2005 WSOP CROWNS TWO CHAMPIONS IN ONE DAY!

More photos are now in the 2005 World Series of Poker Photo Gallery. Complete tournament results can be found at Poker Player Newspaper.

The 2005 World Series of Poker crowned two champions today. The first was in event #2, a $1,500 buy-in No-limit Hold’em tournament that had a field so large it had to be expanded to three days. The event attracted 2305 players gathering a total prize pool of $3,180,900. The final table, filmed for later broadcast on ESPN, began at 2:00 pm and played for more than six hours before only one was left. Allen Cunningham topped the record field to win the first 2005 WSOP gold bracelet and $725,405 in cash. Allen came into the final table as the chip leader with a slight lead over Scott Fischman. Third place finisher David ‘Devilfish’ Ulliott went out in third place leaving Allen and Scott Fischman heads up for the win. Less than half an hour later Scott is all-in after a flop of 10,6,3 and a 4 on the turn. Allen bet and Scott went over the top all-in, Allen calls. Scott shows a 4,5 giving him a pair of 4’s and Allen turns up a 6,3 for two pair. Scott has an open ended straight draw; but, the river bring an Ace and the win goes to Allen Cunningham. Allen was 0 for four in the 2004 WSOP so today’s victory is double sweet for him. Scott Fischman received $352,125 for second and Devilfish settles for $232,205 third place money.

Allen is one of the more easy going, popular players on the professional poker tournament circuit. He is friends with most everyone and the win was very exciting for him. Shortly after the presentation of the prize money and bracelet, Phil Hellmuth came over to congratulate Allen. Phil was playing in event #4, a $1,500 buy-in Limit Hold’em tournament. The starting field of 1049 was nearing the prize payout level of 100 players. Should Phil Hellmuth make it into the money he would hold the record for most cashes in the WSOP, 48. He currently is sharing the record of 47 money finishes with Berry Johnston. A few minutes later Phil stopped by to say he had made it into the money and now owned another WSOP record. Congratulations to Phil for this accomplishment.

The second champ to be crowned tonight was in the $1,500 Pot-limit Hold’em event #3. Another marathon session finally got to heads up between Layne Flack and Thom Wertnmann with Layne holding about a 2 to 1 chip lead. Unfortunately, the cards didn’t come to Layne and his lead steadily moved across the table to Thom until finally, a little before 2:00 am, Layne was all-in with pocket 5’s. Thom called with an A,2o and the flop came A,Q,K giving Thom the lead and Layne needing to catch one of two remaining fives. The turn brought another Ace and the match was over. Layne finished second and received $185,855. Thom goes away with a gold WSOP bracelet and $369,535 for his come from behind win. Well known professional poker player Tony Ma was eliminated in the number three spot receiving $118,240.

The $1,500 buy-in Limit Hold’em event #4 that started today at noon with 1049 players finally had play suspended for the day at a little past 3:00 am. Thirty-three players remain and will return tomorrow to play down to a final table; then, continue until we have another champion who will collect $361,910 in prize money and receive a place in the 2005 WSOP record book. Unfortunately, the new record holder for most cashes in the WSOP, Phil Hellmuth, will not be among those returning. He was eliminated in the 42 spot and received $4,200 in prize money. The WSOP event #5, a $1,500 buy-in Omaha Hi/lo Split tournament gets under way at high noon on Monday.

The most accurate and definitely the fastest live WSOP tournament chip counts on the Internet are coming direct from the floor of the 2005 WSOP are on Poker Wire.