Bonus

100% up to £100
+ 100 Free spins
Welcome Bonus

2006 World Series of Poker

The 2006 World Series of Poker (WSOP) 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 (now “”Binion’s””) 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 $12В million (US$), 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 cashes during the WSOP, with eight cashes each. Jeff Madsen, who won two events and made two other final tables (finishing third both times), was named the 2006 WSOP Player of the Year (POTY). He barely edged Hellmuth, who also made four final tables.

Events

Number Event Winner Prize Runner-up
1 $500 Casino Employees No Limit Hold’em Chris Gros $127,616 Bryan Devonshire Results
2 $1,500 No Limit Hold’em Brandon Cantu $757,839 Phong “Mark” Ly Results
3 $1,500 Pot Limit Hold’em Rafe Furst $345,984 Rocky Enciso Results
4 $1,500 Limit Hold’em Kianoush Abolfathi $335,289 Eric Buchman Results
5 $2,500 No Limit Hold’em Short Handed 6/Table Dutch Boyd $475,712 Joe Hachem Results
6 $2,000 No Limit Hold’em Mark Vos $803,274 Nam Le Results
7 $3,000 Limit Hold’em Bill Chen $343,618 Yueqi “Rich” Zhu Results
8 $2,000 Omaha Hi-Lo (8 or better) Jack Zwerner $341,426 Rusty Mandap Results
9 $5,000 No Limit Hold’em Jeff Cabanillas $818,546 Phil Hellmuth Jr. Results
10 $1,500 Seven-card stud David Williams $163,118 John Hoang Results
11 $1,500 No limit Hold’em Bob Chalmers $258,344 Tam Ho Results
12 $5,000 Omaha Hi-Lo (8 or better) Sam Farha $398,560 Phil Ivey Results
13 $2,500 Limit Hold’em Max Pescatori $682,389 Anthony Reategui Results
14 $1,000 No Limit Hold’em w/multiple rebuys Allen Cunningham $625,830 David Rheem Results
15 $1,000 Ladies No Limit Hold’em Mary Jones Meyer $236,094 Shawnee Barton Results
16 $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha Lee Watkinson $655,746 Mike Guttman Results
17 $1,000 No Limit Hold’em Jon Friedberg $526,185 John Phan Results
18 $2,000 Pot Limit Hold’em Eric Kesselman $311,403 Hyon Kim Results
19 $1,000 No Limit Hold’em Seniors Clare Miller $247,814 Mike Nargi Results
20 $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. David “Chip” Reese $1,716,000 Andy Bloch Results
21 $2,500 No Limit Hold’em Short Handed 6/Table Bill Chen $442,511 Nath Pizzolatto Results
22 $2,000 No Limit Hold’em Jeff Madsen $660,948 Paul Sheng Results
23 $3,000 Limit Hold’em Ian Johns $291,755 Jerrod Ankenman Results
24 $3,000 Omaha Hi-Lo (8 or better) Scott Clements $301,175 Thor Hansen Results
25 $2,000 No Limit Hold’em Shootout David Pham $240,222 Charlie Sewell Results
26 $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha Ralph Perry $207,817 George Abdallah Results
26a $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha w/rebuys Eric Froehlich $299,675 Sherkhan Farnood Results
27 $1,500 No Limit Hold’em Mats Rahmn $655,141 Richard Toth Results
28 $5,000 Seven-Card Stud Benjamin Lin $256,620 Shawn Sheikhan Results
29 $2,500 Pot Limit Hold’em John Gale $374,849 Maros Lechman Results
30 $5,000 No Limit Hold’em Short Handed 6/Table Jeff Madsen $643,381 Erick Lindgren Results
31 $2,000 No Limit Hold’em Justin Scott $842,262 Freddy Rouhani Results
32 $5,000 Pot Limit Hold’em Jason Lester $550,746 Alan Sass Results
33 $1,500 Razz James Richburg $139,576 Carlos Mortensen Results
34 $1,000 No Limit Hold’em w/multiple rebuys Phil Hellmuth Jr. $631,863 Juha Helppi Results
35 $1,000 Seven Card Stud High-Low 8/OB Pat Poels $172,091 Greg Dinkin Results
36 $1,500 Limit Hold’em Shootout Victoriano Perches $157,338 Arnold Spee Results
37 $1,500 No Limit Hold’em James Gorham $765,226 Osman Kibar Results
38 $5,000 No-Limit 2–7 Draw Lowball w/rebuys Daniel Alaei $430,698 David Williams Results
39 $10,000 No Limit Hold’em Championship Jamie Gold $12,000,000 Paul Wasicka Results
40 $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em Praz Bansi $230,209 Anh Lu Results
41 $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em Paul Kobel $316,144 Tyler Andrews Results
42 $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em Jim Mitchell $153,173 Stuart Fox Results
43 $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em Kevin Nathan $171,987 J. C. Tran Results
44 $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em Kevin Cover $196,968 Joe Brandenburg Results
45 $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em Anders Henriksson $202,291 Maureen Feduniak Results

Final table

Name Number of chips
(percentage of total)
WSOP
Bracelets
WSOP
Cashes
WSOP
Earnings
United States Jamie Gold 25,650,000 (28.5%) 0 0 0
United States Allen Cunningham 17,770,000 (19.7%) 4 28 $2,371,769
United States Richard Lee 11,820,000 (13.1%) 0 0 0
Sweden Erik Friberg 9,605,000 (10.7%) 0 0 0
United States Paul Wasicka 7,970,000 (8.8%) 0 2 $64,437
United States Doug Kim 6,770,000 (7.5%) 0 0 0
United States Rhett Butler 4,815,000 (5.3%) 0 0 0
United States Michael Binger 3,140,000 (3.5%) 0 1 $101,570
United States Dan Nassif 2,600,000 (2.9%) 0 0 0

Final table results

Place Name Prize
1st Jamie Gold $12,000,000
2nd Paul Wasicka $6,102,499
3rd Michael Binger $4,123,310
4th Allen Cunningham $3,628,513
5th Rhett Butler $3,216,182
6th Richard Lee $2,803,851
7th Douglas Kim $2,391,520
8th Erik Friberg $1,979,189
9th Dan Nassif $1,566,858

Other high finishes

 

Place Name Prize
10th Fred Goldberg $1,154,527
13th William Thorson $907,128
17th Jeff Lisandro $659,730
18th David Einhorn $659,730
20th Prahlad Friedman $494,797
24th Eric Lynch $494,797
29th Mitch Schock $329,865