GGPOKER

The year following Joe Hachem’s record-setting $7.5m top prize that he took back to Australia, the championship would return to an American. This time, however, the prize money reached ridiculous levels, with an incredible $12 million up top. A total of 46 events and a Main Event populated by 8,773 players, who would win the Gold? It was a once-in-a-lifetime World Championship. 

Preliminary Events see Reese Chip up in H.O.R.S.E.

With the largest number of WSOP events on the schedule, there was something for everyone, and just as the year before, the title for youngest bracelet winner changed hands… twice! Eric Froehlich, in 2005, became the youngest player to win a WSOP bracelet. In 2006, when he won the $1,500-entry Pot-Limit Omaha rebuy event #26B for $299,675, he became the youngest player to win two WSOP bracelets. As the history recalls, he would only hold that record for 96 hours.

Three days before Froehlich would set the record for the youngest to win 2 bracelets, Jeff Madsen won his first bracelet in Event #22: $2,000 No Limit Hold’em for $660,948, beating the old record for the youngest player by 2 months and 20 days. Then, three days after Froehlich set the record for 2 bracelets, Jeff Madsen won his second of the series in the $5,000 No Limit Hold’em 6-Handed event #30 for $643,381. Madsen also made two other final tables across the series this year and won the coveted title of 2006 WSOP Player of the Year.

Elsewhere, Bill Chen also won two events, the $3,000 entry Limit Hold’em event #7 and $2,500 buy-in No Limit Hold’em event #21. Chip Reese won the biggest buy-in WSOP event in history when he took down the event that would one day be named after him – the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event #20. Now known as the Poker Players Championship, all participants still pay $50,000 to compete for the world-famous Chip Reese Trophy. In 2006, Reese won it for a record score of $1,784,640, the largest prize outside the Main Event.

Poker Brat Reaches Double Figures

Phil Hellmuth became the 3rd member of the 10-bracelet club by winning Event #34: $1,000 No Limit Hold’em Rebuy $631,863. With an astronomical 2,445 buy-ins and rebuys, the event was akin to a Mini Main Event, as Hellmuth defeated Finnish star Juha Helppi heads-up for the title and his record-equaling bracelet. 

Mexico finally had a winner in WSOP events as Victoriano Perches won the country’s first title at the World Series, taking down the $1,500-entry Limit Hold’em Shootout event #36 for $157,338 after outlasting 523 other players. And Clare Miller became the first female player to win the $1,000 buy-in Seniors No Limit Hold’em event #19 Championship, triumphing over 1,183 opponents to scoop a top prize of $247,814. Mary Jones Meyer won the Ladies Event #15: No Limit Hold’em, which also topped 1,000 entries and had a top prize of $236,094.

The Other Bracelet Winners

Other bracelet winners prior to the main event were Chris Gros (Event #1: $500 Casino Employees No Limit Hold’em), Brandon Cantu (Event #2: $1,500 No Limit Hold’em), Rafe Furst (Event #3: $1,500 Pot Limit Hold’em), Kianoush Abolfathi (Event #4: $1,500 Limit Hold’em), Dutch Boyd (Event #5: $2,500 No Limit Hold’em 6-Handed), Mark Vos (Event #6: $2,000 No Limit Hold’em),  Jack Zwerner (Event #8: $2,000 Omaha Hi-Lo), Jeff Cabanillas (Event #9: $5,000 No Limit Hold’em), David Williams (Event #10: $1,500 Seven Card Stud), Bob Chalmers (Event #11: $1,500 Limit Hold’em), Sammy Farha (Event #12: $5,000 Omaha  Hi-Lo), Max Pescatori (Event #13: $2,500 No Limit Hold’em), Allen Cunningham (Event #14: No Limit Hold’em Rebuy), Lee Watkinson (Event #16: $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha), Jon Friedberg (Event #17: $1,000 No Limit Hold’em), Eric Kesselman (Event #18: $2,000 Pot Limit Hold’em), Ian Johns (Event #23: $3,000 Limit Hold’em), Scott Clements (Event #24: $3,000 Omaha Hi-Lo), David Pham (Event #25: $2,000 No Limit Hold’em Shootout), Ralph Perry (Event #26A: $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha), Mats Rahmn (Event #27: $1,500 No Limit Hold’em), Benjamin Lin (Event #28: $5,000 Seven Card Stud), John Gale (Event #29: $2,500 Pot Limit Hold’em), Justin Scott (Event #31: $2,000 No Limit Hold’em), Jason Lester (Event #32: $5,000 Pot Limit Hold’em), James Richburg (Event #33: $1,500 Razz), Pat Poels (Event #35: $1,000 Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo), Jimmy Gorham (Event #37: $1,500 No Limit Hold’em), and Daniel Alaei (Event #38: $5,000 No Limit 2-7 Lowball Draw Rebuy). 

Watch The Last 18 Play down to final table at the 2006 World Series of Poker

All eyes turned to the Main Event, which was not the last event on the ticket. Event #40: $1,000 No Limit Hold’em and Events #41 through #45 (all $1,500 buy-in No Limit Hold’em tournaments) all ran before the main event ended due to how long the big one took to play out. The following players won these closing tournaments: British up-and-comer Praz Bansi (Event #40), Paul Kobel, Jimmy Mitchell, Kevin Nathan, Kevin Cover, and Anders Henriksson. All in all, a fortnight elapsed between the start of the Main Event and the moment the bracelet and $12 million top prize was won.

With 10% of the field now paid a profit on their $10,000 buy-in as standard, 873 players were looking forward to money, even if the ‘min-cash’ was $10,616 for finishing in 873rd place, which was done by 11 players! Players from all over the world cashed, with Russian Vitaly Lunkin (829th), Canada’s Danny Li (697th), British snooker legend Steve Davis (579th), Italy’s Dario Minieri (543rd), Spanish player Cecelia Reyes (374th), the former 1983 world champion Tom McEvoy (371st) and English poker legend Surinder Sunar (324th) all busting outside the top places but in profit.

Epic Entertainment as Hundreds of Players Get Paid

The reigning champion Joe Hachem put up a brave fight and made it all the way to 238th place for $42,882. Hachem’s exit, though, meant that there would be a new world champion, and the race was then on to make the final table. Daniel Negreanu (229th), Bryan Micon (63rd), Humberto Brenes (36th), Prahlad Friedman (20th), and Jeff Lisandro (17th) all got close, but when Fred Goldberg busted in 10th, the final table was set. 

This year, the first player to go to the rails at the final table won an incredible $1,566,858, so when Dan Nassif was that player, the amount of money he won was great enough that there was hardly any sting to the loss. The same was true for Sweden’s Erik Friberg, as the last non-American player departed in eighth place for $1,979,189. Douglas Kim (7th for 2,391,520) followed suit and only six players remained.

A Golden Moment

As the latter stages of the 2006 Main Event played out, the crowd at The Rio was packed inside what had become known as the ‘Thunderdome’. Richard Lee busted in sixth place $2.8m before Jamie Gold took a bit hit, losing a flip and looking a bit shaken at the turn of events. Everything had gone so smoothly to that moment that Gold, who it was mentioned hadn’t let his hotel room be cleaned for fear that it would spoil his run of luck, was starting to fear it had run out. 

Rhett Butler lost with pocket fours to Gold’s king-jack as he left in fifth for $3.2 million, and soon after losing a big amount of his stack to a bluff from Paul Wasicka, Allen Cunningham faced a nightmare scenario, holding jack-eight on a board of J-6-4-3. 

“You probably have a five-deuce.” Cunningham said. He actually did, and Gold credited Cunningham with a good call. 

“Don’t just call, go all-in or something.” Gold jibed. Cunningham weighed it up then said, “This time I might have you, but I’ll fold it.” 

A brilliant fold, but it earned Cunningham nothing more. Out in fourth for $3.6m, Cunningham lost with pocket tens to Gold’s suited king-jack. 

“I feel like puking.” He said, watching the hand play out on the rail as a flop of ace-king saw Gold high-five Johnny Chan on the rail! Mike Binger had the best of it against Gold’s straight draw when Binger’s ace-ten was committed on a flop of T-6-5 against Gold’s four-three, which hit a seven on the turn.

The Biggest Main Event Prize Ever

Paul Wasicka was heads-up for the title, but the 25-year-old couldn’t beat the 36-year-old TV producer, as the $12m top prize was dumped on the table. 

“I’m not going down without a fight.” Wasicka declared. 

“You do your thing.” retorted Gold. With a six-to-one chip lead, the action didn’t last long, as in the seventh hand, Wasicka thought about committing his chips on a Q-8-5 flop with pocket tens after Gold shoved.

“No queen?” Gold asked

“No queen.”

“Then I got ya.”

Watch the 2006 WSOP Final Table Play out here:

Wasicka called it off and saw Gold’s queen-nine, which held through the ace turn, and as he held Johnny Chan’s hand, a four on the river. Jamie Gold had become champion, winning a record-setting $12 million. 

“Another amateur, another improbable winner. Jamie Gold thundered past a cast of thousands.”  

Incredibly, the ‘Hollywood ending’ saw Gold – who had 50% of himself – split the winnings, taking home only half of the top prize – $6m. Paul Wasicka – the professional – 

Had all of his action and won $6,102,499 as runner-up. 

To this day, Gold might not have been the most loved, but as Norman Chad asked him as a TV producer, he couldn’t have scripted it better. 

“I think I played well, but of course I got lucky. I just feel really fortunate that things went my way.” 

As Jamie Gold made an emotional call to his father, the curtain closed on perhaps the craziest WSOP final table of all time. Gold seemed to hit every board along the way, and his top prize of $12 million would stay as the record until the Main Event of 2023. It would be a full year before players would come back to Vegas to compete for the ultimate poker prize and over those 12 months, there would be a world of changes. Changes that would reshape the poker industry well into the future.

About the Author: Paul Seaton has written about poker for over 10 years, interviewing some of the best players ever to play the game such as Daniel Negreanu, Johnny Chan and Phil Hellmuth. Over the years, Paul has reported live from tournaments such as the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas and the European Poker Tour. He has also written for other poker brands where he was Head of Media, as well as BLUFF magazine, where he was Editor.

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Edited by Shawn A.