The Professional Poker Tour (PPT) has come to the Mirage Resort on this Tuesday. The cards went into the air at noon with 172 invited Pros bringing their best “A” game, hoping to make no mistakes and win all of their all-ins. The half million in prize money for this freeroll tournament adds a little spice to the mix and makes the event even more exciting. The tables were crowded with the who’s who of professional poker. The 1983 WSOP Champion, Tom McEvoy, is playing up front; while Marcel Luske, Europe’s number one player and winner of an event in the recent Bellagio Five-Star, is seated next to well-known pro and author, Charlie Shoten. Movie star and poker pro, James Woods, is seated next to Kathy Leibert, one tough playing lady. Across the aisle at another table is Karina Jett playing with the likes of Mike Matusow, Antonio Esfandiari and Barry Greenstein. The rail is crowded with excited fans trying to catch a glimpse of WPT host Mike Sexton and Vince Van Patten, both playing in the event. Ron Rose was building his stack of chips into a skyscraper while table mate, Phil “Unabomber” Laak, was hanging tough hoping to make another televised final table. Susie Isaac is sitting at the TV feature table; while across the room Wendeen Eolis from Poker Player Magazine visits with David Levi. Lyle Berman, the originator and honcho of the WPT & PPT, remained in the action; while Carlos Mortensen, another WSOP world champion, adds to his growing piles of chips. Young Thomas “Thunder” Keller continues to exhibit his remarkable poker skills and the Poker King himself, Mr. Phil Hellmuth, is enjoying his iPod more than the poker game. Professionals Mel Judah, Young Phan, Ted Forrest, Huck Seed, Layne Flack and Minneapolis Jim Meehan are scattered about the tables in the tournament area.
Late in the evening Evelyn Ng and David Williams strolled through the room stopping to visit with some of the players remaining in the action. Asher Derei, fresh from a WSOP Circuit win at the Rio, was seated at the corner table looking a bit bored with it all. The field finally reached the preset 54 player limit just before 11:00 pm and play was stopped. The PPT will resume play at 2:00 pm on Wednesday and continue until the field is narrowed down to the final table six. The PPT final table will be played after all the other events of the Mirage Poker Showdown are complete including the WPT sanctioned first event of Season IV, a $10,000 buy-in No Limit Hold’em tournament. Tomorrow’s chip leader is Minneapolis Jim Meehan with just under a $100K in tournament chips. Marcel Luske and Layne Flack have close to $50K in chips while David Levi and Antonio Esfandiari are sitting comfortably with just under $40K. Thomas Keller and Jack McClelland have thirty something thousand in play money.
The first event of the Mirage Poker Showdown, a $1,000 buy-in No Limit Hold’em affair that began on Monday, played the final table this afternoon. The event attracted a field of 318 players with a total prize pool of $308,460. Herman Zango of Miami Florida outlasted the field and collected $110,356 plus a $10,200 seat in the championship event. Kevin Song of Hacienda Heights, California was second and earned $56,669 while Gerald Cheatham of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania completed the top three and received $28,334. Well known Las Vegas poker professional and author, David Sklansky, left the final table in the sixth spot taking $10,439 for his efforts. The event paid twenty-seven places.
The second event of the Mirage Poker Showdown, a $1,500 + $70 buy-in 7 Card Stud tournament, began today, Tuesday, and will play the final table on Wednesday. The third event of the Poker Showdown, $1,500 + $70 buy-in Pot Limit Omaha, starts on Wednesday at noon. Complete tournament results are available at Poker Player Newspaper.
Update: The 7 Card Stud event finished on Tuesday due to the low number of entrants, 60 total. The winner was John Womack of Lauderhill, Florida receiving $34,920 from the $87,300 prize pool. Amir Nesseri of Henderson, Nevada finished second and collects $20,079; while professional Jesse Jones goes home to North Las Vegas, Nevada with $10,476 in third place money.
For all those players that participated in another tournament, the Poker Prof’s WPBT sanctioned freeroll, a complete write up by Dr. Pauly of all the action will be available in the next couple of days.
More photos of the PPT action are available in the continue reading below.
More photos from day one of the PPT at the Mirage.