TEXAS HOLDEM ONLINE POKER
TEXAS HOLDEM ONLINE POKER
|
Finalists vie for $5 million prize in Las Vegas poker world series |
|
LAS VEGAS (AP) - Two players were quickly
knocked out of the World Series of Poker on Friday, leaving seven players
vying for a record $5 million and the right to be crowned poker king.
Mike McLain, 39, of Lemoore, Calif., busted shortly after the last nine finalists began play at Binion's Horseshoe Hotel & Casino in downtown Las Vegas. He was followed minutes later by Mattias Andersson, a 24-year-old Swede who was the only foreigner to make the final table. Both fell victim to Greg Raymer, a 39-year-old patent attorney from Stonington, Conn., who started the day as the chip leader with $8.2 million. The game is No-Limit Texas HoldEm, in which players are dealt two cards each and given a chance to make the best poker hand sharing up to five additional cards dealt face up. In no-limit betting, a player can risk all his chips with every turn of a card, guaranteeing high-stakes action and big-time losers. The final round of the 35th annual poker championship included one former champion, 1995 winner Dan Harrington. Gone were actor Tobey Maguire and a former Oklahoma beauty queen who were among the 2,576 entrants to begin finals play May 22. Also absent was last year's winner, Chris Moneymaker, 28, an accountant from Spring Hill, Tenn., who lost all his chips early in finals play. The World Series of Poker has become increasingly popular since Moneymaker's Cinderella rise from a field of 839 earned him $2.5 million in 2003. The event has come a long way since cowboy gambler Benny Binion awarded $30,000 to winner Johnny Moss in 1971. |
|
|
Back to Texas Holdem Online Poker
|
|