This is a special issue of WNP. Andrew N.S. Glazer reports live from the WSOP - World Series of Poker Apr 22 to May 24, 2002.

$3,000 No-Limit Hold'em

"Theoretically Possible Gaming"
By Andrew N.S. Glazer

Although it's mighty hard to call a $3,000 no-limit hold'em World Series event a "tune-up," that's what a great many of the 352 starters considered it: a tune-up or warm-up for the event they REALLY want to win, the $10,000 championship that starts on Monday, May 20.

It's time to start forgetting the superspeed necessary in fast one-table satellites, the rebuy possibilities allowed in supersatellites, and the "reach into your wallet for some more dough" attitude of the cash games. It's time to find your "A" game.

The large field we began with yesterday combined with the new "twelve levels only the first day" rule to ensure that Day Two wouldn't start with a final table. Indeed, for a while it looked like those who survived the first day might not even be guaranteed a money finish, because with 20 minutes left in the day's action, we still had 32 players. Co-Tournament Director Matt Savage asked the participants if they wanted to continue play until those remaining had reached the money, but indicated he'd need unanimous agreement, because the stated rule is 12 levels. Several players objected, and for a while it looked like a couple players were going to have sleepless nights for nothing.

A SPEEDY FINISH MAKES FOR A MONIED SLEEP

The action sped up enough, though, that we hit the money mark with six minutes left, and ended the day with 26 survivors, Butch Wade having not made it through those last six celebratory minutes with his short stack.

Play resumed at 2:00 p.m., and it was approaching 6:00 when Harley Hall, down to his last $5,000 at a play level that featured $500 antes and $2,000-$4,000 blinds, raised all-in from late position. It was a trivially easy call for the blinds, who checked the hand down all the way as the board came K-7-3-7-5, and Randal Heeb, the small blind, flipped up Kh-6h, top pair. Everyone mucked, including Hall, who told me later that he had 10-9 suited and that while he wanted to make the final table, he didn't want to just be anted so low that he had no chance, either.

Hall hails from San Juan Capistrano, and he found his 11th place finish hard to swallow. "I finished 12th in this event last year, and my goal was to improve on that," he said. "I think I need to set higher goals."

That left us with a final table of

Seat
Name
Chips
1
Jon Hoellein
$55,500
2
Simon "Aces" Trumper
$77,000
3
Sherman Burry
$24,000
4
Johnny Chan
$307,000
5
Randal Heeb
$97,500
6
Sidney Miller
$99,500
7
Huck Seed
$138,500
8
Pierre Peretti
$64,500
9
Alan Betson
$30,500
10
Kathy Liebert
$102,500

Total chips in play were $1,056,000, making an average stack just over 100k, and while Betson, Trumper, and Liebert all have formidable reputations, most of those in the crowd were probably looking forward to a battle between the two chip leaders, 1987 and 1988 World Champion Johnny Chan, and 1996 World Champion Huck Seed.

Miller drew the button, and the random high card proved significant, as Betson, a superb Irish player who has won the Irish, British and European Open titles, moved his short stack all-in under the gun on the very first hand. Miller moved all-in himself, the blinds got out of the way, and Betson turned over As-10h, while Miller turned over pocket kings.

NOT THE USUAL KIND OF DISASTER, BUT DISASTER NONETHELESS

Usually, those who own pocket kings "know" that an ace is coming on the flop, but Miller dodged that particular bullet, only to find himself in a different kind of danger: the flop came 8-6-9, giving Betson outs not only to an ace but also to a seven for a gutshot straight. There are times when you can just feel it coming, and this was one of them. Bang, a seven hit the turn, and in one hand, Betson and Miller, who had started the final table in hugely different chip positions, were virtually dead even.

We'd only had about 20 minutes left on the clock at this level when the final table started, and three of them were left when Chan, who is having a magnificent World Series, raised it to $12,000 from the cut-off seat (one behind the button). Seed decided to call from the big blind.

A COLLISION OF WORLD CHAMPIONS

The flop came Qh-3d-2s, Seed checked, Chan bet 20k, and Seed immediately announced, with a wave of his hand, "I'm all in." Chan thought for about four seconds and said "I call," and all hundred spectators, who had been warned not to stand up in their grandstand seats, stood simultaneously. We couldn't have had a more of a buzz in the air had a swarm of killer bees flown in through a window.\

Seed turned over 4s-5s, an open-ended straight draw and backdoor flush draw, and Chan turned over Qd-10d, top pair and a backdoor flush draw.

I think this call had to mean one of two things. Either Chan had a great read on Seed, certainly a possibility for a player of Chan's caliber, or Chan didn't have the usual interest a chip leader does in ensuring that he finishes in the top three. By calling this bet, he was putting himself in a position where either his chip lead would be gone (and indeed now in the hands of his most dangerous foe), or one where his lead would be huge, giving him an excellent chance for first. He was also taking a shot at eliminating not merely his most talented opponent, but a talented opponent who had position on him.

Me, I go with the "read" theory, but you can't just dismiss the other one. Chan has enough money to be focused more on wins than on locking up high ladder climbs.

The board finished of 9d-8d, giving Chan a flush he didn't need, and with the spectators blinking more rapidly than if they'd walked from darkness into the sunny Las Vegas summer, Huck Seed was gone, and Johnny Chan had nearly half the chips at the final table.

SEED GOES WITH THE "READ" THEORY

"What can I do?" Seed asked, as I offered condolences. "It must have been obvious I had nothing, he must be able to read me pretty well, because he practically beat me into the pot with that call. I played pretty well most of the day (having watched, I can verify this), but it's no-limit, and that's that."

The clock went off after two uncalled raises, and because Savage had told the players there would be an hour dinner break as soon as the first 20 minutes were up, I got an accurate chip count at the break:

Hoellein, 38k
Trumper, 81k
Burry, 90k
Chan, 464k
Heeb, 96k
Miller, 58k
Peretti, 50k
Betson, 78k
Liebert, 101k

SOME THEORETICAL POSSIBILITIES

In limit poker, this tournament would have been essentially over; in no-limit, just about anything was still theoretically possible, but it looked like it was going to be Johnny Chan and the Chanettes the rest of the way, with most of the other players figuring out how best to maneuver for the $188,600 second place money.

Chan's immense lead, coupled with nearly random way it had developed in the moments just before the players were going to have an hour to think about what strategies they were going to employ facing that huge lead, led to some fast play after the dinner break finished. Chan's huge stack also left his eight opponents relatively short stacked for the size of the blinds and antes they were about to be facing, and that no doubt contributed to the soon-to-be dizzying pace, too.

The blinds moved to $3,000-$6,000, with the antes moving to $1,000, so nine-handed, there was $18,000 in dead money for a raiser to attack.

Four hands into the new round (hand #16 overall), Hoellein held the button, and Miller brought it in for a raise to 18k. Betson moved all-in, a raise of about 70k. Usually, one move like that would reduce the pot to two opponents, but there was very little about this final table that one could call "usual." Hoellein called all-in for his remaining 30k, and then Burry went ahead and moved all-in with a stack that looked it was just slightly larger than Betson's had been before the madness began.

IT SURE WASN'T MILLER TIME

Miller decided that if three opponents liked their hands enough to go all-in after his opening raise, his chances probably weren't very good, and he let it go, so we got to see everyone's hand from the start:

Betson, K-K
Hoellein, J-J
Burry, A-K

Betson's move was certainly understandable enough, and while Hoellein probably shouldn't have thought two jacks were either the best hand at the moment or likely to remain that way by the time the hand was finished, he could at least be forgiven for hoping a bunch of ace-kings had each other's cards and for hoping that he could come close to quadrupling on the hand.

I absolutely hated Burry's move as the fourth man into this pot while holding only A-K. All the previous strength shown made it likely his opponents either had the cards he needed to hit in their hands, possibly (as indeed it turned out in Betson's case) in pairs. Nonetheless, I found out later that Burry hadn't played a tournament in ten years: he had come to this WSOP primarily because Lyle Berman, a friend he'd grown up with, was being honored with induction into poker's Hall of Fame.

SO MUCH FOR THE BRILLIANT ANALYSIS

The flop came down a harmless 3-3-4, but wouldn't you know it, an ace spiked on the turn, and when another four hit the river, Burry had technically buried Hoellein and for all intents and purposes buried Betson, who turned out to have $3,000 left. In the process, he'd collected a stack that made him a threat to Chan, something in the neighborhood of a quarter million.

Two hands later, Betson tossed his final chip all-in, and everyone folded around to the big blind, Miller, who in taking five of his six thousand back had already booked a profit on the hand before the hands were turned over. Ad-8d for Miller, Ac-5d for Betson, and the board came Q-3-3-2-FOUR to give Betson an oddball win with a straight for the second time today, and he was still in with 11k.

This turned out to matter rather a lot, because on the very next hand, Chan made it 18k to go from the button, Miller called from the big blind, and we looked at a flop of A-Q-7. Miller moved his last 15k all-in, and Chan called with A-8. Miller turned over pocket kings (an ace does always flop against pocket kings, doesn't it?), and to add insult to elimination, the final two cards were 8-A, giving Chan a full house, sending Miller out eighth, and leaving Betson about five grand richer for his backdoor straight.

THE CALM BEFORE THE STORM

One entire boring bet/no call hand went down before we got back to poker's version of rock and roll. Liebert limped in, Burry limped in, Chan limped in, Heeb limped in, Peretti limped in from the small blind, and Betson, who'd had to post the big, was certainly getting close to the maximum chance to multiply his stack in a hurry, with the six way action.

The flop came 9h-4s-4d. Limp pots are scary enough to begin with, because it's much harder to put anyone on a hand, and six-way limp pots, well, the Lord only knows, and He isn't telling. Liebert led out for 20k, and everyone folded around to Heeb, who called from the button. Betson tossed his remaining 2k into the pot, in one of the stronger pot odds calls you're ever likely to see.

The 7h hit the turn, and Liebert led out again, this time for 30k. Heeb moved all-in, a raise of about 40k, which was just a little more than what Liebert had left in front of her. Kathy didn't look happy, but the pot was pretty huge by this point, and after thinking for about a minute she decided to call. Everyone, it turned out, still had a chance, but Heeb held a commanding lead:

Heeb, Ah-4h (trip fours)
Betson, 7-8 (a pair of sevens that could have turned into sevens full with the right river card)
Liebert, J-J (needing a jack for jacks full)

The river missed everyone, and in one massive blow, Heeb had eliminated two opponents and collected a huge pot. Liebert got sixth place, based on starting the hand with more chips than Betson. The big pot now gave Chan a second opponent who had enough chips to offer danger. What had seemed a nearly foregone conclusion at the dinner break was now merely gone.

MAYBE THERE WAS A GREAT LIVE GAME DOWNSTAIRS

People were leaving this game so fast, you'd have thought someone had announced, "Open seating, four rich tourists on tilt, $5,000-$10,000 hold'em, table 44." I mean, we had just played hand #21 of the final table, and half of the ten starters were gone.

I tried to assess the carnage, and the chip counts now looked to be about

Trumper, 65k
Burry, 206k
Chan, 500k
Heeb, 250k
Peretti, 35k

It took a whole six more hands to knock someone else out. Peretti's stack had grown shorter still, and when Heeb raised to 16k from the button, Peretti decided to move all-in for his total of 17k. Heeb tossed the extra chip in and saw he was trailing, J-9 to Q-4, and he trailed even worse when the flop came 8-4-2. Never fear, the nines were here, on both the turn and river, and Heeb's trips sent Peretti out fifth.

We were four-handed after 27 hands, having started with ten players. I've never seen the likes of it, and don't expect I'll see the likes of it again anytime soon.

Trumper managed to more than double his remaining 39k a few hands later, when he decided Heeb had been raising a bit more often than statistical probability entitled him to. Heeb opened the pot with a raise to 35k, and Trumper "raised" the other 4k. He'd picked one off here, because Heeb turned over Js-5s, and Trumper's Ah-Jd managed to hold up.

Burry lost 37k and 38k on the next two hands, and that big pile he'd accumulated with the A-K hand was dwindling enough for Trumper to have good reason to think he'd have a shot at third, at least (actually, given Trumper's confidence, he probably still thought he had a good shot at first).

LONDON'S BRIDGE FELL DOWN WHEN A FLUSH TRUMPS TRUMPER.

Nonetheless, on hand #33, Trumper, one of London's finest, raised to 21k from the button, and Chan decided to call from the small blind. The flop came Ad-Ks-3d, and both players checked. The 9d hit the turn, putting a possible flush on board, and Chan led out for 15k. Trumper moved all-in, and Chan almost apologetically called as he turned over Kd-8d, the nut flush. Trumper turned over two black nines, trips on the same turn card that had made Chan's flush, but the board didn't pair, and now Trumper was out also.

It had taken thirty three hands to eliminate seven players. Poker novices started thinking we might have a very fast final table, but the three survivors had stacks so large compared to the size of the blinds and antes that there was no reason any of them had to take huge risks for a long time. It was theoretically possible we could be done in one more hand, but I had a feeling it was going to take a lot longer.

My rough chip estimate for the three-handed game was

Burry, 200k
Chan, 654k
Heeb, 200k

OK, SO YOU TRY KEEPING YOUR FOCUS AMIDST ALL THIS PRAISE AND POTENTIAL HISTORY

It was time to look at this game in perspective. Chan had, with the money he was already guaranteed in this tournament, become the WSOP's first Three Million Dollar Man, and with five cashes already, he was looking more than half bionic. It very much looked like he was going to win his seventh bracelet here, tying him with Phil Hellmuth for second on the all-time list, and he and Hellmuth were already slated to play in the finals of the Bracelet Winners Tournament, which meant that whoever won THAT would have an eighth bracelet, tying Doyle Brunson's record.

It was heady stuff, especially with guest announcer Phil Gordon feeding the crowd these verge-of-history tidbits, and in the wake of it, it was hard to blame Chan for his answer when Gordon asked him if he and Hellmuth were going to play for the title on Sunday night.

"Phil and I have to work it out yet," Chan said. "If I win today, I think I'd want to play tonight. No one's ever won two bracelets in one day before."

Chan's lead continued to grow incrementally, but while dreams of bracelets were dancing in his head, he ran into a hand that no one short of Harry Houdini could have escaped from.

Hand #45 it was. Heeb folded his button, but Burry made it 18k from the small blind, and Chan called. The flop came As-Jd-3d, and then the word "exponential" came to mind.

ZOOM-ZOOM-ZOOM-ZOOM, OR RATHER, CHECK, ZOOM-ZOOM-ZOOM-ZOOM

In a sequence that took all of eight seconds, Burry checked, Chan bet 20k, Burry made it 80k, Chan moved all-in, and Burry called. When we saw the hands, the betting made perfect sense:

Chan, Ad-4d (top pair and the nut flush draw)
Burry, A-3 (two pair)

When the final two cards changed nothing, they counted down Burry's chips, and with a lofty, "Oh, let's see, that's $146,000," from Chan, the two-time world Champ shipped that amount to Burry, making the chip counts now roughly

Burry, 296k
Chan, 550k
Heeb, 210k

Announcer Gordon started telling the crowd a bit about the supporting players in this drama, and explained that Heeb was an American living in Paris who plays mostly at the Aviation Club. "It's a great place to play, if you ever get there, I recommend you try it," Gordon said.

THE POKER IS GREAT, THE BREATHING IS A BIT TOUGH

Gordon and I had been exchanging quips and analysis beneath our breaths throughout the tournament, and I whispered, "As long as you don't mind smoke."

"I will say one thing about the Aviation Club," Gordon continued announcing on the microphone. "Don't go there if you're allergic to smoke. When you buy into a tournament, they sell you a liver transplant at the same time."

While Gordon and I were working on entertaining the crowd (I was just the straight man: Gordon was a riot), Heeb was staying focused on poker and found a new, faster, more courageous and more mathematically correct (for a three-handed game) game, raising and re-raising pots, and although trailing in chips, he had clearly taken on the "stay out of my way" role that Chan had held until the top pair-nut flush draw hand had slowed him down.

Various poker celebrities had drifted into the final table area, expecting a coronation, and T.J. Cloutier said, quite loudly, that Chan was "the best no-limit hold'em player in the world, when he wants to be."

Heady stuff again for a man to keep his focus through, and just as T.J. was finished telling this tale, a hand came down that didn't involve Chan but certainly affected his chances of winning.

HAND 54, WHERE ARE YOU?

Heeb raised hand #54 to 18k from the button, and Burry called. The flop came Ks-4c-3c, Burry checked, Heeb bet 25k, and Burry called. The Qc hit the turn, making a flush possible, and Burry checked again, and called again when Heeb bet 30k. The 6s hit the river, and Burry didn't check. In a move that made it seem for all the world he had been trap-calling, he led out for 80k.

Heeb called, and flipped over his set of threes, Burry sent his hand into the muck, and Chan's lead was almost gone:

Burry, 96k
Chan, 510k
Heeb, 450k

The clock went off just as this mega-hand went off, and while the antes remained at $1,000, the blinds moved to $4,000-$8,000. Heeb and Chan had plenty of time to play at this $15,000-a-round level: Burry didn't.

Although Burry grabbed 50k back rather quickly with a nicely timed all-in move, Heeb retained the aggressor's role. It wasn't that Chan wouldn't raise pots: he raised plenty of them. Time and again, though, Heeb came back over the top for 60k more when Chan had made an initial raise to 25k, and when we hit hand #75, the theoretically possible became theoretically probable.

HEEB RAISES AND CHAN RAISES BACK, BUT GUESS WHAT?

Heeb raised to 20k from the button, and Chan called out of the big blind. The flop came an innocuous-looking 2d-2c-5h, Chan checked, Heeb (as Chan could have expected) bet 25k, but Chan decided to put the shoe on the other foot by making the 60k raise himself this time.

Heeb didn't let it bother him. He moved all-in, Chan threw his hand away, and what had seemed so very unlikely at the moment Chan had eliminated Huck Seed was now reality: Chan was trailing in the match by what I guessed to be:

Burry, 100k
Chan, 400k
Heeb, 556k

Burry got himself back into the game by calling down Heeb when Heeb pushed a flush draw too far, and when the players decided to take a five minute rest room break after hand #80, we got an exact count on the chips:

Burry, 212k
Chan, 414k
Heeb, 460k

It was during this break that I learned a bit more about Burry, 62, a successful businessman (homebuilder and importer) from Denver, Colorado. I asked if, even though he'd only come to the Series to be present for his friend Berman's ceremony, the money he had locked up here meant he was going to enter the big one, and he was emphatic.

"AIN'T GONNA BE NO REMATCH"

"No way," he said. "I'm out of practice, but even more important, this is a young man's game, these tournaments with their 12 and 14 hour days back to back to back. No matter what happens here, I'm done with tournaments."

Seven hands after the break, Burry didn't look so out of practice, or energy.

Heeb folded his button, and Burry limped from the small bind, merely calling the 4k necessary to see the flop unless Chan raised, which is exactly what happened. Chan popped it for 25k more, only to see Burry move all-in, a raise of 103k more.

Chan didn't take four seconds this time. Burry had enough chips to hurt him, and he thought for a while before calling. Burry turned over pocket queens, and Chan turned over K-Q offsuit. Chan was in big trouble, and the A-A-3-7-2 board didn't save him. It didn't seem possible, but here we were:

Burry, 275k
Chan, 271k
Heeb, 510k

HAD PANAMA JACK ENTERED THIS TOURNAMENT?

Here was when my respect for Heeb, a cool looking cat in his Panama hat, sunglasses, and red goatee, really started climbing. He's American, but he lives in Paris, an Assistant Professor of Economics, and he seemed to have a much better grasp on the Money Supply than most of the American economists I've read. You can't ever be sure without seeing who has what cards, but for a half hour or so, it had seemed he had been determined not to let Chan breathe, and he kept at it. Two hands later, Chan made it 25k from the button, Heeb raised it to 60k from the small blind, and Chan called the 35k raise. The flop came Ks-9c-4s, Heeb led out for 40k, and Chan let it go.

Two hands after that, Chan tried to limp in from the small blind, but Heeb raised 18k, and Chan called. Both checked the Ks-Jh-7d flop, but when the 5c hit the turn, Chan led out for 40k. Heeb moved all-in, Chan folded, and "The Orient Express" was starting to look like he'd been hit by a train himself, now down to about 130k.

Chan hovered around the same mark for about 20 hands, and then on #113, he made it 25k from his button. Heeb raised him to 85k again, and Chan took a stand, pushing in.

HEEB WAS PLAYING MORE LIKE AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN PARIS

Heeb called. Chan had picked the wrong moment to take a stand. He held A-J, and Heeb held A-Q. Nothing higher than a seven ever hit the board, the better kicker held up, and as impossible as it had seemed ten hands into the tournament, as impossible as it had seemed when we'd gotten three-handed, the great Johnny Chan was out of the tournament in third place. There would be no two bracelets in one day. There wouldn't even be one, because Chan would have had to have been a fool to play a match right after a devastating defeat like this one, and Chan is many things, but a fool isn't one of them.

Heads-up, the small blind goes on the button (SBB) and acts first before the flop, but second afterwards. As has become my habit lately, I started renumbering at #1 once we were heads up, and Burry faced an uphill battle, trailing Heeb 796k-260k.

They only managed eight hands before the clock went off, signaling a blind increase to $6,000-$12,000, with $2,000 antes, but even in that short time, I'd sniffed a shift in the wind. As the hands went down, it became clear that with Chan out of the game, Burry had decided to become the aggressor, almost never leading out at pots, but instead letting Heeb commit some chips and then check-raising him.

WHERE, IF ANYWHERE, WOULD SHERMAN'S MARCH END?

The trend continued at the higher level, and Sherman Burry had advanced to at least 370k by hand #13. Heeb clearly had a game plan for Chan. Burry clearly had a game plan for Heeb, but he still trailed by a significant margin, and if Heeb could figure out Chan, he could certainly figure out Burry, I assumed.

We never got a chance to find out.

On hand #14 of the heads-up match, Heeb raised to 25k from the SBB, Burry raised 60k more, and Heeb raised a very suspicious (to me) 100k more. If he had just shoved the whole stack in, it would have looked like a power move. This 100k was either a modified version of the Post Oak Bluff (betting a small amount into a large pot to signify strength at low risk), or Heeb had a very big hand.

Burry moved all-in, and Heeb called so quickly it was pretty clear that he wasn't employing a modified Post Oak Bluff. Q-Q for Heeb, 10-10 for Burry, and when the board came down 2-4-6-K-2, we had a new champion.

MAYBE WE SHOULD MAKE THAT A FULL PROFESSORSHIP

The school at which Randal Heeb teaches, Insead, is (by his description) one of the top five business schools in the world. All the classes are taught in English, even though the school is in Paris, and students must speak three languages fluently to graduate. I wasn't shocked when I learned what this particular economics professor taught.

"I teach game theory to MBA students," he explained. "I try to show them how certain aspects of game theory, including thinking ahead in all situations, apply to the business world. My students are a little excited about my poker success, and I think it gives me a little more credibility in the classroom."

The Game Theory prof and University of Chicago PhD. had certainly just shown us all what was theoretically possible in a game most observers, myself included, had considered concluded at an early stage.

Heeb hadn't brought just the Panama hat and sunglasses to the final table. He'd also brought a small model of the Statue of Liberty, purchased today at the New York New York hotel, and had kept it on the table as some kind of good luck talisman throughout. I was wondering if it was some kind of political statement related to 9/11, but was wrong.

A GIFT FROM FRANCE PROVES ITS POWER

"The Statue of Liberty was a gift from the people of France to the people of the United States," Heeb said, "and I thought it would be an appropriate symbol of my relationships with the two countries."

I asked Heeb what he had been thinking, way back when Chan had taken out Seed and had that huge lead against eight opponents.

"I was grateful I was on Chan's left, that was for sure," he said. "Chan is the best player in the world, and if I was going to have any kind of chance, having position on him was going to be important."

Heeb does play at the Aviation Club, although no liver transplants have been necessary yet, but he's a tournament specialist. He hardly ever plays live, unless he's waiting for a tournament. I wanted to know if the money (no deals made at this table) was going to change his life.

"The money is nice," Heeb said. "but I have a pretty good job. I'm not wealthy, but well off enough so that I don't think this will change my life, except possibly for a new car. What really changes for me, I think, is this gold bracelet. It confirms for me something about myself I've always believed in my heart, but never proven."

I'm not an economics professor myself, but even so, it sounds like that bracelet is going to be priceless for Randal Heeb, and I have a sneaking suspicion that attempted attendance in his classes is going to be rising faster than interest rates did during the Carter administration.

Final Official Results, Event #130, $3,000 No-Limit Hold'em
Total Entries: 352
Total Prize Pool: $992,640

Finish
Name
Prize Money
1
Randal Heeb
$367,240
2
Sherman Burry
$188,600
3
Johnny Chan
$59,560
4
Simon "Aces" Trumper
$59,560
5
Pierre Peretti
$44,740
6
Kathy Liebert
$34,740
7
Alan Betson
$24,820
8
Sidney Miller
$19,860
9
Jon Hoellein
$15,880
10
Huck Seed
$11,920

11th-12th, $11,920 each: Harley Hall, Michael Lowenstein.
13th-15th, $9,920 each: Tuan Nguyen, David Kim, Farzad "Fred" Bonyadi.
16th-18th, $7,960 each: Tony Cousineau, Gregory Wynn, Matt Lefkowitz.
19th-27th, $5,960 each: George Kamens, Perry Friedman, Michael Davis, Jan Boubli, Eric Holum, Greg Alston, Paul Testud, Matt Heintschel, Butch Wade.

For those of you who aren't Economics majors or handy with a calculator, these payoff amounts are predetermined by the size of the prize pool, using a percentage formula after Binion's 6% cut has been taken out. Although the dollar amounts alone show how important it is to be a "finisher," rather than just someone who throws away equity that might give him/her a chance to win in order to ensure an "in the money finish, for a three-table payoff, the percentages are:

  1. 37%
  2. 19%
  3. 9.5%
  4. 6.0%
  5. 4.5%
  6. 3.5%
  7. 2.5%
  8. 2.0%
  9. 1.6%
10th-12th, 1.2%
13th-15th, 1.0%
16th-18th, 0.80%
19th-27th, 0.60%

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