Main Event Winners That Completely Disappeared

(Photo: Cardplayer.com)

Even though it is no longer the highest buy-in tournament at the WSOP, the Main Event (mainly because it is called ‘The Main Event’!) generates a lot of interest in the poker world. It is the ambition of many poker players to simply participate in the Main Event, and every year thousands of players put up the $10,000 entry fee dreaming of winning the silver bracelet and the huge first prize, these days ranging from $6 - $8.5 million. The prizes are so big that making the final table guarantees players around $500,000.

The WSOP Main Event remains the only event where, if you make it to the final table, you are guaranteed fame and media coverage. At the height of the poker boom, winning a WSOP bracelet from any event would guarantee you a sponsorship deal from an online poker room and the chance for a lucrative career, however, these days there is little coverage given for bracelet winners, let alone those who reach a final table.

To raise the profile of the final table, the Main Event plays down to the final 9, known as the “November 9” because play is suspended for a few months to generate interest in the participants who are already guaranteed a lot of money. Between play, they can roughly double this money in advertising earnings before the restart.

If the final table players get coverage, you can only imagine what the winner enjoys. The poker world hopes that the eventual winner of the Main Event goes on to become a torch bearer for poker, like Chris Moneymaker has been since winning in 2003. Unfortunately, this does not always happen. Some players win the event and we never really hear from them again, so let’s look at a few of the winners that won the Main Event and then fell from view.

Jamie Gold - 2006

Jamie Gold won the largest ever WSOP Main Event in 2006, taking home the mammoth $12,000,000 first prize. Unfortunately, he has only cashed for an additional $67,000 since! Gold was criticized for his erratic play during the tournament, but thanks to an amazing run of luck, he managed to take the title. After winning, Gold’s charisma and brash personality earned him invites to the various live cash games that were fashionable on TV around five years ago. Gold lost a lot of money in those live cash games with very questionable plays and was viewed by the other pros as a bit of a fish.

Gold felt the wrath of the poker world when it was discovered that he had been instructed by Bodog to find celebrities to play in the 2006 Main Event. He used his contacts made from being a Hollywood agent and in return he received a buy-in into the tournament. Gold had made an agreement with Crispin Leyer to split any winnings, but when he won he reneged on the agreement. Leyer did not let it go and eventually they settled out of court in February 2007.

It is worth mentioning that despite this unsavory episode, Gold has done a lot of charity work and is known as a very nice person to deal with. However, his Poker playing very much peaked in 2006 and it has been a struggle for him in various ways since that huge win.

Jerry Yang - 2007

One year after Jamie Gold took the Main Event prize, Jerry Yang, a psychotherapist and social worker from Temecula, California, won a $225 satellite tournament and a seat in the Main Event. Yang was an amateur player who had four small cashes to his name but he went on to win the event, beating Tuan Lam heads-up to win the $8,250,000 first prize.

Yang had an epic final table, starting eighth in chips before going on a tear and busting seven of the eight players at the table. After storming to the win, it was expected that his winnings would give him the opportunity to cement a legacy at the tables and repeat his style in future events, but it was not to be. Yang has had no WSOP cashes since, and his website is now showing as no longer available. It is thought he returned to his previous life and enjoys financial security from his life-changing win. Good for him, but we like to see the Main Event winners gambling!

Noel Furlong - 1999

A few years before the poker boom, Noel Furlong won the final WSOP Main Event before the millennium, winning $1 million after carpeting his opponents. Carpeting was nothing new to Furlong as he made his fortune in Ireland as a carpet manufacturer. Furlong has enjoyed massive business success and his business turns over $100,000,000 a year.

Furlong was not unknown in poker when he won the Main Event as he had played regularly in the event for ten years. He reached the final table in 1989, which is best remembered as the year Phil Hellmuth Jr. won the event, beating Johnny Chan heads-up.

Furlong remains active in the poker world mainly in the United Kingdom and Ireland but is not a household name in the game. He continues to spend most of his time running his businesses and perhaps because of his secure position in life, he never sought to cash in on the poker boom from 2003. Furlong is also a two-time winner of the Irish Open, so had already secured an enviable record in Poker before it went mainstream. It is a case of what might have been as this excellent player chose to remain in the background. He also owns horses and is involved in horse racing, so he certainly keeps himself busy!

Russ Hamilton - 1994

Hamilton joined the likes of Stu Ungar, Doyle Brunson, and Johnny Moss as a Main Event winner in 1994 when he won $1 million (and his weight in silver!) beating out runner-up Hugh Vincent.

This should have cemented him as a legend of the game, but unfortunately for Russ Hamilton he does not enjoy the revered status shared by most other WSOP Main Event winners. This is probably due to his prominent role in the Ultimate Bet scandal that saw $22 million stolen from their customers. Hamilton was a gaming consultant and was outed in recordings released by informant Travis Makar where he discussed how to cover-up the scandal and how to hide the identity of the perpetrators. In 2008, the Kahnawake Gaming Commission found Hamilton largely responsible for cheating players on Ultimate Bet out of $6,100,000 through software that allowed access to opponents' hole cards.

This betrayal of trust ruined his reputation. It is a sorry end to the reputation of a former Main Event winner and Hamilton and his associates remain ostracized from the poker world to this day. I doubt this is likely to change any time soon.