Poker News

Binion’s Horseshoe hosts the final two days of the WSOP Main Event

[Visit the Photo Gallery, 2005 World Series of Poker Results and the WSOP Top Money Finishers. Our WSOP writer is live blogging the WSOP on his poker blog, Tao of Poker]

The final three tables of the main event at the World Series of Poker returned to Binion’s Casino with plenty of excitement and drama. The biggest story by far was Greg “Fossilman” Raymer failure to defend his title after he was eliminated in 25th place. Raymer lost most of his chips on a bad beat when his pocket Kings were cracked by a flush that was made on the river by Aaron Kantor. Raymer was busted a few hands later when his A-9 lost to a pair of fives. Raymer’s run at this year’s main event was remarkable because in the last two years, he outlasted over 8,000 players.

Mike Matusow’s big mouth got him in trouble early after he was penalized for use of profanity. He dropped a F-bomb early and was banned from his table for ten minutes. He entered the day as the chip leader and although he lost focus a few times, he regained his composure and made it to the final table. Over 5,619 players bought in for $10,000 and we’re finally down to the final nine. Every player at the final table will leave Binion’s a millionaire.

Here are the players who made the final table including their chip counts:

Joe Hachem (Melbourne, Australia) 4.75 Million

Andy Black (Dublin, Ireland) 8.5 Million

Tex Barch (McKinney, TX) 9 Million (Chip Leader)

Daniel Bergdorf (Umea, Sweden) 6 Million

Mike Matusow (Las Vegas, NV) 7.9 Million

Aaron Kantor (Lodi, CA) 8 Million

Brad Kondracki (Kingston, PA) 1.25 Million

Steve Dannenmann (Severn, MD) 5.8 Million

Scott Lazar (Studio City, CA) 2.3 Million

Buzz

Players, media, and fans alike were excited to spend the first of the last two final days of WSOP action at Binion’s. When you walk into the casino, you are greeted with a sign that says, “Binion’s! The place that made poker popular.” When I wandered inside this afternoon, I got goosebumps. I felt like I was walking into a cathedral. The final three tables were held upstairs in Benny’s Bullpen, the sight where Benny Binion held the previous main events at the World Series of Poker.

Back Story

Amateur player Tiffany Williamsen managed to become the highest ever female prize winner at the WSOP main event. Barbara Enright was the only female to make the final table in 1994, but Tiffany’s payout of $400,000 represented the highest cash at the main event of all time.

Sight of the Day

Hundreds of spectators lined up early to try to get inside to see the taping of the last three tables play. Binion’s buffet was transformed into view areas with two large screens set up to allow spectators to catch the action at the feature table.

Quote of the Day

After jawing with Shawin Sheikhan all night, Mike Matusow yelled across the table, “I’ll spot you $1 million and I’ll still take all of your chips.”

Notable Bustouts

Greg Raymer

Phil Ivey

Minh Ly

Tiffany Williamsen

TimPhan

Final Table Payouts

1st $7.5 million

2nd $4.25 million

3rd $2.5 million

4th $2 million

5th $1.75 million

6th $1.5 million

7th $1.3 million

8th $1.15 million

9th $1 million

Action resumes at 4 PM on Friday at Binion’s Casino.

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