The
Eyes of Texas:
Dan Schmiech wins Limit Hold’em world
championship and pockets $404,585
It’s
been said that Texas Hold’em originated
over a century ago. It was first played
on ranches and open prairies. Cattlemen
drove livestock to market. Many spent
their evenings playing poker. Legend has
it that during one fateful cattle drive,
so many cowboys wanted to play poker one
evening that each player in the game was
dealt two down cards (instead of five)
and shared the community cards flopped
up in the middle. Believe the story or
not -- Texas hold’em was born.
Given
the game’s history, perhaps it’s fitting
that the 2005 Limit Hold’em world championship
was won by a native Texan. Dan Schmiech,
who was born in Brownwood, TX and currently
lives in Houston, stampeded over a large
field of 269 players.
The
entry fee was $5,000 per player, meaning
a total prize pool of well over $1.2 million.
The final table included an interesting
mix of players:
The
Final Table:
SEAT
1: Joe Sebok 184,000
SEAT 2: Annie Duke 150,000
SEAT 3: James Kwon 227,000
SEAT 4: Gabe Kaplan 209,000
SEAT 5: Dan Schmiech 219,000
SEAT 6: Young Phan 144,000
SEAT 7: Luke Neely 94,000
SEAT 8: Jeff Shulman 38,000
SEAT 9: Greg "FBT" Mueller 89,000
On
Day Three, players were eliminated in
the following order:
9th
– Greg ‘FBT’ Mueller was the first
player to exit. ‘FBT’ reportedly stands
for “Full Blown Tilt.” But it wasn’t the
tilt factor that eliminated Mueller early
on Day Three. Despite moving ‘all in’
with 9-9 versus Young Phan’s 8-8, the
final board showed K-7-5-5-6. That gave
Phan a straight and gave Mueller a one-way
ticket off the ESPN main stage. Mueller’s
cut amounted to $25,285.
8th
– What goes around comes around.
Young Phan found this lesson out the hard
way. He lost a few pots then committed
his final few chips with A-3. Gabe Kaplan
called from the blind with 10-3 and caught
a ten to take out Phan. Eighth place paid
$37,930.
7th
– Jeff Shulman is best-known in
poker as being the Publisher of Card Player
magazine. He has also proven himself to
be a talented poker player. Shulman just
missed making it to the final table of
the main event five years ago (seventh
place in 2000 – only six players made
it to the finale that year). This was
his first appearance at a WSOP final table
since that time. Shulman was the low stack,
and finally went out when Annie Duke made
a flush. Shulman earned $50,570 for 7th
place.
6th – Gabe
Kaplan appeared to be the next player
on his way out. But he went on a rush
leaving Luke Neely as the player ready
to be pushed off a cliff. Five opponents
were more than glad to give him a final
push. Neely, who was a law student before
turning to poker as a profession, was
expelled to a 6th-place finish, paying
out $63,215.
5th
– Annie Duke was the low stack,
but then she too staged a comeback. Meanwhile,
Joe Sebok’s stay at the final table was
about to be cut short. Sebok moved in
with 3-3 and Duke called with K-7. A king
flopped and Sebok was gone. Sebok, a self-described
Internet ‘geek’ from San Francisco (and
an aspiring pro player) added $75,860
to his poker bankroll.
4th
– Annie Duke was the only player
at this table with a gold bracelet. She
won the 2004 Omaha High-Low championship.
Duke’s bid for a second WSOP title ended
when she was desperately low on chips
and committed herself with Q-J suited.
Dan Schmiech had an ace, which was enough
to call. The ace-high played and Duke
evaporated. Fourth place paid $88,500.
3rd
– Schmiech had the chip lead, and
after James Kwon lost a few big pots,
he was on life support. Kwon was in a
great spot to get back some chips when
he was ‘all in’ with A-J versus Schmiech’s
A-5. Then, a five flopped. Wham! Kwon
was crushed. Third-place paid $113,785.
2nd
Place – When heads-up play began,
Schmiech enjoyed a 4 to 1 chip lead over
Gabe Kaplan. Fixed betting limits were
20,000-40,000 and Kaplan had about 240,000.
That essentially meant that losing one
big pot to Schmiech would basically end
the tournament. It took 40 minutes, but
that’s exactly what happened. On his final
hand, Gabe Kaplan missed a draw and Schmiech
ended up with two pair. Schmiech was declared
the winner, and Kaplan ended up in second
place. Kaplan collected $222,515.
Gabe
Kaplan needs no introduction to mainstream
audiences or poker players. He is popularly
known for playing “Kotter,” a Brooklyn-based
high school teacher in the 1970s sitcom
smash, “Welcome Back Kotter.” He has since
worked as a stand-up comedian doing many
skits in Las Vegas and been involved in
many other film and TV projects. Despite
his popular success, Kaplan has been involved
in the World Series of Poker for more
than 25 years. He first started playing
poker in Las Vegas during the late 70s.
He finished in 7th place in the main event
back in 1980 (the first year Stu Ungar
won a world championship). Kaplan deserves
a bracelet for his obvious love and commitment
to poker. Hopefully, he will get one someday.
1st Place –
Dan Schmiech is a 44-year-old professional
poker player from Houston, TX. Prior to
playing poker, Schmiech worked in sales.
He admits that he has been working on
his tournament strategy recently and plays
regularly on the internet. First place
paid $404,585.
Schmiech stated that his goal when first
sitting down to play was to make it into
the money. Once that objective was accomplished,
he vowed to make it to the final table.
Then, his final goal was to win. All three
goals ended up coming true.
“I’m
pleased with the way I played tonight,”
Schmiech said afterwards. “I think I played
really well. I also caught some cards,
so it worked out both ways.”
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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