Alan Goehring Wins Richest Prize in WPT History

Happy birthday to you, Alan Goehring. How does almost $2.4 million sound for a birthday present? Good? Good. I’m glad you like it.

Capping off a week in which he ended Day 1 as the chip leader and stayed at the top of the leader board the rest of the way, Alan Goehring won the 2006 L.A. Poker Classic at the Commerce Casino, taking home $2,391,550, the largest prize in World Poker Tour history, as well as a $25,000 seat in the WPT Championship.

It is a rare thing to see the first day’s chip leader actually do something the rest of a large event like the L.A. Poker Classic, so what Goehring did was quite impressive. While he began the final television table of six players in only fourth place, this was as low as he ever started the entire tournament. At $1.9 million chips, he had only half the stack of the final table chip leader, J.C. Tran, but he was not in bad shape at all, with about 14% of the total chips on the table.

It looked grim for Goehring early, as he lost almost half his stack in the first two hands, but he stayed calm and found a spot to double-up a couple hours later to get himself back in the game.

It was a grind from there. It took another two hours for Per Ummer to get knocked out in sixth place. Yet another hour elapsed before Goehring eliminated J.C. Tran, but the final two eliminations before heads-up occurred shortly thereafter.

Goehring entered heads-up play against Daniel Quach as more than a 2-to-1 underdog and essentially stayed like that for the first half hour. Goehring eventually battled back, pulling almost even, then losing the lead, and then just barely taking over the chip lead by the final hand. It was so close, in fact, that tournament officials had to count the stacks when the hand was over to be sure.

There was no strategic poker played on that last hand. Quach moved all-in pre-flop and Goehring called. Quach had A-J and Goehring had K-8, so Quach looked to be in good shape. But, this is poker, and the best starting hand doesn’t always win. Goehring hit his King on the turn to take down the pot and the championship.

Final Table Results (Bold = Television Table)

1. Alan Goehring -- $2,391,550
2. Daniel Quach -- $1,162,560
3. Michael Woo -- $571,315
4. Steve Simmons -- $338,803
5. J.C.Tran -- $265,728
6. Per Ummer -- $199,296
7. Anahit Galajian -- $166,080
8. Kevan Casey -- $132,864
9. Michael McClain -- $99,648

Originally published February 28, 2006