One year after Greg ‘Fossilman’ Raymer won $5m in the biggest World Championship in WSOP history, the top prize in the World Series main event was even bigger. The winner of the 2005 WSOP Main Event took home $7.5 million, and a very famous foreigner created headlines all over the world. There was also a winner in the race to ten WSOP bracelets as the 4-way tie between players with 9 bracelets was broken.
A Seif Bet for a Double
Only one player won two WSOP bracelets in 2005, and it wasn’t anyone you’d have expected. With a schedule featuring 42 total events, Mark Seif was the only double-bracelet winner, taking down the $1,500 entry Limit Hold’em Shootout (Event #15) and the $1,500 buy-in No-Limit Hold ‘Em (Event #22) for a combined total of $792,475.
Todd Brunson won the $2,500 entry Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or better event #21 to join his father, Doyle ‘Texas Dolly’ Brunson, as the only parent and child to win WSOP bracelet events. There were international winners before the Main Event, as Rafi Amit became the first Israeli player to win a WSOP bracelet that he earned in the $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha Championship Event #35, while Danish player Jan Sorensen became first 2-bracelet winner from Denmark after taking down Event #23: $5,000 Seven Card Stud. Andre Boyer was the lone Canadian to come home with a bracelet when he won Event #33: $3,000 No Limit Hold’em, and two Brits won bracelets, Lawrence Gosney in Event #29: $2,000 No Limit Hold’em and Willie Tann in Event #45: $1,000 No Limit Hold’em.
At the age of just 21 years, 3 months, and 29 days, Eric Froehlich set a new record as the youngest ever WSOP event after winning Event #4: $1,500 Limit Hold’em. A few days later, Johnny Chan won the race to ten WSOP bracelets by winning the $2,500 Pot Limit Hold’em event #25 for $303,025. Just four days later, Doyle ‘Texas Dolly’ Brunson joined him on that total, winning the $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em 6-Handed event #31 for $367,800. It would be both Brunson and Chan’s most recent win, and sadly, only ‘The Orient Express’ can still improve on that total.
Poker Boom Has Explosive Effect on Attendances
The poker boom since Chris Moneymaker’s victory in 2003 had a huge and direct effect on poker attendance in Las Vegas at the World Series. By the time the 2005 WSOP was ready to begin, crowds had swollen to vast proportions, vindicating the WSOP’s move to The Rio from Binions (though the final table of the WSOP Main Event stayed at Binion’s for one more year).
In 2003, the WSOP awarded $21.7 million in prize money. In the summer of 2005, that total had grown to $106 million, an incredible increase. The Main Event field when Moneymaker took gold was 839 players. In 2005, an astonishing 5,619 people played in the Main Event. The average field size for a tournament in 2003 was 210. Two years later, that number was 770; the World Series of Poker had changed from an American institution to a global phenomenon.
Watch Day 6 of the 2005 WSOP Main Event Final Table:
Across the 41 preliminary events, there were new winners, old legends, and everyone in between. The Hollywood movie actress Jennifer Tilly, star of movies such as Chucky and Bound as well as the voice of Bonnie Swanson on Family Guy, won the Ladies Event #26 $1,000 buy-in No Limit Hold’em for $158,635, the biggest top prize the event had ever awarded in a tournament attended by 601 players. Allen Cunningham became the first player to win over a million dollars in preliminary events in a single year, banking $1,007,115 across five cashes, including four final tables and one bracelet win in the $1,500 NLHE event #2 for $725,405. That meant Cunningham beat Mark Seif to the WSOP Player of the Year award and would have his banner on the wall of The Rio.
The Other Bracelet Winners
Other players who would win bracelets that year were Anthony Nguyen (Event #1: $500 Casino Employees No Limit Hold’em), Thom Werthmann (Event #3: $1,500 Pot Limit Hold’em), Pat Poels (Event #5: $1,500 Omaha Hi-Lo), Isaac Galazan (Event #6: $2,500 No Limit Hold’em 6-Handed), Mike Gracz (Event #7: $1,000 No Limit Hold’em), Cliff Josephy (Event #8: $1,500 Seven Card Stud), Erik Seidel (Event #9: $2,000 No Limit Hold’em), Siagzar Payvar (Event #10: $2,000 Limit Hold’em), Edward Moncada (Event #11: $2,000 Pot Limit Hold’em), Josh Arieh (Event #12: $2,000 Pot Limit Omaha), TJ Cloutier (Event #13: $5,000 No Limit Hold’em), Steve Hohn (Event #14: $1,000 Seven Card Stud), Anthony Reategui (Event #16: $1,500 No Limit Hold’em Shootout), Quinn Do (Event #17: $2,500 Limit Hold’em), Denis Ethier (Event #18: $2,000 Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo 8’s or Better), Barry Greenstein (Event #19: $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha), Brian Wilson (Event #20: $5,000 Pot Limit Hold’em), Farzad Bonyadi (Event #24: $2,500 No Limit Hold’em), Phil Ivey (Event #27: $5,000 Pot Limit Hold’em), Dan Schmiech (Event #28: $5,000 Limit Hold’em), ONeil Longson (Event #30: $1,500 Razz), David Chiu (Event #32: $5,000 Omaha Hi-Lo 8’s or Better), Paul McKinney (Event #34: $1,000 Seniors No Limit Hold’em), Todd Witteles (Event #36: $3,000 Limit Hold’em), John Heneghan (Event #37: $1,000 No Limit Hold’em), David Grey (Event #39: $5,000 No Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball), Ron Kirk (Event #43: $1,500 No Limit Hold’em), and John Pires (Event #44: $1,000 No Limit Hold’em).
It was now time for the Main Event. In 1999, 512 players participated in the Main Event. Just six years later, 560 players, representing just the top 10% of the field, would finish in the money.
2004 WSOP Main Event – Part 1 2005 WSOP Main Event – Part 2
About the Author: Paul Seaton has written about poker for over 10 years, interviewing some of the best players ever to play the game such as Daniel Negreanu, Johnny Chan and Phil Hellmuth. Over the years, Paul has reported live from tournaments such as the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas and the European Poker Tour. He has also written for other poker brands where he was Head of Media, as well as BLUFF magazine, where he was Editor.