2006 WSOP Circuit Event at Caesars Palace on Friday

Courtney Friel, WPT Host, at the WPT World Championship final table Monday night at the Bellagio

I’m taking a day or two away from the hustle of the Las Vegas strip and tournament poker so decided to provide a few of my favorite photos from the just completed Bellagio’s Five Star and WPT 2006 World Poker Championship. Most of the pros were there during the three week run and most are still in town for the WSOP Circuit event that kicks off on Friday, April 28, 2006, at Caesars Palace Poker Room. Ten hold’em events ending in a $10K buy-in championship finale with a May 11 final table.

Joe Bartholdi has just won $3.7 million

Most everyone on the Las Vegas poker scene is anticipating the upcoming 2006 World Series of Poker at the Rio Resort. The mother of all poker tournaments and the original going all the way back to the late sixties, when you could count all the pros that would pony up the $10,000 buy-in without having to take off your shoes. The bloom may be off the poker rose but you’d never know from the live tournaments. Each event of the major tournaments sets another record for entrants and prize money. Tournament rooms are crowded with standing room only fans eager to see one of the superstars of the sport or to marvel over the incredible millions of dollars in the prize pools. Tournament poker has finally taken its place among spectator pastimes enjoyed by other sports, thanks to the wide audience of television and the world wide acceptance of online poker. Millions of players now enjoy the original ‘old west’ card game that requires the advanced layer strategy of chess, money management skills that rival a banker, lawyer-like practiced abilities to lie straight faced then combined with the heart stopping moment when an all-in call is on the table, a fortune is on the line, and you can’t ever let them see you sweat.

Exotic professional poker player, Liz Lieu, on the Fontana Room veranda

Poker players are basically loners, people that have to spend long hours with nothing more than their thoughts for entertainment while they mentally record every movement at the table. All of the great players have an uncanny ability to observe even the slightest of differences and then select the proper play strategy to move chips into their stack. They must also reach way down for a second effort despite the despair of seeing a river one-outer hit the board and move most of your stack across the table. Next time you’re watching the pros go at it on TV and one of them is so overcome with emotion that they leave teary eyed or F-bomb mad, remember, they have usually been playing for days (sometimes the 1 hour TV poker event you’re watching is condensed from 18 hours of continuous final table play). The finality of busting out of a major event is akin to death, there is no recovery, you must leave the table, this game is forever over for you. Poker is a very demanding sport with only a few of the millions of players capable of playing a long term “A” game. Next time you enjoy watching one of the many TV poker offerings be sure to thank the players, after all, they’re playing for their own out-of-pocket money making up the prize purse.

A special thanks to Dr. Pauly of Tao of Poker for the great daily wraps of all the Five Star WPT Championship action from his unique perspective and to the Jen and the gang at pokerwire.com for the up-to-the-minute table stats.

A little over $20 million in chips

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