Simon Says

In what began as one of the closest final tables in recent memory, Mike Simon emerged victorious at the World Poker Tour’s World Poker Challenge yesterday at the Reno Hilton in Reno, Nevada. This was Simon’s first major tournament victory, for which he earned $1,052,890 and a $25,000 seat at the World Poker Tour Championship.

When play at the final television table commenced, the six players were separated by only about $300,000 in chips, top to bottom. The favorite had to have been Barry Greenstein, however, as he was in second place, only $100,000 behind Simon, as well as being the most experienced player of the group. Unfortunately for Greenstein, he doubled-up Simon (who had a lost a few chips to lose the lead) on the fourth hand when they both flopped trip eights, but Simon’s Ace kicker beat Greenstein’s King kicker. A few hands later, Simon finished him off.

It took about four hours of play littered with all-ins to finally see the 5th place finisher eliminated. Jonas Normann, who parlayed a $6.40 satellite into over $113,000, fell victim to a runner-runner two pair by Jason Stern.

Shortly thereafter, ex-hockey player (and from his size, it’s no surprise that he played professional sports), Greg Mueller was shown the door and a 4th place finish.

Less than an hour later, Jason Stern took out Tom Schneider, garnering over a million chips in the process and taking a 3-2 chip lead into heads-up play with Simon.

The two went back and forth for quite a while, keeping the match close. Then, after a couple hours, the fireworks go off. First, Stern took over 1.5 million chips from Simon after moving all-in after the flop. A couple hands later, Simon doubled up after sucking out on the river. Three hands later, he did it again, this time with his J-10 against Stern’s Q-10. That double-up left Stern crippled – Simon completed the job four hands later.

Complete Final Table Results (Bold = TV Table)

1. Mike Simon -- $1,052,890
2. Jason Stern -- $529,300
3. Tom Schneider -- $256,115
4. Greg Mueller -- $142,285
5. Jonas Norman -- $113,830
6. Barry Greenstein -- $85,370
7. Carl Olson -- $71,145
8. Fang Tian -- $56,915
9. Gary Jacobi -- $42,685

Originally published March 31, 2006