Cunningham wins #4

The loudest poker personalities may get the fame, but the most skilled players get the money. Allen Cunningham is neither loud, nor famous. In fact, he is usually the quietest poker player in the room. But he is most certainly a skilled consummate poker professional, and he sure gets the money. Lots of money.

Cunningham topped a highly-competitive field of 752 players in the $1,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em world championship at the 2006 World Series of Poker. He won a whopping $625,830 in prize money. The victory marked the fourth time the 29-year-old poker professional from southern California has won a WSOP title.

This was the first tournament of this year’s World Series with re-buys. All other tournaments played thus far have been single-elimination freeze outs. The 1,670 re-buys in this event helped to generate a total prize pool of $2,317,887. After two lengthy days of play, the nine finalists took the illuminated stage at the Rio Casino in front of a packed gallery and ESPN television cameras on hand to film the exciting finale.

The final table started off with “Captain” Tom Franklin and Tim Phan sharing a considerable substantial chip lead over the rest of the field. Of the final nine, only Franklin and Cunningham were former gold bracelet winners. Franklin won his WSOP title back in 1999 (Limit Omaha). Cunningham’s WSOP victories came in 2001 (Seven-Card Stud), 2002 (Deuce to Seven Lowball), and 2005 (No-Limit Hold’em).

With Allen Cunningham holding the chip lead, John Q. Hoang made a bold move with an all-in raise (his last 240,000) holding seven-six in the small blind. The fearless steal attempt failed when Tom Franklin called instantly and showed ace-queen. Hoang missed completely and was bounced off of the final table. Hoang, who was the runner up in last week’s Seven-Card Stud championship, took fifth place this time, good for $139.073.

Dutch player Steve Wong was eliminated in fourth place when he tried to bluff at a 500,000 pot holding an ace-high and a backdoor flush draw. Chino Rheem wasn’t going anywhere with his flopped set of sixes. He made the easy call and scooped Wong’s last chip. Wong collected $162,252.

“Captain” Tom Franklin set his sights on winning gold bracelet Number Two. He looked to be the early favorite, but lost the chip lead to Allen Cunningham and never fully recovered. Franklin, who holds two college degrees, served with the US armed forces in Vietnam, and also plays the drums was pounded on his final hand of the night when he flopped top pair, but lost when Chino Rheems completed a flush. “Captain” Tom Franklin was honorably discharged in third place, which paid $185,431.

The Cunningham-Rheems heads-up match lasted for nearly three hours. The most decisive hand of play took place early in the bout when Cunningham seized the chip lead. On the key hand, Cunningham raised 50,000 pre-flop, Rheem re-raised to 250,000 and Cunningham moved all-in. Rheem called. When Cunningham flipped over pocket queens against Rheems’ ace-queen, the crowd sensed an immediate momentum shift. An ace would have ended the tournament and crowned Rheems the champion. But alas, the ace did not come and Cunningham won the big pot.

It took another 50 hands or so before Cunningham finally polished off his persistent rival. Rheem was getting low on chips and tried to make a sneaky pre-flop move holding jack-nine. Cunningham called the all-in raise with ace-queen and caught a gratuitous ace on the river to make a pair. David “Chino” Rheem, a 26-year-old poker pro from Miami, Florida received $327,981 in his first WSOP final table appearance.

True to his character, Allen Cunningham’s life story is unpretentious. He was a straight A-student at UCLA when he discovered his hidden talent for poker playing. While pursuing a degree in civil engineering, he started playing the game more seriously and began making money. In 1999, Cunningham enjoyed a breakthrough year in tournament poker – coincidently the same year that emerging rivals Phil Ivey, John Juanda, and Daniel Negreanu invaded the poker scene and began winning millions. In historical retrospect, Cunningham was part of a revolutionary movement in the game of poker, away from older, more traditional players towards younger, inventive new champions.

With this victory, Cunningham moved into elite poker territory. He joins nine players who have also won four WSOP gold bracelets – a list which currently includes Mickey Appleman, Bobby Baldwin, David Chiu, Artie Cobb, Tom McEvoy, Scotty Nguyen, Puggy Pearson, Amarillo Slim Preston, and Huck Seed.

At age 29, Cunningham is one of only four other players to win at least four gold bracelets before turning thirty. The others were Stu Ungar, Phil Hellmuth, Jr., Layne Flack, and Phil Ivey.

Event #14
$1,000 No-Limit Hold’em with Re-Buys
Final table results:

1. Allen Cunningham $625,830
2. David “Chino” Rheem $327,981
3. “Captain” Tom Franklin $185,431
4. Steve Wong $162,252
5. John Q. Hoang $139,073
6. Thien “Tim” Phan $115,894
7. Everett Carlton $92,715
8. Andy Bloch $69,537
9. Alex Jacob $46,358