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Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 | Day 7 | 200k Freeroll
Day 1
It just keeps getting bigger and bigger... Last year there were 5619 entrants, this year there are more than 8773! With those numbers the ultimate winner will have to possess an unrivalled combination of luck and skill... The reward for that combination is expected to be more than $11 million!
As Day 1A approached the 12 Noon start time you could feel the tension, excitement and expectation among the players as they settled down at the 208 tables in the Amazon room here at the Rio.
It was TV and Movie Star and one of Poker's earliest cultural icons, James Garner who gave the instructions to "shuffle up and deal"... With that the room erupted with cheers and applause and Event 39 of the WSOP 2006 was underway.
With the event reaching such huge proportions Day 1 is now spread over 4 days, with 1A on July 28th and 1D July 31st
No summery can really do justice to the 1000s of hands that were dealt over these 4 days, so I'll boil it down to pure numbers – as Day 1D came to a close in the early hours of Tuesday morning the initial field of nearly 9000 was to cut down to 3373.
InterPoker players managed to defy the odds and around 50% of them progressed to Day 2. InterPoker Pro and former WSOP champion Rob Varkonyi leads the way with 55,000.
We wish all our players good luck and we'll give you a detailed update of how everyone gets on as we move on to Day 2 tomorrow.
Day 2
Day 2A
Today was the day that the prize structure was announced - first place will take $12 million and become an instant world poker superstar…
Day 2A ended at 11.56pm, by that time the 1637 field had been reduced to 570 – and those 570 will be back to test their skill on Friday.
Jon Lane ended up chip leader, with 405,000, Ken Jacobs was in second with 395,000 and Jason Strasser ended the day third with 330,000.
As well as the delight of the chip leaders, there was, of course, plenty of disappointment too… Lots of big name players busted out today, including WSOP 2006 star Jeff Madsen, the 21 year old winner of 2 bracelets.
Day 2B begins Wednesday at noon, with Thursday being a richly deserved break for Main Event players, and by Friday we should get a clear picture of how the tournament is shaping up…
Day 2B
As Day 2B wrapped up, InterPoker Pro’s Pete ‘The Beat’ Giordano ($73,000) and Kathy Liebert ($48,500) were still going strong as the field narrowed yet again… The original 8773 is now down to 1160. Big names have been dropping like flies, however, Daniel Negreanu, Joseph Hachem, Cyndy Violette and a handful of other pros have managed to survive to Day 3.
For the most part it's a huge field of unknowns. The InterPoker players that are still hanging in there, include our recent Extreme Poker champion Nick Grudzien, Flipper22 ($57,100), Jomiko ($55,000), Rbooster ($78,500) and Skyblu1 ($23,000) – if they make it through Day 3 they should find themselves well and truly in the money - good luck to them all!
Day 3
Some of the players who made it through to day 3 have managed to pick up some of the $82,512,162 prize pool. This prize pool is shared to players who finish in the top 873, where the first player in the money received $14,597 for their efforts. This year the final 12 players will take over $1,000,000 each with the top prize being 12,000,000.
At the end of day 3 there are 481 players continuing in the main event and several player still representing InterPoker. Amongst these are poker pro’s Kathy Liebert, who has $126,000 in chips, and Pete ‘the beat’ Giordano, who is playing with $111,000 in chips. Other InterPoker players include RBooster with $146,000 and Jomiko who currently holds the highest chip count amongst the InterPoker players with $189,000. Unfortunately Day 3 saw the end of Flipper22 in this years main event, he finished in 724th out of the 8773 starters and received $16,493 in prize money.
Day 4
At the end of Day 4 there are now only 135 players left competing for the $12,000,000 that the WSOP main event title will bring.
Day 4 saw the end of the main event for a few InterPoker players, first to leave their chips at the table was InterPoker pro player Pete Giordano who finished in 409th and collected $30,512 for his troubles. Jomiko finished the event in 313rd and Kathy Liebert finished in 275, both players collected prize money of $38,759 each. InterPoker player RBooster is still in the running for the event #39 bracelet and will enter day 5 with a chip count of $245,000.
RBooster will have his work cut out tomorrow, current leader Jamie Gold has a huge stack of $3,700,000. Notable players that went out today include Daniel Negreanu, Cindy Violette, WSOP 2005 winner Joe Hachem, Paul Sexton.
Day 5
Amongst the 135 starters on day 5 only a handful of pros were still remaining, this number decreased as the field was dwindled down to 45 as day 5 closed. Today only one InterPoker player remained, RBooster started the day well but unfortunately will not be returning for day 6 of the main event. RBooster finished this years WSOP event #39 in 106th and received $51,129.
The final table of the main event is scheduled for August 10th, players will be granted a day off if the number of players remaining falls to 9 before this date, this seems quite likely as players have been falling like flies throughout in the past few days.
Annie Duke will not be progressing to Day 6 this year, along with Casey Kastle and Bryan Micon. Jamie Gold is still chip leader and now has a mountain of chips to the value of $7,330,000.
Day 6
At the end of day 6 we are down to 27 players, players 19-27 each receive a cool $494,797for reaching this stage of the tournament.
Richard Wyrick holds the least amount of chips as we move into day 7 with $570,000 while the chip lead remains with Jamie Gold for the third day who has now accumulated $13,000,000.
Day 7
We now know the nine players that will feature on the final table of the WSOP 2006 main event – with Allen Cunningham the only pro player to reach the final nine. The final table is made up of 8 American players and 1 player from Sweden.
| Seat | Player | Hometown | Chip Count |
| 1 | Richard Lee | San Antonio, Texas | $11,820,000 |
| 2 | Erik Friberg | Stockholm, Sweden | $9,605,000 |
| 3 | Paul Wasickca | Westminster, Colorado | $7,970,000 |
| 4 | Dan Nassif | St. Louis, Missouri | $2,600,000 |
| 5 | Allen Cunningham | Las Vegas, Nevada | $17,000,000 |
| 6 | Michael Binger | Atherton, California | $3,140,000 |
| 7 | Douglas Kim | Martsdale, New York | $6,770,000 |
| 8 | Jamie Gold | Malibu, California | $25,650,000 |
| 9 | Rhett Butler | Rockville, Maryland | $4,815,000 |
Allen Cunningham is expected to do well but three places to his left is Jamie Gold who has enough chips to bully the rest. Gold will also have the chance to bet after Cunningham 6 times in every 9 hands. The final table will be full of action and someone will walk away with $12,000,000 and the coveted WSOP Main Event bracelet 2006.
Gold wins WSOP Main Event
Jamie Gold has been crowned champion of the World Series of Poker after a thrilling, 14-hour battle against similarly renowned player Paul Wasicka.
Wasicka held two tens before the flop, beating Gold's queen and nine; Gold &ndash standing with seven times as many chips as Wasicka &ndash raised to $1.7 million.
His opponent called, bringing forward a queen of clubs, eight of hearts and five of hearts, leaving Gold with a stronger pair ahead of the turn and river cards.
Wasicka bet out with $1.5 million, pushing Gold to go all-in, risking his slight lead on the two remaining cards.
Calling with his two tens, Wasicka showed a lower pair; the turn produced an ace and the river a four, leaving Gold the winner &ndash just.
Gold said of his victory: "I can't believe it, I am very happy.
"It started off tough, but once I felt in control, I realized that if I continued to play my game, I would be very hard to beat," he added.
His sponsor, Bodog.com, put up the $10,000 entry that let him in to win the $12 million prize.
200k Freeroll
On Saturday, August 5, 2006, CryptoLogic Inc., in association with the Seniors Charity, held the Second Chance Bounty Invitational, a $200,000 freeroll. The freeroll took place in the Gold Coast Casino, Las Vegas, and was hosted by Oklahoma Johnny, the event opened in true poker style with O.K. Sarah singing the classic “The Gambler”.
A total of 80 players from around the world competed for the $200,000 prize pool PLUS $20,000 bounties on the heads of 10 Pro Poker Players. For no cost, players started with 5,000 chips and were able to rebuy another 5,000 chips for $50 during the first hour. This $50 went to the Seniors Charity, and a total of $3,780 was raised through rebuys and player contributions!
In addition to the bounties, 50 spots were paid, with 1st place taking home $50,000.
When the event got to heads up, we saw Bengt Sonnert, a pro representing Betfair vs. Spencer Lawrence, an online qualifier representing InterPoker. Spencer represented InterPoker online players quite well, overcoming a 3-1 chip count differential and taking home first prize and the final bounty of the match with spectacular play.
The Pros who participated included: Kenna James (representing SunPoker); Rob Varkonyi and O.K. Sarah (representing InterPoker); Xuyen Pham and Steve Vladar (representing William Hill); Rehne Pedersen (representing PokerPlex); Ben Grundy, Bengt Sonnert and Thomas Bihl (representing Betfair); and Oklahoma Johnny Hale (representing the Seniors Charity).
Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Winnings | Site |
| 1st | Spencer Lawrence | $50,000 | InterPoker |
| 2nd | Bengt Sonnert | $32,000 | Betfair |
| 3rd | Luke Guest | $21,000 | Betfair |
| 4th | Jeppe Mikkelsen | $15,000 | PokerPlex |
| 5th | Alexander Burton | $11,000 | Littlewoods |
| 6th | John Dawson | $9,000 | William Hill |
| 7th | Walter Alecci | $7,000 | William Hill |
| 8th | Kamal Verma | $5,500 | William Hill |
| 9th | Thomas Brandt | $4,000 | InterPoker |
| 10th | Johnny Hale | $3,000 | Seniors Charity |
