shattered a WSOP-record
that many thought might never be broken. In the 1983 main event, Tom
McEvoy and Rod Peate battled for seven straight hours. This epic duel
clocked in at 7 hours, 6 minutes.
Bloch started the duel with a slight chip lead. In fact, he held the lead during
most of the match. At one point, Bloch enjoyed a better than 3 to 1 chip
advantage. Bloch had his opponent all-in a few times, but was never able to
finish off the resilient Reese. On one occasion, Reese was extremely lucky
catching a miracle card to make an inside straight to defy the odds stacked
against him. Another time, Reese caught a flush to survive.
The poker game of all poker games finally ended when Reese had seized the
chip lead midway through the morning and pushed all-in before the flop with
ace-queen. Bloch had taken a few tough beats and was so low on chips he
had to call with nine-eight. The final board showed J-7-7-4-4, giving Reese
the win with the higher kicker (ace).
As the runner-up, Andy Bloch received $1,029,600. But the money was the
last thing that seemed to matter to Bloch, who was so groomed to win his
first gold bracelet. Very few people outside the poker world understand that
this match was not about money. It was about proving something of
incalculable value -- impossible to describe and too foreign to comprehend.
The winner, David “Chip” Reese collected $1,784,640 in prize money and the
gold bracelet, presented by World Series of Poker Commissioner, Jeffrey
Pollack. It was Reese’s fourth WSOP career win, and his first since 1982.
From a historical perspective, the triumph validates the unofficial title Reese
has carried throughout his storied poker career, as the world’s best all-
around poker player.
“Being the best is not just about winning one day or two days – it’s every
day,” Reese said in a post-tournament interview. “Doyle Brunson was once
asked who he thought the best poker player was, and Doyle said, ‘I don’t
know, come back and ask me again in twenty years.’ Being the best is
proving it over the long run.”
Perhaps it is fitting that this championship -- what may very well be the most
prestigious poker event to have ever been played – would ultimately evolve
to a contest of raw strength and iron willpower. A victory in such an
illustrious event should not be easy. It must be hard. It must be difficult. By
its very spirit and magnitude, winning must be the end result of toil, trial, and
tribulation. In this championship, and indeed over the past 30 years, Chip
Reese has stood the test of time.
Report by Nolan Dalla
Overall Tournament Statistics (through end of Event #20):
Total Entries to Date: 18,829
Total Prize Money Distributed: $ 39,824,132
World Series of Poker Commissioner – Jeffrey Pollack
Director, Sponsorship and Licensing -- Ty Stewart
Director, Communications and Operations – Gary Thompson
Director, Broadcasting and New Media – Craig Abrahams
Vice President of Specialty Gaming -- Howard Greenbaum
WSOP Tournament Director – Robert Daily
WSOP Tournament Director/Director of Poker Operations for Harrah’s
Entertainment – Jack Effel
Standing the Test of Time
Poker Legend Chip Reese Outlasts the Competition and Wins $1,784,640
in First WSOP Victory in 24-Years
Poker marathon lasts 43-grueling hours over four days and nights
Las Vegas, NV – The latest World Series of Poker match was a throwback to
an earlier era when poker all was about seemingly endless games, creaky
bones, and weary faces. Card after card after card had been tossed and
turned and reshuffled again and again. Exhausted spectators who had been
standing and cheering hours earlier were now crashed around all sides of the
gallery. And in the middle of the darkened poker room, an overhead beam
illuminated a green felt table, anchored on each side by two aspiring
champions, their faces chiseled with determination.
It all began four long days earlier. The biggest buy-in poker tournament on
the planet took place at the Rio All-Suites Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.
Consider that it cost fifty grand -- more than the list price of a brand new
Cadillac just to sit down in the big game. The 20th event on the 2006 World
Series of Poker schedule attracted the toughest compilation of poker talent
ever assembled inside one arena. While the world championship main event
is still two weeks away, a spectacle that will shatter every previous record in
poker history, this far more exclusive competition proved to be the ultimate
test of overall poker skill.
Players played a rotation of poker’s six most popular games – symbolized in
the acronym H.O.R.S.E. – which stands for Hold’em (both limit and no-limit),
Omaha High-Low Split, Razz, Seven-Card Stud, and Eight or Better. A field of
143 of the world’s best poker players competed over a grueling four-day
marathon, which became as much a test of mental and physical endurance as
poker skill. For instance, the first day took 14 hours to complete. The second
day was even longer. Day Two began at 12 noon and ended at 9:00 am the
next day. After playing 21 straight hours, the nine surviving players got
some well-deserved rest and returned for a final table which began at 9:00
pm on Friday night.
The 2006 World Series of Poker presented by Milwaukee’s Best Light offered
spectators and an ESPN television audience one of the most extraordinary
final tables ever assembled in the history of the game. The nine players in
the H.O.R.S.E. championship had previously won a whopping 27 WSOP gold
bracelets combined. Present were former world champions, living poker
legends, celebrity superstars, and a few aspiring younger champions who
hoped for a breakthrough victory.
The nine finalists in the event were as follows:
SEAT 1: Jim Bechtel – 1993 World Series of Poker champion; one WSOP gold
bracelet
SEAT 2: Doyle Brunson – Inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame; 1976 and
1977 World Series of Poker champion; ten WSOP gold bracelets
SEAT 3: David “Chip” Reese – Inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame; three
WSOP gold bracelets
SEAT 4: Dewey Tomko – High-stakes poker player; runner-up in the main
event twice; three WSOP gold bracelets
SEAT 5: Andy Bloch – Formally on the M.I.T. blackjack team immortalized in
the book “Breaking Vegas”; Harvard Law School graduate; successful
winning poker player for past ten years
SEAT 6: T.J. Cloutier – Former professional football player; top tournament
player in lifetime cashes, final table appearances, and wins; six WSOP gold
bracelets
SEAT 7: David Singer – Top tournament professional with many cashes and
millions won at the poker table
SEAT 8: Patrik Antonius – Top European poker pro; many tournament
cashes and wins throughout Europe
SEAT 9: Phil Ivey – Superstar poker icon; five WSOP gold bracelets
The first player to exit was the charismatic European pro, Patrik Antonious.
Just three hands into play, the perilously short-stacked Finnish player was
eliminated. Ninth place paid $205,920.
The next player out took everyone by surprise. Many hoped, and some even
expected poker legend Doyle Brunson to win his record-breaking 11th gold
bracelet in this tournament. Those hopes were demolished when “Texas
Dolly” went out in eighth place. Brunson, the genial Texan with a million
dollar smile and arguably poker’s greatest player ever, collected $274,560.
Dewey Tomko, who finished second in the WSOP main event on two
occasions, had to settle for seventh place. Tomko had spent over twenty
years traveling in the same tight-knit poker circles with colleagues Brunson
and Reese. So, it was fitting that three of poker’s most revered icons were
seated side-by-side in this event. The three-time gold bracelet winner from
Florida received $343,200.
David Singer, who has recently emerged on the poker tournament scene as
one of the game’s top players was hoping for a monstrous career
breakthrough in this event. He certainly proved he can compete with the
best in the world by making it to the big stage against such fierce
competition. But Singer fell short of victory and ended up with a sixth-place
finish. Singer earned $411,840.
T.J. Cloutier has won just about everything in poker except the main event of
the World Series. Cloutier, who lives in Dallas, has the best overall
tournament record of any player alive. However, Cloutier came up short in
this event and ended up as the fifth-place finisher. His prize amounted to
$480,480.
Jim Bechtel, a no-limit specialist from Arizona was the next victim of
elimination. Bechtel, winner of the 1993 World Series of Poker championship,
received $549,120 for his fourth-place finish.
When play became three-handed, Phil Ivey was at a competitive
disadvantage. Even a supremely-gifted player like Ivey needs chips and
good cards to win. He got neither during his final hour at the table and
ended up with mixed results – a disappointing third-place showing, but a
healthy profit amounting to $617,760
The final contest between Andy Bloch and Chip Reese posed two gladiators
of similar styles and character. Reese first arrived in Las Vegas 31-years ago,
fresh out of college (Reese is a graduate of Dartmouth University). He was
on his way to attend law school in California, but instead found his passion
and talent for cards and gambling. Since 1974, Reese has won tens of
millions of dollars in high-stakes poker games and earned a well-deserved
reputation as the world’s best all-around player.
Bloch arrived in Las Vegas with a shorter, albeit similar story. Bloch
graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and later earned
his degree from Harvard University Law School. Like Reese before him, Bloch
opted to gamble professionally rather than work in a more conventional
career. He also shared Reese’s cerebral personality to a large extent –
favoring substance over style, tranquility over bravado, and contemplation
over haste.
At 1:00 am, as $1.7 million in cash was brought out to the table, no one in
the audience nor over the worldwide listening audience on the Bluff Radio
Network (carried live by Sirius) could possibly have forecasted the epic match
that was to follow. When the sun cracked over the horizon the following
morning, the two contenders were still sitting there face to face – thinking,
planning, contemplating, strategizing, and searching for the evasive holy
poker grail that would pummel the defiant into submission.
Together, they played an astonishing 300-plus hands heads-up, twice as
many hands as it took to eliminate the first seven players. At one point,
spectators who had left the night before began returning to the poker room
again, and saw that neither player had yielded an inch in the battle of
endurance and psychology.
At precisely 9:12 am, Chip Reece and Andy Bloch shattered a WSOP-record
that many thought might never be broken. In the 1983 main event, Tom
McEvoy and Rod Peate battled for seven straight hours. This epic duel
clocked in at 7 hours, 6 minutes.
Bloch started the duel with a slight chip lead. In fact, he held the lead during
most of the match. At one point, Bloch enjoyed a better than 3 to 1 chip
advantage. Bloch had his opponent all-in a few times, but was never able to
finish off the resilient Reese. On one occasion, Reese was extremely lucky
catching a miracle card to make an inside straight to defy the odds stacked
against him. Another time, Reese caught a flush to survive.
The poker game of all poker games finally ended when Reese had seized the
chip lead midway through the morning and pushed all-in before the flop with
ace-queen. Bloch had taken a few tough beats and was so low on chips he
had to call with nine-eight. The final board showed J-7-7-4-4, giving Reese
the win with the higher kicker (ace).
As the runner-up, Andy Bloch received $1,029,600. But the money was the
last thing that seemed to matter to Bloch, who was so groomed to win his
first gold bracelet. Very few people outside the poker world understand that
this match was not about money. It was about proving something of
incalculable value -- impossible to describe and too foreign to comprehend.
The winner, David “Chip” Reese collected $1,784,640 in prize money and the
gold bracelet, presented by World Series of Poker Commissioner, Jeffrey
Pollack. It was Reese’s fourth WSOP career win, and his first since 1982.
From a historical perspective, the triumph validates the unofficial title Reese
has carried throughout his storied poker career, as the world’s best all-
around poker player.
“Being the best is not just about winning one day or two days – it’s every
day,” Reese said in a post-tournament interview. “Doyle Brunson was once
asked who he thought the best poker player was, and Doyle said, ‘I don’t
know, come back and ask me again in twenty years.’ Being the best is
proving it over the long run.”
Perhaps it is fitting that this championship -- what may very well be the most
prestigious poker event to have ever been played – would ultimately evolve
to a contest of raw strength and iron willpower. A victory in such an
illustrious event should not be easy. It must be hard. It must be difficult. By
its very spirit and magnitude, winning must be the end result of toil, trial, and
tribulation. In this championship, and indeed over the past 30 years, Chip
Reese has stood the test of time.
Report by Nolan Dalla
Overall Tournament Statistics (through end of Event #20):
Total Entries to Date: 18,829
Total Prize Money Distributed: $ 39,824,132
World Series of Poker Commissioner – Jeffrey Pollack
Director, Sponsorship and Licensing -- Ty Stewart
Director, Communications and Operations – Gary Thompson
Director, Broadcasting and New Media – Craig Abrahams
Vice President of Specialty Gaming -- Howard Greenbaum
WSOP Tournament Director – Robert Daily
WSOP Tournament Director/Director of Poker Operations for Harrah’s
Entertainment – Jack Effel
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