By Nolan Dalla
Special to VegasInsider.com Event #30
No-Limit Texas Hold’em
Buy-In: $3,000
Number of Entries: 651
Prize Money: $1,796,760
Placed Name Hometown Amount
1st Mike Sica N. Brunswick, NJ $503,160
2nd John Kabbaj London, England $260,520
3rd Ram Vaswani Hendon, England $143,740
4th Alan Kellehen Ireland $125,780
5th Tobias Persson Malmo, Sweden $107,800
6th Paul Phillips Las Vegas, NV $89,840
7th Mickey "Mouse" Mills Ocean Beach, CA $71,860
8th Miami John Cernuto Las Vegas, NV $53,900
9th Yusuf Kurt Vienna, Austria $35,940
10th Bob Armstrong Oaklyn, NJ $19,760
Mike Sica did something truly extraordinary. He won the largest prize pool ever for the non-main event. In the 35-year history of the World Series of Poker, no event beyond the $10,000 buy-in world championship has ever awarded so much in prize money. A staggering figure – nearly $1.8 million – was split between the top 63 finishers. Standing alone at the top of the money list was Sica – who was thrilled to win his first gold bracelet.
The tournament was more of a marathon run than a poker game. It ran so long on day two (including most of the final table) that play was finally suspended as the sun was about to come up on a third day. No non-main event had ever run into a third day, but with the number of entries and ferocious competitiveness of the finalists meant that play was resumed on day three. The race concluded with Sica crossing the finish line first.
This was the first tidal wave in a series of events during the final week that are expected to push the total WSOP prize pool for 2004 to over $40 million. Poker is now bigger than ever, and anyone who doubts the game has now reached astronomical popularity is invited to watch and see what happens in a few days – when the main event of the World Series is set to begin. If last year was the “sonic boom” for poker – with 839 entries – this year’s championship may very well be a volcanic explosion that will ignite a firestorm of popularity far beyond what anyone could have ever imagined.
