$2.9 Million Won In World Poker Tour Final
Published: Friday, April 29, 2005 Online-Casinos.com
TUAN'S TIME
$2.9 million prize from World Poker Tour final at the Bellagio
LA resident Tuan Le is the new World Poker Tour champion, taking home $2.9 million after 7 tough hours at the Bellagio tables in what has become the world's most expensive poker tournament, reports the Las Vegas Sun.
Now in its third year at the Bellagio, the tournament draws only a few hundred people compared with the thousands that gather each spring for the World Series of Poker. But with a $25,000 buy-in, the Bellagio event attracts the world's best and most aggressive players.
There were no Internet-tournament players - the six people who made the final table Sunday are all experienced casino tournament players.
Le won a World Poker Tour event at the Foxwoods casino in Connecticut last year. Paul Maxfield of England, who took second, placed in a World Series of Poker event last year. Third place winner Hasan Habib of Los Angeles placed second at last year's WPT Championship. Long Beach resident John Phan, in fourth, won a Commerce Casino tournament this year and placed in a tournament at the Plaza casino in downtown Las Vegas last year. Fifth place winner Rob Hollink of the Netherlands won a European Poker Tour tournament in Monaco this year.
Poker pro Phil Ivey, the only Las Vegas resident at the table, has won three World Series of Poker events and placed in several other tournaments. He placed sixth.
Maxfield won $1.7 million, Habib won $896,375, Phan won $518,920, Hollink won $377,420 and Ivey took home $264,195.
The first 100 placeholders in the tournament, which began April 19, were paid prize money from the pool of nearly $11 million. The minimum prize was $30,000.
The final table will be broadcast June 29 on the Travel Channel, which has broadcast rights to World Poker Tour events.
Habib began Sunday's final table with $7.8 million in chips, followed by Ivey with $3.4 million, Hollink with $4.4 million, Maxfield with $2.9 million, Le with $2.7 million and Phan with $1.5 million.
Habib was well ahead of the pack for much of the game but drew a number of losing cards later on.
More than two hours passed before two players, Ivey and Hollink, were knocked out in quick succession. About three hours in, Phan was out, followed by Habib three hours later. With a king and a five card, Maxfield tried for a flush but went out before midnight.
Players began the tournament with $50,000 in chips each. The final table began with minimum bets of $40,000 to $80,000. Those bets got richer as the evening wore on and eventually reached a World Poker Tour record.
Antes rose from a few hundred thousand to around $500,000, with players raising one another in the millions of dollars per hand. Little-used yellow chips, each worth $100,000, emerged several hours into the game.
More than 450 players entered the tournament compared with last year's 343 players. Last year's top prize winner took home $2.7 million from an $8.6 million prize pool.
