Fate of Atlantis

Evangelical politicians in America have tried to crush poker in the US and British courts have found Derek Kelly of London’s Gutshot poker club guilty of allowing people to play the game they love. Anyone would think that poker is approaching some kind of judgement day crisis.

So how come the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure at the Atlantis resort on Paradise Island in the Bahamas has just fielded the largest WPT field ever with a staggering 937 runners? It’s because poker players refuse to be told what to do by overbearing governments, and quite rightfully so, too.

With 300 more runners than last year, the $7,800 buy-in created a huge $7m prize pool, closely rivalling the amount that was up for grabs in the World Series Main Event won by Chris Moneymaker in 2003.

And with some of poker’s biggest names joining the hordes of internet qualifiers eager to follow in the footsteps of last year’s winner Steve Paul-Ambrose, this year’s tourney was always going to be hotly contested.

Drawing dead

Although poker came first, as always there was plenty of ‘extra curricular’ activity based around the bar but this was an area the Americans were understandably concerned about. One twenty-something yank was overheard saying to another US qualifier at the opening night cocktail party, ‘You don’t want to keep up drinking with a European. It’s like you’re drawing dead.’ Quite right, sunshine, get yourself back to your room before you embarrass yourself.

Someone who didn’t show himself up was Canadian Steve Paul-Ambrose who came close to achieving the major poker coup of winning back-to-back titles. He won $1,388,600 last year and by the end of Day 2 this time round the mild-mannered 23-year-old was second in chips to Justin Bonomo – the online player known as ZEEJustin who in the past had been busted by Party Poker for multiple account registering.

Although he couldn’t quite repeat the feat, Paul-Ambrose finally finished in a very creditable 20th place when his A-10 push failed to improve against Jacks. Bonomo lasted a little longer, however, but an agonising call with Kings to Isaac Haxton’s Aces saw him crash out in 11th. Haxton went on to finish second after reaching the final table with half the chips in play.

The only big-name player to appear on the final table was Robert Mizrachi, brother of Michael ‘The Grinder’ Mizrachi – one of the best tournament players around today. Mizrachi went out in fourth after falling to a rivered straight courtesy of Haxton. Other faces such as David Williams, Aaron Kanter, John Phan and Victor Ramdin cashed in but fell short of the big-money spots.

No Daut

Despite being chip leader for a couple of days Haxton couldn’t quite keep hold of the top spot and Ryan Daut mounted a skillful comeback to take the title and the $1.5m purse. Picking up Kings when third-place finisher Robert Ford pushed with deuces (2-2) certainly helped him on his way but he still had to turn around a 3/1 chip lead on the impressive Haxton.

The sands of America’s online game may be shifting with increasing numbers of obstacles being strewn in front of players (see p15) but where there’s a will there’s a way, so expect the beaches of Bahamas to once again be swamped by pasty poker players next year.

Final table results:
1. Ryan Daut (USA) $1,535,255
2. Isaac Haxton (USA) $861,789
3. Robert Ford (USA) $550,980
4. Robert Mizrachi (USA) $409,703
5. Jonathan Little (USA) $317,873
6. Frank Rusnak (USA) $247,234

Hit or miss?

Following on from last year’s inaugural event, the Atlantis Resort played host to the second World Championship of Battleship Poker, where players face off against each other with laptops to play a heads-up match online. So as the main WPT tourney final table played out, 64 players signed up for the $2,000 event. Former world champions Joe Hachem and Greg Raymer, Barry Greenstein, Mimi Tran and Robert Williamson were among those who sat down, but it was a young Canadian – Sorel Mizzi – who got to walk away with the Battleship bracelet and $44,800.

Fashion faux pas

Side action in Atlantis ranged from the lowly $1/$2 ring games and $30 STTs up to the high rollers’ $50/$100 no-limit Hold’em action, where superstars like 2005 world champion Joe Hachem and Antonio Esfandiaru were spotted grinding away. Poker playboy Esfandiari opted for what could only be called a beach poker geek look with a white sock/sandal combo. Maybe it’s an acceptable fashion statement in America but it probably wouldn’t go down too well at the Luton Christmas Cracker.

Money-maker

The improbably named Quillan Nagel was the second biggest winner on Paradise Island. He scooped the $1m first prize by winning the Moneymaker Millionaire Freeroll. Over 800,000 players had battled it out on PokerStars aiming for a free ticket to poker riches. The final 27 qualifiers were flown out to the Bahamas to take their shot at the million-dollar first prize and all received at least $5,000 and a free holiday for their troubles. Nagel won the competition in the middle of completing his Masters degree. At least he can pay off his student debts, which is about time seeing as he’s married and 30 years old.