2005 WPT DOYLE BRUNSON NORTH AMERICAN CHAMPIONSHIP DAY #1

Read the Day One Recap of the WPT event at poker player by our expert online poker blogger Dr. Pauly. Also, watch for some of Curtis K’s excellent photos. [-Prof]

This is the special gold and diamond bracelet that will be awarded to the champion of the WPT Doyle Brunson North American Championship.

Tuesday marked the first day of play at the WPT Doyle Brunson North American Championship at the Bellagio Resort in Las Vegas. The cards were in the air at noon to the 420 seated players competing for the Festa al Lago IV’s $10,000 World Poker Tour championship event. The prize pool of $4,074,000 will create another WPT millionaire on Friday when the last remaining player with chips is awarded the Championship, the bracelet pictured above, a $25,500 seat in the WPT Finals in April, 2006 at the Bellagio and $1,060,050 in cash.

I was there with camera when this poker-star-rich field hit the felt. The dark, dreary and wet day outside did little to dampen the upbeat mood of the crowds of spectators watching many of the best professional players in the world play no-limit hold’em poker. Seated at the feature table on the dais in the Fontana Room was the tournament namesake and living poker legend, Doyle Brunson. Wearing his signature gray western hat, Texas Dolly was playing his “A+” game. Doyle Brunson is one of the last of the breed of that have made a lucrative living playing poker, even when it wasn’t the world’s most popular and favorite game. Doyle Brunson has a record ten WSOP gold bracelets after having won his last one at the 2005 World Series of Poker at the age of seventy-two. I was there for this moment in poker history with Dr. Pauly. He posted an event wrap-up and I provided the photos of Doyle’s tenth bracelet win.

That’s it for word descriptions of the Festa al Lago IV’s first day of the WPT Doyle Brunson North American Championship. I decided to run some photos from the event today and added them into the post via the continue reading section below. The photos are larger for image quality, thus, file size is large and may load slow for some; but, if you want to be close to action at the Bellagio today it’s worth the wait.