Busy Day at the World Series

Call it a scheduling fluke, call it poor planning, or just call it tons of poker fun. No matter how you put it, Thursday was a wild day at the World Series of Poker.

Three champions were crowned well into the wee hours of Friday morning, marking the first time in WSOP history that three final tables were played on the same day. Two of the events, the $1,500 Seven Card Razz tournament and the $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em Six-Handed tournament began the day not having decided their final table participants yet. Because of this, the players, spectators, tournament staff, and media were all in store for a very, very, very long night.

At the outset of Thursday’s play, the scene in the Rio Pavilion was hectic, as the three different events were all being played in the same small area. On top of that, the $5,000 Omaha 8/B High-Low Split event started nearby. Even with the proper credentials, it took a major effort to push through the crowds to get a good vantage point of the action.

The juxtaposition of the three events made for interesting viewing. On the one hand, there were the last couple tables of the Six-Handed tournament, which featured some huge names: Doyle Brunson, Layne Flack, Chris “Jesus” Ferguson, Men “The Master” Nguyen, Scotty Nguyen, and Jason Lester. The spectators were all over these tables to catch a glimpse of the stars. On the other hand, there was the $2,000 No-Limit Hold’em final table, consisting of several young internet players, which made for a very boisterous fan base. Then you had the Razz event shoved in there, a much quieter affair.

When all three final tables were being played simultaneously, it was very difficult to follow everything. The focus was on the Six-Handed championship, as Brunson, Scotty Nguyen, Flack, and Lester were all competing. In fact, ESPN had originally planned on filming the $2,000 No-Limit final table, but switched to the Six-Handed table because of the star factor. This was probably a good choice, because the main stage was packed with spectators and was much better equipped to handle such an audience.

The first table to finish was the $2,000 No-Limit Hold’em championship, at the “early” hour of 11:30pm. Lawrence Gosney took home the bracelet and $483,195.

Surprisingly, the Six-Handed final table didn’t finish until around 4:00am, with Doyle Brunson capturing his record-tying tenth WSOP bracelet. More detail on Brunson’s victory can be found in this article.

Finally, finally, as if Razz wasn’t agonizing enough, the Razz champion was crowned at 7:00am. That’s right. Seven o’clock in the morning. Commanding probably the lowest-hourly win rate at the WSOP, O’Neil Longson took the title, winning $125,690.

Now everybody just needs to get some sleep.

Originally published July 1, 2005