T.J. Cloutier Adds Sixth WSOP Bracelet to Collection

In what would be his 58th major tournament victory and sixth championship at the World Series of Poker (WSOP), the venerable T.J. Cloutier outlasted WSOP novice, Steven Zoine, to win the $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em event. Cloutier took home a whopping $657,100 for his efforts.

The final table was chock full of big names, including Cloutier, John Bonetti, Todd Brunson, John Hennigan, and Gavin Smith. There was even a well known internet poker name, Dustin “Neverwin” Woolf amongst the competitors. The depth of experience on hand made for some stick-and-move poker, as the players threw a lot of jabs before lining each other up for the knockout punch.

Even though two players, Brunson and Ma, were severely short-stacked when play started ($16,000 and $64,000, respectively), nobody was eliminated until the 33rd hand. And it wasn’t even one of the short stacks. Instead, Gavin Smith, who entered final table play with more than twice the chips of Ma, found the exit in 10th place. Brunson doubled up several times, seeing his stack grow to over $100,000, before being crippled by Jason Berilgen (K-K beat A-K). Brunson still managed to grow his remaining $5,000 to over $20,000 before finally leaving in 8th place.

It was slow going when play got down to the final four of Zoine, Cloutier, Neal Wang, and Bonetti, and sometimes it seemed as though the players were doing more talking than betting. In particular, Bonetti and Cloutier entertained the rest of the table with their constant needling of each other; they are two of the oldest veterans in poker and have been friends for years. Several times, they raised each other out of pots, only to show garbage cards, like 2-3 offsuit, just to razz on another.

Once Cloutier knocked out his buddy Bonetti, it was on to heads-up competition with Zoine in the lead $1,361,000 to $968,000. Zoine was quiet at the start of the day, but when he got cards, he became very aggressive (but smart) and was able to build a large chip stack. As a matter of fact, Zoine told Cloutier that the only poker book he ever read was written by Cloutier, and it was a big reason he had made it so far. Cloutier said that Zoine’s aggressive style was very much patterned after his own teachings in the book, and he is proud to know that he had an effect on such a strong player. Cloutier said afterward that he played against Zoine for the better part of the last two days and that Zoine, while not experienced in live play, is an excellent player. Cloutier lauded the new generation of internet players, saying they build a great base playing online and are then able to step into a real-life cardroom and stare grizzled veterans square in the eye. In fact, Cloutier said that he himself plays $11 single-table tournaments online almost every night to keep on top of his game.

The tide turned for Cloutier in heads-up play when he was dealt J-9 and flopped the nut straight when the board showed 10-8-7. Zoine bet into Cloutier, Cloutier raised, and Zoine called. When the turn brought a 6, Cloutier bet hard and Zoine raised him all-in. Cloutier was more than happy to call with the nuts. Zoine had pocket 6’s, so he made his set on the turn, and still had a chance to knock Cloutier out if the board paired, which would give Zoine a full house. It didn’t happen, however, and Cloutier doubled-up.

Many hands of fold after fold after fold later, Zoine doubled up when he went all-in with A-J against Cloutier’s pocket Kings. Zoine got lucky (as all winning poker players must do at some point) when he spiked an Ace on the turn.

The competition finally came to an end when Zoine pushed all-in preflop with A-K, getting called by Cloutier and his A-5. It was looking great for Zoine, as he had Cloutier dominated. The flop of 6-8-9 gave Cloutier four extra outs to hit the gut-shot straight draw and he was down to seven cards in the deck once a Jack came on the turn. Lucky for Cloutier, and heartbreaking for Zoine, the river card was a 7 and Cloutier had hit his miracle straight. Zoine truly looked crushed and still looked visibly upset thirty minutes later. The two exchanged kind words, however, as they obviously had a great respect for one another.

Afterwards, ESPN commentator, Norman Chad, mentioned to Cloutier that he got very lucky twice at the final table. Once was the last hand and the other actually saved Cloutier from elimination, when he rivered top pair against Wang. Upon being asked if he was due for some lucky cards, Cloutier responded with a wry smile, “I’ve probably been sucked out on more than anyone in the history of poker, so I had those coming to me.”

To wrap up the interview, Chad asked the 66 year-old Cloutier how many more bracelets he thinks he can win. To that, Cloutier grinned and said, “I’m just getting started.”

Don’t you doubt it.


Complete Final Table Standings

(Place/Player/Prize Money)

1. T.J. Cloutier - $657,100
2. Steven Zoine - $352,620
3. John Bonetti - $175,215
4. Neal Wang - $153,315
5. Jason Berilgen - $131,410
6. John Hennigan - $109,510
7. Dustin Woolf - $87,610
8. Todd Brunson - $65,705
9. Hieu “Tony” Ma - $43,805
10. Gavin Smith - $24,090

Originally published June 17, 2005