Jamie Gold Wins 2006 WSOP Main Event

Chip leader going into the final table Jamie Gold has followed that through by winning the 2006 World Series of Poker Main Event. Gold has been at or near the chip lead ever since day 3 and he went into the final table with a chip stack of 27 million, which was more than 10 million more than Allen Cunnigham’s 2nd place chip stack.

Gold went on the offensive from the start of the final table, and ended up on a one-man crusade, busting out 7 out of his 8 opponents at the final table. By the time he got to heads up play he had a dominating chip lead of 7 to 1 over his opponent Paul Wasicka.

The conclusive hand came after a raise by gold to $1.7 million before the flop and Wasicka called. The flop came down Qc-8h-5h which Gold checked and Wasicka came out betting $1.5 million. Gold replied by moving all-in and while Gold tried to goad him to call Wasicka took a moment to make his decision. He eventually called and turned over pocket Tens leaving Gold in the lead with top pair of Queens. The Turn card was an Ace and the River a Four offering no help to Wasicka and Jamie Gold was crowned the new World Champion.

Wasicka offered credit to Gold speaking afterwards, “He did a really good job of tricking me on the last hand. He check-raised me all-in and made it look like he was on a draw, and at that point, I didn’t feel like I could keep on laying down hand after hand. I felt like based on the previous half-hour, he was in the gambling mood, and he did a really good job of mixing it up. He said, ‘Oh, you don’t have a queen, do you?’ Then he stood up, like a lot of players do when they’re on a big draw. My gut told me just go for it, and my gut was wrong.”

Wasicka took home $6,102,499 for his 2nd place finish which was almost half of the $12 million that 1st place Gold won.

After his victory Gold spoke to the press and commented, “I’ve never played in the World Series before, but I believed that I could do it. I’ve won a lot of small tournaments but I wanted to see if I could compete with the best. Johnny Chan thought that I could, and I thought that I could too.”

Gold went on to dedicate his win to his father who is suffering from Lou Gehrig’s disease and when asked if he would return next year to defend his title he said, “Unless I’m in a hospital somewhere, I’m going to be here. I can’t wait to play again.”

The main event wrapped up a marathon 2006 World Series of Poker, and now the battle begins again to grab online qualifiers seats for next years event which promises to again be even bigger that this years event.

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