In February I had the privilege of playing next to Alan Goehring in Commerce Casino's $1 million-guaranteed limit hold'em event. Alan, an expert in junk bonds, plays in only the largest tournaments in the land. I told him that if he signed up for the $25,000 buy-in no-limit hold'em World Poker Tour Championship at Bellagio, he would be eligible to play in the freeroll at the end of the L.A. Poker Classic at Commerce Casino. After a few seconds, he embarrassingly asked me what a freeroll is. Two months later, he found himself at the final table of the largest no-limit hold'em buy-in tournament in history … with a huge chip lead.
A total of 111 players entered the $25,000 buy-in event at Bellagio. Each player started with $50,000 in tournament chips, which is five times more than any championship to date (with the exception of Bellagio's $10,000 buy-in event last year). Tournament Director Jack McClelland had a goal of giving players more play than ever, and he achieved that goal. I lasted until midway through the fourth day, and never did I feel like I had to move my chips in to stay alive. The funny thing was that I was always one of the short stacks. Anyhow, I had a chance to play with all of the superstars. One person played better than everyone until he got unlucky and went broke. Everyone always forgets the player who dominates until he gets unlucky. So, I think it is necessary to give Paul Darden the kudos he deserves. He will win one of these $1 million championships if he continues to play as well as he did in the WPT championship.
However, Paul didn't even make the money, and I usually write about only those who make the final table. The final five players were all poker studs. Ted Forrest has won a ton of money in the very biggest games in the world, Doyle Brunson is relatively new to poker but seems to have picked up on the finer points of no-limit hold'em, and Phil Ivey wins a couple of poker tournaments a month. The other two players (Goehring and Kirill Gerasimov) aren't as well-known. Gerasimov is from Moscow, Russia, and he won the heads-up championship last year. When he and Alan started their heads-up duel, he informed Alan that he was the head-ups champ. Alan, on the other hand, was the runner-up in the WSOP championship event in 1999 and has a great feel for the game – and absolutely no fear. Most players were afraid to bet into him with only one or two pair because they didn't want to be taken off the hand. After going back and forth for a while, Alan had the chip lead going into the final hand. Both players got all of their money in on the flop. Kirill had top pair with a straight draw, and Alan had flopped two pair. The turn brought Kirill a straight, and Alan made a full house on the river.
Congrats, Alan! I think people will now start to realize what a great no-limit player you are – at least I have.
Meanwhile at press time, a few events have been completed at the World Series of Poker. Mohamed Ihrahim won the opening limit hold'em event, Toto Leonidas won the stud event, and Chris Ferguson won his fourth gold bracelet in the Omaha high-low split event. Good job, guys.