The
Fear Factor:
‘Rookie’ Brian Wilson tops all-star
poker lineup and wins first gold bracelet
Some
generations are defined by popular slogans.
“The Greatest Generation” referred to
young people raised during the 1940s who
made tremendous sacrifices. “Make Love,
Not War” came to define the 1960s and
a cultural revolution. “Greed is Good”
typified the prevailing attitude during
the ultra-materialistic 1980s.
If
there’s a slogan which defines today’s
youth, and more specifically a new generation
of poker players which have recently flooded
into the game, it is without doubt --
“No Fear.” There is quite simply a new
breed of poker player which has trampled
on tradition, ignored conventional thinking,
and disregarded the poker establishment.
At the poker table, these daring swarms
of neophytes have absolutely no fear.
Shouts of -- “How could you call with
that hand?” – “I can’t believe
the bad beat I just took” – or “That’s
the worst play I’ve ever seen” fill
modern cardrooms and poker tournaments
like music inside a symphony hall. The
screams of disbelief are often accompanied
some colorful expletive intended to humiliate
the so-called ‘bad’ player.
Brain
Wilson doesn’t care. He has no fear.
“I
had some players (in this tournament)
tell me I’m a ‘bad player,” Wilson said
immediately after winning $370,685 and
his first gold bracelet in the $5,000
buy-in Pot-Limit Hold’em championship.
“They had no idea what I was thinking
or why I did what I did. Now, I’m sitting
here and this is the greatest feeling
in the world.”
In a post tournament interview, Wilson
was asked about arriving at the final
table and facing a formidable list of
poker foes. Of the nine finalists, he
was the player with the least amount of
experience at this level. So some degree
of trepidation might have been expected.
But not according to Wilson.
“With
all due respect to these great players,
I wasn’t thinking about them at all,”
Wilson said. “It didn’t’ matter to me
who I was playing against. I just played
my game and had no fear about anything.
That’s they way you have to play if you
want to win. If you come in afraid or
scared, you have no chance to win.”
Wilson’s
fearless attitude was the difference in
a nine-hour final table that had a number
of lead changes and exciting moments.
The total prize pool in Event #20 amounted
to $825,700. The final table included
two former gold bracelet winners – Allen
Cunningham (with 3 wins) and Cyndy Violette
(with one win). In fact, this was Cunningham’s
second final table appearance (he won
Event #2) so far this year. This was Violette’s
fourth time to cash and second final table,
as well (she finished second in Event
#9). On Day Three, Atlantic City-based
poker pro Violette arrived as the chip
leader. Wilson was close behind in third
place. At the start, players and chip
counts were as follows:
THE
FINAL TABLE:
SEAT
1: John Sebok 159,000
SEAT 2: Cyndy Violette 206,000
SEAT 3: Steven ‘Lucky Liu 193,500
SEAT 4: Brian Wilson 193,000
SEAT 5: Derek Leforte 36,500
SEAT 6: Allen Cunningham 131,500
SEAT 7: John Gale 64,500
SEAT 8: Tony Cousineau 99,500
SEAT 9: Burt Boutin 116,000
Players
were eliminated in the following order:
9th
Place – A few minutes into play,
Burt Boutin took a horrible beat when
he flopped a set of nines. He hoped to
trap his opponent, Brian Wilson for all
his chips. But Wilson caught a straight
on the turn and that was enough to eliminate
Boutin as the 9th-place finisher. Boutin,
a Las Vegas stockbroker has now made it
into the money four times at the WSOP.
He collected $22,465.
8th
Place – Joe Sebok is an aspiring
professional poker player. He calls himself
an ‘Internet geek,’ but hopes to play
and win enough to make a living at the
tables. Sebok moved a step closer to his
dream by topping 232 of the 239 players
in this highly competitive tournament.
The UC-Berkeley graduate went out with
A-J versus Brian Wilson’s A-K. Eighth
place paid $33,700.
7th
Place – This was Cyndy Violette’s
second final-table appearance thus far
at the 2005 WSOP. Incredibly, although
she is best known as a seven-card stud
specialist, all of her four in-the-money
finishes have been in hold’em. Given Violette’s
high expectations, her 7th-place finish
had to be a major disappointment. After
losing half of her stack within the first
three hours, she tried to semi-bluff her
way back into the chip lead by moving
‘all in’ with a nut-flush draw. Allen
Cunningham called the raise with top pair,
and made three-of-a-kind on the turn.
Violette needed to catch a club, but missed.
The first lady of Atlantic City was paid
$44,930.
6th
Place – Steven ‘Lucky’ Liu was
born and raised in Hong Kong and now lives
in England. This was his first time to
appear at the WSOP. On his final hand,
‘Lucky” Liu was not so lucky. He had Q-J
and flopped a pair and an open-ended straight
draw on K-J-10. There were two spades
on board and John Gale called the raise
and caught a fifth spade to make a flush.
The put Liu out in 6th place with $56,165.
5th
Place – Tony Cousineau quite possibly
has the highest number of cashes of anyone
on the pro tournament circuit. Cousineau’s
records are littered with finishes in
the teens, 20s, and near-bubble finishes
which show a tremendous amount of staying
power. But Cousineau rarely arrives at
final tables with many chips. His starting
stack in this event, at just short of
100,000, seemed to be enough to make him
a serious contender. But Cousineau took
a bad beat on his final hand (A-10 versus
Cunningham’s K-10) when four hearts fell
and Cunningham has the only heart. Poker
pro Cousineau earned $67,400 for 5th place.
4th Place –
What goes around comes around. Just when
it seemed Cunningham might be get on a
roll and move towards his fourth gold
bracelet (and second within three weeks),
Brian Wilson made an astonishing call
which essentially propelled him into a
big chip lead and proved he belonged at
the table playing against former champions.
Cunningham tried to bully Wilson out of
the pot with an ‘all in’ raise after the
flop came 10-10-4. The raise amounted
to 150,000. Many players might have gotten
away from the hand, but Wilson read the
situation correctly and called Cunningham
down with a lowly pair of fours. It didn’t
matter that Cunningham was on a stone-cold
bluff, the fearless Wilson made the right
play at the right time. Cunningham picked
up $89,865 in prize money. But that didn’t
diminish the pain and disappointment of
getting busted.
3rd
Place – If there was an underdog
today, it was clearly Derek Leforte. Not
that Leforte wasn’t on par with the competition.
His small stack size from the start –
only 36,500 in chips – eventually was
too much of a burden to overcome, especially
given that his two opponents played quite
aggressively when Leforte was in the pot.
Leforte, a part-time dealer from Canada,
finally went out with K-9 and lost to
John Gale’s ace-high. Leforte made the
biggest leap of anyone at the final table
– milking out $112,330 for 3rd place.
2nd
Place – When heads-up play began,
Englishman John Gale enjoyed a marginal
chip lead over Brian Wilson – 695,000
to 505,000. The key hand of the poker
duel took place when Gale had 10-10 versus
Wilson’s 4-4. A four flopped and that
put Wilson into the chip lead. About an
hour later, Wilson had A-Q versus Gale’s
K-J and the outcome of the tournament
rested in who hit the flop. Neither player
managed to hit a pair, which meant the
ace-high was the best hand. Brian Wilson
took the victory.
John
Gale was forced to settle for second.
John Gale won a major event held at the
Atlantis Resort (Bahamas) in January.
He has since turned pro and is doing quite
well in poker tournaments. Gale’s cut
of the prize money amounted to $204,440.
1st Place –
The winner, Brian Wilson, is a 37-year-old
real estate agent originally from Rockford,
IL. He now lives in Ft. Meyers, FL. He
has a fiancé, who has been very supportive
of his poker playing. She can now share
Wilson’s glory and the $370,685 in prize
money.
Wilson
insisted that British pro David Colclough
be acknowledged as a major influence on
his improvement as a poker player. He
played in some tournaments in Europe earlier
this year and came to develop an appreciation
for Colclough’s poker talent.
Most
interesting is how it all started for
Wilson. “I came out to Las Vegas last
year to attend a bachelor’s party,” Wilson
said. “I stumbled into the Horseshoe,
and I won a $10,000 seat into the main
event. I ended up playing last year and
that really made me more determined to
get more into poker and to improve my
game.”
Have
no fear, poker has not seen nor heard
the last of Brian Wilson. Perhaps it is
Wilson’s opponents who should fear the
worst.
Official Report
by Nolan Dalla – World Series of
Poker Media Director
World
Series of Poker Circuit Director of Operations
– Ken Lambert
World Series of Poker Tournament Director
– John Grooms
Rio Poker Room Manager – Michael
Matts
Rio Poker Tournament Director – Robert
Daily
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