Madsen wins again

The unthinkable happened on July 22, 2006 when 21-year-old Jeff Madsen won his second gold bracelet within a week. Even more remarkable is the fact that Madsen turned “21” just six weeks ago. This was Madsen’s third final table at this year’s World Series of Poker, presented by Milwaukee’s Best Light. He is one of only two players to hold such a distinction. Madsen now has two firsts and one third-place finish on his WSOP resume.

The $5,000 buy-in Short-Handed No-Limit Hold’em world championship attracted 507 entries. The tournament was played six players to a table. After 498 players had been eliminated over two long days, finalists took the final table on the Rio poker stage.

The six players comprised a tough lineup, most notably two former gold bracelet winners — “Captain Tom” Franklin and Jeff Madsen. Noted tournament professional Erick Lindgren was also competing for his first WSOP win. When play began, Jonathan Gaskell enjoyed a comfortable chip lead. Jeff Madsen was dead last in the chip count coming into the final table. That would certainly not be the case seven hours later, when the tournament ended and history was made.

Normally, a player in Madsen’s unique position would be a huge crowd favorite, when heads-up play commenced. But this was not the case. Erick Lindgren, described by many of his peers as “the best poker player not to have won a WSOP gold bracelet,” attracted a rowdy cheering section. For a time, it looked like Lindgren would not disappoint his legion of fans. The Vegas poker pro enjoyed the chip lead during most of the duel, but then suffered a horrendous turn of events that left everyone in a stunned state of disbelief.

After taking a few beats and losing coin flip situations (Lindgren’s pocket eights losing to Madsen’s ace-king when an ace flopped completely changed the momentum of the contest), Lindgren lost his final hand of the night holding ace-jack suited versus Madsen’s queen-nine. The final board showed K-Q-2-5-3 – good for a pair of queens for Madsen.

Erick Lindgren could not have been more disappointed with a $357,435 payoff. No amount of consolation could ease the painful sting of defeat. However, like Gentleman John Gale the previous year – who lost a WSOP tournament in the most dramatic way possible, only to come back and win an event this year – Erick Lindgren’s day shall come.

The question everyone is now asking is – what will Jeff Madsen do next? He will be competing for what could be a record-third gold bracelet over the next week. Madsen will also play in the main event, which begins on July 28th. But beyond that, what does a 21-year-old college student do with $1.4 million and two WSOP titles?

Demonstrating maturity and composure far beyond his years, Madsen said he expects to return to college in the fall for his senior year. The Cal State-Santa Barbara film student still wants to pursue a career in movies. Perhaps Jeff Madsen’s first film should be a remake of “Kid Millions.”

Event #29
$5,000 Short-handed No-Limit Hold’em
Final table results:

1. Jeff Madsen, Los Angeles, CA $643,381
2. Eric Lindgren, Las Vegas, NV $357,435
3. Tom Franklin, Gulfport, MS $214,461
4. Tony Woods, Murrieta, CA $150,123
5. Jonathan Gaskell, Wigan, UK $119,145
6. Paul Foltyn, Doncaster, UK $83,402