Poker News

David Grey, Event Winner

The final 2005 WSOP scheduled event before the start of the $10,000 main event ended before midnight this evening. The 39th event of this year’s WSOP was a Duece-to-Seven No-limit Draw Lowball with rebuys tournament. Sixty-five players ponied up the $5,000 entry fee and then bought an additional 139 rebuys for a shot at the gold and diamond champion’s bracelet and a share of the $986,860 prize pool.

The seven final table players with seat assignments and starting chip counts are:

SEAT 1: John Hennigan Philadelphia, PA $39,000

SEAT 2: Doug Booth Bowling Green, KY $81,000

SEAT 3: Russell Salzer New York City $132,000

SEAT 4: David Grey Henderson, NV $79,000

SEAT 5: Jeffrey Lisandro Salermo, Italy $185,000

SEAT 6: Mark Weitzman Las Vegas, NV $322,000

SEAT 7: Dewey Tomko Winter Haven, FL $190,000

David Grey went heads-up with John Hennigan for only a few minutes before John was crippled by David’s pat 9,8,7,6,4. David doubled up and took over the chip lead; then, on the next hand David called John’s all-in; then turned over the winning hand. David wins $365,135 and his second WSOP bracelet, he won the other in 1999 in the $2,500 buy-in Seven Card Stud event. John had to settle for the second place money amounting to $217,110. Dewey Tomko rounded out the top three leaving with third place money of $138,160.

Mark Weitzman of Los Angeles finished fourth and collected $108,555, Doug Booth from Bowling Green KY was fifth receiving $78,590, Russel Salzer of Las Vegas went out in seventh and got paid $49,345 while Jeffrey Lisandro goes back to Salermo Italy with $29,605 he collected for seventh place.

The final table was played in record time allowing a large group of very tired media to make a rare ‘before midnight’ exit. Great news since the first day of the $10,000 No-limit Hold’em world championship begins at 11:00 am on Thursday. Twenty-two hundred hopefuls will hear the much anticipated “shuffle up and deal” command from WSOP tournament Director, Johnny Grooms. The first of three flights will begin the nine day journey that ends with someone taking the $10,000,000 first place money and the most coveted prize in all of poker, the platinum WSOP world championship bracelet. The crowds of players and fans in the Rio’s Pavilion today made walking difficult. The parking lots outside were full, long rest room lines spilled into the corridors, hundreds of players in line to register then on to another equally longt line to pay the cashier the $10K entry fee. An air of anticipation and excitement filled the Pavilion.

The press conference, Hall of Fame inductionand media charity tournament were also on the agenda today. Some of the more interesting news coming out of the question and answer session was Harrah’s WSOP tournament officials confirming the 2006 WSOP will be held at the Rio (rumors naming Caesars as next year’s site have circularted since the Harrahs/Caesars merger became official). Jack Binion, son of WSOP founder Benny Binion, and Crandell Addington were inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame. The media charity tournament got under way with more than two hundred news people trying to win a $10,000 cash prize for their favorite charity. Our very own Dr. Pauly finished in sixth place and collected some of the prize money for his charity. Check out Pauly’s blog, Tao of Poker for all of the up-close details of the event and while you’re there read his account and see the photos of the Full Tilt party at the Wynn last night.

The Poker Lifestyles trade show got under way this morning, the first of four days. All of the big names are there and some not so big companies. Every one of the exhibitors share a passion for the sport of poker and it shows in the enthusiasm of the people manning the many booths. We are located near the main entrance in spaces 106 and 107 so stop by and visit some of the greatest names in poker. The huge exhibition space is crowded with booths and thousands of poker fans. Stop by the Rio foran enjoyable time watching the WSOP main event and the poker tradeshow.

I will continue to fire away with the camera so those that don’t have the opportunity to be here in Las Vegas can share the experience of the greatest poker show on earth, the World Series of Poker. The 2005 WSOP has shattered all previous records for prize money, player registrations, entrants in all events, fans, number of hot dogs sold and the number of times the phrase “all-in” has been

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