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 Jamie
Gold is the 2006 World Series of Poker champion. His success in the main event might comes as a surprise to most players and
casual poker fans, but it came on the heels of eight final table finishes in the previous sixteen months, including five at the
Bicycle Casino where I
used to work. His most notable finish prior
to the championship event was a first place finish in a No Limit Holdem event at the Stars and Stripes tournament
series worth $54,000.
Jamie's aggressive big stack play at the WSOP, while holding approximately 30% of the chips could most likely be
contributed to his experience at the tables in California. With the exception of
Allen Cunningham, the other players
at the final table did not have a lot of experience playing large field tournaments in live casinos. In fact,
Jamie had more final table experience than the rest of the WSOP final table players put together, except Cunningham.
(Besides his win, he also had a second place at Hollywood Park and a third place finish at the Bicycle Casino.)
Having experience in large field tournaments is a big advantage in these large multi-day events. In these types of
events it seems that no matter how many players you eliminate, there are more and more moving to your table. Many
players eventually crack and make a mistake because after running hot for awhile, they suddenly think that they
can dodge bullets for all their chips. Jamie consistently played for a portion of his stack against players who
had to commit all of theirs. When this happens, you either win a small pot 100% of the time, or contest a medium
size pot. Aggressive big stack play against the middling sized stacks is required to keep getting through the many
players continually thrown at you. Since you can't sit on your chips in California tournaments (they usually have
faster structures than Nevada tournaments), Jamie was equipped to play.
Jamie claims to be a manager/producer and ex-agent from Malibu, California and says he represented (at one time or
another); James Gandolfini (The Sopranos), Lucy Liu (Charlie's Angels), Kristin Davis (Sex and the City), Felicity
Huffman (Desperate Housewives), Natasha Henstridge (Species) and a whole lot more. Some say that he was never the
big time agent that he claimed to be.
The biggest controversy about Jamie is not whether he was a "big time agent" or not, but rather the lawsuit
regarding the 12 million dollar prize money. Crispin Leyser said Gold agreed to split his winnings if Leyser helped
him find celebrities to wear the "Bodog" label while playing in the main event. In September 2006, half of
the funds were frozen and in February of 2007 Jamie Gold agreed to settle the dispute. According to him, he always
intended on sharing his winnings.
Photo courtesy of LasVegas Vegas. |
