Shortly after 9 oclock on July 10 th,
Allen Cunningham (originally from Ventura, California) won the $1,000
No-Limit Hold'em with Re-buys tournament (Event #14), taking home
$625,830 and his fourth WSOP bracelet. The final table for this
event had everything that a poker fan could hope for including big
name professionals, experienced veteran players and young newcomers
looking to make an impression. Here is a run down of all the final
table finishers, their accomplishments and chip position:
Seat 1: Burgeoning young poker pro Alex
Jacob, 106K
Seat 2: 2005 World Series Player of the Year Allen
Cunningham, 234K
Seat 3: 24th place finisher in last year's Main
Event Tim Phan, 551K
Seat 4: Vegas veteran Everett Carlton, short
stacked at 86K
Seat 5: Making his second 2006 WSOP final table
John Hoang, 274K
Seat 6: Veteran poker player "Captain"
Tom Franklin, chip leader at 590K
Seat 7: Excellent newcomer
Steve Wong, 295K
Seat 8: California casino pro David "Chino"
Rheem, 145K
Seat 9: Poker professional Andy Bloch, 157K
David “Chino” Rheem of Miami, Florida, finished second and was rewarded with $327,981 for his effort. Rheem was among the most aggressive of the final nine when play got going at 2 pm on the main stage of the Amazon room, with ESPN cameras recording the action. Which was understandable since he and the rest of the field had some catching up to do to get within a stone's throw of chip leaders Tom Franklin and Tim Phan, who each started the day with more than half a million in chips. But it just wasn't Phan's day. Alex Jacob, Andy Bloc, and Everett Carlton were all gone by 4:45, and Phan was eliminated in sixth place less than an hour later. He moved in with Ad-Qd but found himself dominated by Rheem's As-Ks. Hoang wnt out in fifth place when his suited connectors (6c-7c) were no match for Franklin's Ad-Qs.
By that time Rheem was chip leader
slightly ahead of Franklin and with more then twice as many chips as
the ultimate winner. Cunningham moved up when Steve Wong went out in
forth place, then doubled up himself, and got to the final two when
Franklin was eliminated in third place by Rheem.
Cunningham was well behind when heads-up play began, with $664,000 to his opponents nearly $1.8 million. But his experience won the day. It took 35 hands, a few double-ups and Cunningham's calculated aggression to get the job done. In the end, it was Cunningham's Ac-Qh versus Rheem's Jh-9d that gave him his fourth bracelet.
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