PartyPoker.com Million IV Summary

Day One: Saturday, March 19, 2005

PartyPoker.com got off to a flying start as hosts Mike Sexton and Linda Johnson welcomed the guests aboard with a surprise announcement: The players would be competing for a share of a $7,430,000 prize pool!

"The PartyPoker.com Million IV is the biggest party in poker on the World Poker Tour to date," said Mike Sexton. "This is the largest prize pool in World Poker Tour history. For the first time ever on the WPT, two millionaires will leave the boat this week."

500 decks of cards and over 160,000 poker chips (weighing over 2 tons) were brought onboard in preparation for a week of non-stop poker action.

Sadly, the tournament’s oldest player, 82-year-old Peter Fisher, and the youngest, Damien Rennie, who turned 21 just before the tournament started, failed to make it beyond the opening round.

Day Two: Sunday, March 20, 2005

366 players from all over the world took to the tables at 10 am. By the end of the day, only 136 remained to play the next round.

Day Three: Monday, March 21, 2005

Today’s leader, Chip Jett from the USA, finished in the lead of both days one and two with a chip count of $101,000. His wife Karina also qualified on Day 1 with a chip count of $10,000. Last year’s winner Erick Lindgren was well placed in third place with a chip count of $72,000. The highest online qualifier was Michael Mills with a chip count of $92,000.

Kathy Liebert, winner of the inaugural PartyPoker.com Million tournament in 2002 and now a spokesperson for PartyPoker.com was able to spend the day relaxing after her first day qualifying round. She finished with a chip count of $31,500. "I'm feeling fairly confident about the rest of the tournament," she said, "although at one point I was down to $10,000 and only managed to make it up to $31,500 in the last 40 minutes."

Mike Sexton was thrilled with the smooth running of the tournament. "So far, after the first two days of play, the tournament is running like a Swiss watch, smooth as glass," he said. "There are a large number of top players remaining but many more online qualifiers also. It should make for an exciting finish."

Day Four: Tuesday, March 22, 2005

Following all the excitement of the first few days, the players were able to take a break on Tuesday with a day trip to Mazatlan. However, it was back to the tables at night, with the evening's tournament kicking off at 7:00 p.m. By 8:30 p.m., Chris Hinchcliffe, third-place winner of PartyPoker.com Million 3, had been knocked out at position 205.

"Today was outstanding," Chris said. "I came in today with 6,000 chips and doubled up early. Then I lost most of my chips when I flopped a straight and the other person turned a full house but I didn't lose all my chips. Then, a couple of hands later, I picked up Ac 10h against Qd 7d and he flopped three 7s. That busted me out of the tournament."

By 9:00pm, things were really intensifying. "Today is pay day on the boat," Mike Sexton explained. "180 players are going to make the money. Right now, we're down to 187 players, and it's crunch time. The next seven players to be out have played all this time, but unfortunately they're not going to get anything. But those are the trials and tribulations of tournament poker - someone has to go out on the bubble (be the last player to go out before the money). It's sad but true. Well, whoever it's going to be in this tournament, I hope they don't jump overboard!"

At 9:35pm, "the bubble" burst for American Lisa Gaines when she was knocked out at 181st place. However, Mike needn't have worried - she didn't wind up in the Pacific! At 11:00pm, Kathy Liebert was knocked out at 98th place. Kathy, who won the inaugural PartyPoker.com Million tournament in 2002, walked away this year with $10,426.

At 1:00am, there were 55 players still in the game, but a couple of hours later, this number had dropped to just 27, with Erick Lindgren, winner of PPM3 and WPT player of the year, in front with a chip count of approximately $240,000. Erick's luck didn't hold, and he finished day 3 with $160,000. However, Casey Kastle, who masterfully played his $8,500 short stack to start the day, was up to $225,000.

Day Five: Wednesday, March 23, 2005

It was all business on the ship as the tournament entered the final stretch. Play kicked off at 7:00 p.m. with just 37 players left from the original 735. Limits began at $8000 - $16,000, and by 8:20pm Casey Kastle had doubled up to over $250,000 with pocket Aces giving him a total of 4 Aces on the flop, beating a full house (Aces and Queens).

After just a couple of hours of action, several heavy hitters had gone out: Grant Dowd (37th place), William Mastandrea (36th place), Daniel Stewart (35th place), Mark Vicuna (34th place), Chris Dirs (33rd place), Bob Coates (32nd place), David Baker (31st place), and Michael Lawrence (30th place).

Of course, Dirs, the last British player to go out, wasn't complaining – he walked away with $31,000. That's not a bad win considering he qualified through a $25 online satellite!

By 9:30pm, the player count had dropped to 20, and blinds were $20,000-$40,000. Perry Meltzer held the chip lead with $920,000. Just in case you were thinking "I'll never get into a big-money game like this", bear in mind that Perry qualified online for $32!

In second place was last year's PPM3 winner, Erick Lindgren, with $880,000. This was a considerable jump from his 22nd place finish yesterday with just $160,000. Tuesday's chip leader Richard Kain, also an online qualifier, had dropped to third place with $745,000.

Lindgren just busted out Casey Kastle. Casey had Qd-10d and Erick A-A. The flop came Ad-10d-6c. However, the flush didn't come for Kastle, with a turn the Qs and river Qc, which gave Lindgren Aces over Queens. An hour later, only 16 players were still on the tables. Lindgren was now chip leader with over $1,000,000!

Mike Sexton, who kept an eye on all the action for us, said: "Today was crunch time. It's the time we play down to six players who will make it to the final table. There's a lot of pressure on these players now - they're vying for the big bucks and the television show. There are currently 12 players left and among them are three buy-in players and nine that qualified on PartyPoker.com to win entry onto the ship. But this is every poker player's dream - whether they're amateur or professional - to win a WPT title."

By 11:45pm, that dream was a little closer for the remaining 10 players, with online qualifier Richard Kain racing to first place with an amazing $1,590,000 chip lead.

Day Six: Wednesday, March 24, 2005

After five days of intense, nail-biting poker action, it was down to this one night: six players going head-to-head for the PartyPoker.com Million IV top prize of $1,500,000. Of the 735 players who started the tournament, only one would walk away as the winner of the richest limit Hold'em event to date.

Play kicked off at the final table at 8:00pm with blinds of $20,000/$30,000. Limits started at $30,000/$60,000. By 9:00 p.m., after six hands, Adam Csallany was in the lead with $330,000. By 9:50 p.m., Michael "The Kid" Gracz has soared into first place and was up to over $2.5 million. Richard Kain, who had been the chip leader coming into day four's play and came into the final table in second place, busted out in the 54th hand of the night when Michael's 7-7 beat his A-Q.

By 10:30pm, Paul Darden has been knocked out. He had gone all in, showed 7-7 but his set was beaten by chip leader Michael.  With only four players remaining, the limits increased to $100,000-$200,000 and the blinds were now $50,000-$100,000. By 11:35pm, after a series of million-dollar hands, Adam Csallany went out in fourth place with $500,000. Adam had quite a run but his aggressive play was capped when he was check raised out of some big hands in late action.

Just before midnight, Mathew Cherachal bowed out in third place, taking home a tidy $700,000. Mathew, a regular player at PartyPoker.com, won his seat at the final table for just $32. However, he'd been on short stack and had been getting bullied left and right by chip leader Michael Gracz's aggressive pre-flop raises. Mathew finally got a hand and was all in pre-flop with A-Q. Michael called with his 9-8. The flop came K-5-5, which kept Mathew in the lead. The turn came, a 4, and the river was a boon for Gracz, the 9. The winning pair of 9s locked up at least $1 million for Gracz. He was now in commanding chip position with $5.6 million going heads up against David Minto.

Going into the final heads up action, David and Michael revealed their screen names:

  • Michael – NC Kid
  • David – Mad Dog X2

Just before 1:00am, Michael raised pre-flop and David re-raised. There was now $960,000 in the pot pre-flop. Flop is A-Q-J rainbow. Both players bet $160,000. Turn is 4d. David bet $320,000. River is Ad. David bet and Michael re-raised David all in for his remaining $640,000. David doubled up with the diamond flush.

On a J-8-6 flop, David bet and Michael raised. Turn is 2d. Michael checked. David bet $320,000. Michael re-raised to $640,000. David called. River was the Kh. Michael bet $320,000 and David called. Michael flopped two pair with his J-8 and took down a huge pot.

David now had $1,750,000 and Michael had about $6.5 million.

Heading into the final stretch, Michael and David were $1.2 million into the pot pre-flop. The flop came, 10-8-5. David bet and Michael called. Turn was 7 and both players bet the minimum. The river was the 8. David bet and was called. His A-7 was out kicked by Michael's A-9. This left David with only $40,000 so it was showdown poker for the final hand as David could not cover the blinds.

Michael turned over J-2 suited and David had 10-5. The flop was J-J-5. Michael has flopped a set of Js, and this held up to earn him $1.5 million dollars and the PartyPoker.com Million IV championship title.

We caught up with David after the final round. "I'm married with three kids," he said, "and one of them is the same age as Michael! Winning $1 million probably won't change our lives, although it'll double our net worth! We'll probably save some and give some away."

In between celebrations, we asked Michael what he thought of the whole event. "I've had a lot of fun on the PPM4," he said. "It's one of the best tournaments on the WPT, although I swear everyone on the WPT is an alcoholic!" When asked by Linda Johnson for tips and advice, he replied: "Get lucky!"