A cold blooded bluff and a pair of jacks gave Mike P., an editor/publisher from Iowa, a seat at the World Poker Tour (WPT) World Championship at the Bellagio Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. The 29-year-old won the $28,000 prize in a qualifying tournament sponsored by leading online poker guide PokerListings.com (pokerlistings.com) and poker room Titan Poker (titanpoker.com). In mid-April, Mike will be playing for millions of dollars against the best poker players in the world.
Mike started playing poker with his college buddies two years ago and got a taste for the big poker scene when he and his girlfriend visited Las Vegas during last year’s Five Diamond Classic at the Bellagio Hotel & Casino.
“We walked around the Bellagio poker room on the first day of the tournament awestruck to see virtually every poker player we had ever seen on TV. It's hard to believe that this time I will actually get to sit down and play with them,” said Mike.
According to David Williams, senior editor at PokerListings.com, there are lots of opportunities like this one.
“Many times the starting field is even smaller than it was in this case,” said Mr. Williams. “In some of our feature satellites only 12 or 13 people compete for a prize worth thousands of dollars. We’re really pleased to offer our customers these top value freerolls.”
Mike certainly is glad to have found PokerListings.com. He visits the site on a regular basis.
“I visit PokerListings.com at least once a week. The site is full of poker news and tools, and offers the best sign-up bonuses anywhere,” said the freeroll winner.
The WPT World Championship at the Bellagio will be played from April 18-24, 2006. Mike has great respect for the world class players he will face there, but still hopes that the moves that got him into the tournament will work against the top names as well.
In the very first hand of heads-up play in the freeroll, a stone cold bluff gave Mike the chip lead and control of the game. The pot was huge, but Mike didn’t hit the gutshot straight he was hoping for.
“When the river paired one of the low cards I knew I had to take the chance. Every hand I put him on had me beat, so I knew the only way I could win the pot, which was now about 1/3 the chips in play, was to bet again. I pushed all-in for my last $18,000 chips, about the size of the pot... and he folded,” said Mike.
Later on Mike flopped a pair of Jacks to knock the last remaining rival out of the tournament. Now he’s hoping for another success story at the WPT World Championship.
“Wow! Am I really going to get to play in the WPT World Championship at Bellagio? All I can hope for is to play as well as I can for as long as I can,” said Mike. “Last year they paid out to 100 places in a field of about 450. That is an incredible payout scale, and in a smaller buy-in tournament I would love my chances of making the money. I guess we will just have to see what happens.”
About PokerListings
PokerListings.com (http://www.pokerlistings.com) was launched in 2003 and quickly became the largest online poker guide. This free-to-use website provides poker players across the globe with in-depth analysis of all major online poker rooms as well as the world's best online poker deals, including sign-up bonuses and promotional offers, and detailed content on poker strategy, tournaments, news, and freerolls.
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