2006 World Series of Poker
Largest WSOP main event field until 2023.
The 2006 World Series of Poker (WSOP) was held at the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, marking the first time a casino other than Binion's Horseshoe hosted the main event final table. The series featured a $50,000 buy-in HORSE tournament, the highest buy-in ever for a single WSOP event at the time. Jeff Madsen was named the 2006 WSOP Player of the Year, edging Phil Hellmuth.
Quick Facts
- Location
- Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas, Nevada
- Dates
- June 26 – August 10
- Champion
- USA Jamie Gold
Facts from the source article.
Main Event
The 2006 Main Event, designated as event #39, holds the record for the largest prize pool in poker tournament history, totaling $82,512,162. This $10,000 No-Limit Texas Hold'em competition drew 8,773 players, necessitating four initial starting flights (1A through 1D), each trimmed to 800 participants. Those survivors then combined into two more days (2A and 2B) before merging into a single field. The final nine players were determined on August 8, and Jamie Gold claimed the world champion title on August 10. The final table aired live on Pay-Per-View, but home viewers could only see hole cards if a player exposed them. A new "All-In" button allowed players to signal a bet without physically pushing chips. The beige $50,000 chips from 2005 were replaced by tangerine and yellow $25,000 chips, and a mint-green $100,000 chip with black edge spots debuted on day seven. This Main Event remained the largest by entries and first-place prize until the 2023 WSOP Main Event.
Controversy
During day 2 of the main event, a table with Daniel Negreanu, Gavin Smith, and Kathy Liebert received extra chips after tournament officials misplaced Mirza Nagji's chips in the wrong seat. The other players assumed the stack belonged to a late arrival and blinded it off. By the time a player noticed the error, Nagji had already been given replacement chips; players estimated that out of the extra 120,000 chips put into play, around 10,000–11,000 had been blinded off from the empty stack. In the $50,000 HORSE event, many players found the cards were marked or easily markable. Andy Bloch received a 10-minute penalty for crumpling a card after a dealer refused to replace the marked deck. WSOP Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack stated he had not heard about the markings until that day and was working on the problem. During Event 25, the $2,000 NL Hold 'em Shootout, the structure was changed mid-tournament from a full table to 6-handed. Harry Demetriou objected, yelling about the unfair change, and was ejected from the tournament, later receiving a refund. Daniel Negreanu missed the event entirely, having assumed it would be a full table and he could arrive late; by the time he showed up, David Singer had won Negreanu's table after blinding off his stack.
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