2006 World Series of Poker


The 2006 World Series of Poker began on June 25, 2006 with "satellite" events, with regular play commencing on June 26 with the annual Casino Employee event, and the Tournament of Champions held on June 28 and 29. Forty more events in various disciplines including Omaha, seven-card stud and razz, plus ladies' and senior tournaments led up to the 10,000 US$ no-limit Texas hold 'em main event starting July 28 and running through the final table on August 10.
All events were held at the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, which marked the first time that a casino other than Binion's Horseshoe hosted the final table of the main event. Six days reserved for the first two rounds of play for the main event were established by Harrah's Entertainment, which has run the annual event since its purchase from the Binion family in 2004.
The first prize in the main event was $12 million, at that time the richest prize for the winner of any sports or television event in history. The top 12 players became millionaires. The record prize was surpassed at the 2012 WSOP, when the winner of the $1 million buy-in Big One for One Drop, Antonio Esfandiari, received a first-place prize $18.3 million.
The 2006 World Series featured a much-anticipated HORSE tournament with a $50,000 buy-in, the highest ever for a single WSOP event.
Humberto Brenes, Phil Hellmuth, Chris Ferguson, and Alex Jacob tied for the most number of cashes during the WSOP, with eight cashes each. Jeff Madsen, who won two events and made two other final tables, was named the 2006 WSOP Player of the Year. He barely edged Hellmuth, who also made four final tables.

Events

NumberEventWinnerPrizeRunner-up–
1$500 Casino Employees No Limit Hold'emChris Gros$127,616Bryan DevonshireResults
2$1,500 No Limit Hold'emBrandon Cantu$757,839Phong "Mark" LyResults
3$1,500 Pot Limit Hold'emRafe Furst$345,984Rocky EncisoResults
4$1,500 Limit Hold'emKianoush Abolfathi$335,289Eric BuchmanResults
5$2,500 No Limit Hold'em Short Handed 6/TableDutch Boyd$475,712Joe HachemResults
6$2,000 No Limit Hold'emMark Vos$803,274Nam LeResults
7$3,000 Limit Hold'emBill Chen$343,618Yueqi "Rich" ZhuResults
8$2,000 Omaha Hi-Lo Jack Zwerner$341,426Rusty MandapResults
9$5,000 No Limit Hold'emJeff Cabanillas$818,546Phil Hellmuth Jr.Results
10$1,500 Seven-card studDavid Williams$163,118John HoangResults
11$1,500 No limit Hold'emBob Chalmers$258,344Tam HoResults
12$5,000 Omaha Hi-Lo Sam Farha$398,560Phil IveyResults
13$2,500 Limit Hold'emMax Pescatori$682,389Anthony ReateguiResults
14$1,000 No Limit Hold'em w/multiple rebuysAllen Cunningham$625,830David RheemResults
15$1,000 Ladies No Limit Hold'emMary Jones Meyer$236,094Shawnee BartonResults
16$10,000 Pot Limit OmahaLee Watkinson$655,746Mike GuttmanResults
17$1,000 No Limit Hold'emJon Friedberg$526,185John PhanResults
18$2,000 Pot Limit Hold'emEric Kesselman$311,403Hyon KimResults
19$1,000 No Limit Hold'em SeniorsClare Miller$247,814Mike NargiResults
20$50,000 H.O.R.S.E.David "Chip" Reese$1,716,000Andy BlochResults
21$2,500 No Limit Hold'em Short Handed 6/TableBill Chen$442,511Nath PizzolattoResults
22$2,000 No Limit Hold'emJeff Madsen$660,948Paul ShengResults
23$3,000 Limit Hold'emIan Johns$291,755Jerrod AnkenmanResults
24$3,000 Omaha Hi-Lo Scott Clements$301,175Thor HansenResults
25$2,000 No Limit Hold'em ShootoutDavid Pham$240,222Charlie SewellResults
26$1,500 Pot Limit OmahaRalph Perry$207,817George AbdallahResults
26a$1,500 Pot Limit Omaha w/rebuysEric Froehlich$299,675Sherkhan Farnood
27$1,500 No Limit Hold'emMats Rahmn$655,141Richard TothResults
28$5,000 Seven-Card StudBenjamin Lin$256,620Shawn SheikhanResults
29$2,500 Pot Limit Hold'emJohn Gale$374,849Maros LechmanResults
30$5,000 No Limit Hold'em Short Handed 6/TableJeff Madsen$643,381Erick LindgrenResults
31$2,000 No Limit Hold'emJustin Scott$842,262Freddy RouhaniResults
32$5,000 Pot Limit Hold'emJason Lester$550,746Alan SassResults
33$1,500 RazzJames Richburg$139,576Carlos MortensenResults
34$1,000 No Limit Hold'em w/multiple rebuysPhil Hellmuth Jr.$631,863Juha HelppiResults
35$1,000 Seven Card Stud High-Low 8/OBPat Poels$172,091Greg DinkinResults
36$1,500 Limit Hold'em ShootoutVictoriano Perches$157,338Arnold SpeeResults
37$1,500 No Limit Hold'emJames Gorham$765,226Osman KibarResults
38$5,000 No-Limit 2–7 Draw Lowball w/rebuysDaniel Alaei$430,698David WilliamsResults
39$10,000 No Limit Hold'em ChampionshipJamie Gold$12,000,000Paul WasickaResults
40$1,000 No-Limit Hold'emPraz Bansi$230,209Anh LuResults
41$1,500 No-Limit Hold'emPaul Kobel$316,144Tyler AndrewsResults
42$1,500 No-Limit Hold'emJim Mitchell$153,173Stuart FoxResults
43$1,500 No-Limit Hold'emKevin Nathan$171,987J. C. TranResults
44$1,500 No-Limit Hold'emKevin Cover$196,968Joe BrandenburgResults
45$1,500 No-Limit Hold'emAnders Henriksson$202,291Maureen FeduniakResults

Main Event

The 2006 Main Event remains the largest tournament in poker history by prize pool with a total prize pool of $82,512,162. The tournament, like every WSOP Main Event, is a $10,000 No-Limit Texas Hold'em event. Due to the 8,773-player field, there were four separate starting days, each playing down to 800 people. They were later combined into one other set of separate days before becoming one whole group. The field was whittled down to 9 players on August 8, and Jamie Gold was crowned World Champion on August 10. The final table of the "Main Event" was offered live on Pay-Per-View, but unlike ESPN telecasts, viewers at home could not see the hole cards of the players unless the player turned their cards over.
Along with the usual $10,000 chip stacks, a new feature to the WSOP was the "All-In" button. Tournament directors have informed the participants that the coin could be used in lieu of pushing all of one’s chips into the pot.
The beige $50,000 chips that were used in 2005 were not used in 2006. Instead, tangerine and yellow $25,000 chips, in the design of the current $25 chips, were used. And for the first time in World Series of Poker History, a $100,000 chip was introduced on day 7. The chips were mint green with black edge spots in the design of the current yellow/black $1,000 chip.

Final table

PlaceNamePrize
1stJamie Gold$12,000,000
2ndPaul Wasicka$6,102,499
3rdMichael Binger$4,123,310
4thAllen Cunningham$3,628,513
5thRhett Butler$3,216,182
6thRichard Lee$2,803,851
7thDouglas Kim$2,391,520
8thErik Friberg$1,979,189
9thDan Nassif$1,566,858

Other high finishes

NB: This list is restricted to top 30 finishers with an existing Wikipedia entry.
PlaceNamePrize
10thFred Goldberg$1,154,527
13thWilliam Thorson$907,128
17thJeff Lisandro$659,730
18thDavid Einhorn$659,730
20thPrahlad Friedman$494,797
24thEric Lynch$494,797
29thMitch Schock$329,865

Performance of past World Champions

Event 5

When play resumed during day 2 of this event, a table with players, Daniel Negreanu, Gavin Smith, and Kathy Liebert were given extra chips after tournament officials had misplaced Mirza Nagji's chips in the wrong seat. Unknowingly, the rest of the players assumed that this stack was someone else's who was late and blinded off the stack. Eventually a player noticed that the stack was Mirza Nagji's chips, who by that time had been given replacement chips. Players estimate that out of the extra 120,000 in chips that were put into play, around 10,000–11,000 in chips had already been blinded off from the empty stack.

Event 20

Many poker players who entered into the HORSE event discovered that the cards they were playing with were marked or easily markable. Andy Bloch was assessed a 10‑minute penalty for crumpling a card when a dealer refused to replace the deck after the new deck that came in was rife with markings. When asked for comment, WSOP Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack said, "I hadn't heard anything about the cards being marked until today. I am looking into getting more fresh setups and I am definitely working on solving the problem."

Event 25

During Event 25, the $2,000 NL Hold 'em Shootout, the structure was changed mid-tournament from a full table into a six-handed table event. Harry Demetriou, who had been playing in the event, objected to the change in format citing that a shootout should be 9, 10 or 11 handed, yelling about the unfair change in structure. Harry was eventually ejected from the tournament and was later refunded his money. Daniel Negreanu missed the event completely because he assumed that the event would be a full table and he would be able to come into the tournament a little bit later after sleeping in. However, by the time he showed up David Singer had won his table after blinding off Negreanu's stack.