 Appeared
in PokerPlayerNewspaper June 5th, 2007
Ciaran O'Leary Takes the Bracelet
in Event #3
-- The winner
was Ciaran O'Leary. The new champ is originally from
Ireland. He now lives in Seattle, WA. O'Leary has
played at the WSOP during six of the last ten years.
However this was his first time ever to cash. What
a huge payout it turned out to be $727,012 for first
place.
-- Event #3 is the largest non-WSOP
main event poker tournament in history. The previous
record was Event #17 at the 2006 World Series of Poker.
That event attracted 2,891 entries. This year's first
$1,500 buy-in no-limit hold championship destroyed
the previous record by 107 players. There were approximately
2600 entries and 400 alternates, for a combined field
of 2,998 players. This ranks as the third-largest
poker tournament of all-time, behind the 2005 and
2006 championship (main) events.
-- Ciaran O'Leary's first name is pronounced
KIR-AHN. His nickname is "Big C."
-- O'Leary was all-in at the final table
five times. He survived each confrontation.
-- A full house of spectators packed
into the Rio poker arena and was treated to an exciting
show. O'Leary was clearly the crowd favorite. Each
time he was all-in, he got up and walked away from
the table. Several times he left the arena entirely
and walked into the busy tournament area, with television
cameras rolling to capture every step. It was obvious
this was O'Leary's way to relieve tension. The strategy
worked.
-- Ireland has produced several WSOP
gold bracelet winners – most notably the 1999
main event champion, Noel Furlong. With this victory,
O'Leary is now the second-highest WSOP winner who
is originally from Ireland.
-- At the start of the final table,
all eyes were on Alex Jacob. He arrived with a monstrous
chip lead – with over 3,000,000 in chips while
the average stack was about 800,000. He ended up busting
out in third place. Jacob cashed four times at last
year's WSOP and made two final table appearances.
-- The runner up was Paul Evans from
Mt. Shasta, CA. This was his second time to take second
place in a WSOP event. He also finished second at
the final table back in 2000.
-- 2003 WSOP champion Chris Moneymaker
cashed in this event. He finished in the 233rd spot.
-- This was ESPN's second WSOP broadcast
of 2007. The ESPN telecast is expected to air some
time after July 10, 2007.
Photo by: Flipchip / LasVegasVegas.com
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