2006 World Series of Poker        

Rio All-Suites Hotel and Casino – Las Vegas

Official Results and Report

Event #14

No-Limit Hold’em with Re-Buys

Buy-In:  $1,000

Number of Entries:  752

Number of Re-Buys:  1,670

Total Prize Money:  $2,317,887

Defending Champion (2005):  Maciek Gracz

Official Results:

Number Four….and Counting

Allen Cunningham Wins Fourth Gold Bracelet, Second in Two Years

Tranquil 29-year-old poker pro outplays tough final table and wins $625,830

Las Vegas, NV – The loudest poker personalities may get the fame, but the most skilled players get the money.  Allen Cunningham is neither loud, nor famous.  In fact, he is usually the quietest poker player in the room.  But he is most certainly a skilled consummate poker professional, and he sure gets the money.  Lots of money.

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Cunningham topped a highly-competitive field of 752 players in the $1,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em world championship at the 2006 World Series of Poker.  He won a whopping $625,830 in prize money.  The victory marked the fourth time the 29-year-old poker professional from southern California has won a WSOP title.

This was the first tournament of this year’s World Series with re-buys.  All other tournaments played thus far have been single-elimination freeze outs.  The 1,670 re-buys in this event helped to generate a total prize pool of $2,317,887.  After two lengthy days of play, the nine finalists took the illuminated stage at the Rio Casino in front of a packed gallery and ESPN television cameras on hand to film the exciting finale.

The final table started off with “Captain” Tom Franklin and Tim Phan sharing a considerable substantial chip lead over the rest of the field.  Of the final nine, only Franklin and Cunningham were former gold bracelet winners.  Franklin won his WSOP title back in 1999 (Limit Omaha).  Cunningham’s WSOP victories came in 2001 (Seven-Card Stud), 2002 (Deuce to Seven Lowball), and 2005 (No-Limit Hold’em).

Alex Jacob’s stay at the final table was short, and not so sweet.  On the seventh hand of play, Jacob was down to his last 30,000 in chips after losing a big pot and called an all-in bet with ten-nine.  Andy Bloch had ace-king.  The flop came with two aces and Jacob was drawing dead.  It was an ugly ten minutes.  Alex Jacob, a Yale graduate, pocketed $46,358 as the first player out.

There has been some discussion in recent weeks about the best poker players never to have won a WSOP gold bracelet.  Such a short list would certainly include Andy Bloch, both an MIT and Harvard Law School graduate who has used his considerable mental talents to earn money playing poker in recent years.  Bloch, who won an event on last year’s WSOP Circuit (which awards gold and diamond rings, by the way – not gold bracelets), was never able to establish any momentum and ended up going out in eighth place.  Bloch lost his remaining chips with pocket nines against Allen Cunningham’s ace-queen.  An ace flopped, and Bloch failed to improve.  Bloch knocked off $67,537.

Allen Cunningham took out another player when his ace-ten whipped out Everett Carlton’s king-jack.  Cunningham made two pair, smoking Carlton’s chances of victory.  This was Carlton’s second time to cash at the WSOP.  Interestingly, Carlton first took up poker seriously when he was recovering from surgery in the hospital and saw it being played on TV.  Little did he know back then, that he’d appear at an ESPN final table and make $92,715 in prize money.

Tim Phan went out next when his ace-queen suited was covered by Chino Rheem’s ace-king.  Neither player made a pair, so the ace-king played and Vietnamese-born Phan was out.  The Westminster, CA-based poker player collected $115,894.

With Allen Cunningham holding the chip lead, John Q. Hoang made a bold move with an all-in raise (his last 240,000) holding seven-six in the small blind.  The fearless steal attempt failed when Tom Franklin called instantly and showed ace-queen.  Hoang missed completely and was bounced off of the final table.  Hoang, who was the runner up in last week’s Seven-Card Stud championship, took fifth place this time, good for $139.073.

Dutch player Steve Wong was eliminated in fourth place when he tried to bluff at a 500,000 pot holding an ace-high and a backdoor flush draw.  Chino Rheem wasn’t going anywhere with his flopped set of sixes.  He made the easy call and scooped Wong’s last chip.  Wong collected $162,252.

“Captain” Tom Franklin set his sights on winning gold bracelet Number Two.  He looked to be the early favorite, but lost the chip lead to Allen Cunningham and never fully recovered.  Franklin, who holds two college degrees, served with the US armed forces in Vietnam, and also plays the drums was pounded on his final hand of the night when he flopped top pair, but lost when Chino Rheems completed a flush.  “Captain” Tom Franklin was honorably discharged in third place, which paid $185,431.

The Cunningham-Rheems heads-up match lasted for nearly three hours.  The most decisive hand of play took place early in the bout when Cunningham seized the chip lead.  On the key hand, Cunningham raised 50,000 pre-flop, Rheem re-raised to 250,000 and Cunningham moved all-in.  Rheem called.  When Cunningham flipped over pocket queens against Rheems’ ace-queen, the crowd sensed an immediate momentum shift.  An ace would have ended the tournament and crowned Rheems the champion.  But alas, the ace did not come and Cunningham won the big pot. 

It took another 50 hands or so before Cunningham finally polished off his persistent rival.  Rheem was getting low on chips and tried to make a sneaky pre-flop move holding jack-nine.  Cunningham called the all-in raise with ace-queen and caught a gratuitous ace on the river to make a pair.  David “Chino” Rheem, a 26-year-old poker pro from Miami, Florida received $327,981 in his first WSOP final table appearance.

True to his character, Allen Cunningham’s life story is unpretentious.  He was a straight A-student at UCLA when he discovered his hidden talent for poker playing.  While pursuing a degree in civil engineering, he started playing the game more seriously and began making money.  In 1999, Cunningham enjoyed a breakthrough year in tournament poker – coincidently the same year that emerging rivals Phil Ivey, John Juanda, and Daniel Negreanu invaded the poker scene and began winning millions.  In historical retrospect, Cunningham was part of a revolutionary movement in the game of poker, away from older, more traditional players towards younger, inventive new champions.  

With this victory, Cunningham moved into elite poker territory.  He joins nine players who have also won four WSOP gold bracelets – a list which currently includes Mickey Appleman, Bobby Baldwin, David Chiu, Artie Cobb, Tom McEvoy, Scotty Nguyen, Puggy Pearson, Amarillo Slim Preston, and Huck Seed.

At age 29, Cunningham is one of only four other players to win at least four gold bracelets before turning thirty.  The others were Stu Ungar, Phil Hellmuth, Jr., Layne Flack, and Phil Ivey.

by Nolan Dalla

Note:  All content in this report may be re-printed by media.

Overall Tournament Statistics (through end of Event #14):

Total Entries to Date:                             14,596

Total Prize Money Distributed:                $ 23,366,125