World Poker Tour - Mirage Poker Showdown - The Final six

May 26, 2005

John Caldwell

World Poker Tour - Mirage Poker Showdown - The Final six 0001

After a long day of poker, we finally have our TV table set for the Mirage Poker Showdown.

The 27 that made the money in this event is not exactly a who's who of poker. Sure, there are many great players on the list, but very few who have broken through, and are super known. In fact, I believe of the 27 people in the money, only two (Ted Forrest and Phil Laak) have any WPT final table experience.

So, it was not the most familiar of faces battling it out for $1.1 million, and some precious camera time. But that didn't mean there wasn't some good poker.

The players fought hard, and indeed we were at the money bubble point of almost an hour. It was ironic that after an hour, two players were knocked out on the same hand, and split the 27th place money. Those two were Phil Laak, and Richard Tatalovich.

The bad beat of the day comes to us on another bubble...The TV bubble. Seven TV hopefuls were left, and when Alan Smurfit put all his chips in with AK of clubs, Thang Pham called with QQ. There was a King on the flop, and it appeared that we would still be at seven, and play on. But there were two more cards to come, and they made a runner runner straight for Pham, and we were at six. Smurfit felt this was not Smurf-tastic, and he could go home now.

So, down to six, the TV people are.

Thang Pham - 1.76 million in chips

Chris Bell - 1.42 mil

Ted Forrest - 1.3 mil

Gene Todd - 763,000

Gavin Smith - 687,000

Mark Ellerbe - 353,000

It will be an interesting final table, as the top three players all have the bottom three covered two to one (about). With it costing about 40,000 chips an orbit, and the blinds about to go up, one would assume we will see much action from the short stacks early. Below are the other money finishers.

7th - Alan Smurfit $76,235

8th - Kevin Fiore $60,988

9th - Stan Schrier $48,790

10th - David Kutcher $36,593

11th - Abe Gray $36,593

12th - Howard Weston $36,593

13th - Ray Faltinsky $30,494

14th - Toto Leonidas $30,494

15th - Bobby Bellande $30,494

16th - Gregg Turk $24,395

17th - Asher Derei $24,395

18th - "Captain" Tom Franklin $24,395