Bellagio is home to the biggest poker games in the world and the World Poker Tour Bellagio Cup III is no exception.

The $10,000 buy-in tournament pits Mike “The Mouth” Matusow against three of the toughest young players in the poker world today. Kevin Saul, Shane Schleger, and Danny Wong join two part-time players in the fight for the $1.3 million first prize.

Only time will tell whether youth, experience, or a combination of the two will rule that day at Bellagio.

The Bellagio Cup is not a new tournament. It simply hadn’t been on television before. The World Poker Tour changed that and turned the Bellagio Cup III into one of the most important poker events of the year. More than 500 people put up $10,000 apiece to build a $5.1 million prize pool. By the time the final table players sat down, the crowd knew it was in for a treat. Two relative unknowns sat with three of the toughest young guns in America and Mike Matusow, one of the most notorious players in the game. Here’s how they all stacked up as final table play began.

Seat 1: Kevin Saul 4,210,000

Seat 2: Eric Panayiotou 759,000

Seat 3: Konstantin Puchkov 1,005,000

Seat 4: Mike Matusow 1,872,000

Seat 5: Danny Wong 1,022,000

Seat 6: Shane Schleger 1,838,000

With the blinds at 12,000/24,000/3,000, nearly everyone at the table was deep stacked. Even the shorter stacks could stand to re-raise without pushing all-in. What’s more, big stacks like Kevin Saul could splash around without getting married to the pot.

“Who is the big blind?” Saul said after a few hands. “Mike?” He eyed The Mouth across the table.

“Come on in baby!” Matusow chided.

Indeed, Saul did, putting in a raise wit with Ac8s. A move that might have been designed to nick Matusow’s blind ended up running into a real hand. Eric Panayiotou re-raised with AhQs. After some thought, Saul called. The flop came down and missed them both: 3sKdJh. Saul looked for a moment like he might bet, then gave a light tap on the table. Panayiotou may not have been the most experienced player at the table, but he knew when he had to continuation bet. He put 300,000 into the 500,000 pot.

“How much do you have left,” Saul asked. Panayiotou only had 180,000 behind his bet. He had already committed three-quarters of his entire stack. Saul may be known for being aggressive, but he also knows when to lay down a hand. After playing with his chips for a couple of seconds, he tossed his cards in the muck.

Despite the occasional misstep, that is Saul’s kind of game: always raising, forever pushing the action. Barely any time passed before Saul once again came in raising, this time with KcJh. Once again, he ran into a real hand. Young phenom Danny Wong woke up in the small blind with two black aces. It was a place where most players would throw in an immediate re-raise. Instead, Wong took a dip in the tank. When he emerged, he simply called. Saul, seeming unconcerned, asked “How much do you have? Just a rough estimate.”

“Over 800,000”, Wong responded.

Heads up, Saul and Wong saw a flop of 8h4d7d. Instead of continuing the slowplay, Wong led into the pot. Saul, however, was not ready to go away. He made the smooth call. Saul knew he had nothing and would likely pick up nothing. He was hoping for a scare card, something that would allow him to take away the pot on the turn.

The turn, Th, brought more bullets from Wong. This time it was about a half-pot bet. “You’ve got about five hundred behind?” Saul asked, then looked across the felt. “I’m all-in,” he said.

Wong cocked his head ever so slightly, then, as if he already knew what he was going to do, said, “I call.”

Saul was not drawing dead, but he was drawing slim, needing a nine to peel off to fill in his gutshot straight. It didn’t happen. A six came on the river and Wong managed a key double up off the chip leader.

“This ain’t the internet, son!” Matusow cawed.

Saul smirked. “He wouldn’t have folded his aces on the internet, either.”

Matusow, king of the last word, bellowed, “Welcome to Poker 101!”

Matuow continued his assault shortly thereafter, but this time he did it with his cards instead of his infamous mouth. After Saul flopped bottom pair against Matusow’s set, he check-called on three streets. The ensuing carnage dropped him into second place in chips.

“Poker, poker, it’s so fun,” Matusow sang. “After an hour, you need a gun.”

What Matusow might not have taken into account was that Saul was bruised but not broken. The last word was still a long way off.

Matusow, sated by his win off Saul, let someone else take a shot. This time, Shane Schleger flopped an open-ended straight draw to Saul’s top pair. He check-called a bet and then hit his straight on the turn. This time, he check-raised and got a call from Saul. The river put a flush on the board and shut both players down. While the pot was not enormous, it was another chink in Saul’s armor. After starting the day in first place with more than four million chips, Saul had lost 75% of his stack and fallen back to fourth chip position. Before long, after losing a few more pots, he sat in last place.

Saul took a break, walked away, and collected himself for a few minutes. When he came back, he looked like he might have gotten the freefall under control. Regardless of the reality of the situation, Saul sat back down and came in for an under-the-gun raise with JdTd. Schleger, the new chip leader, called in the big blind with AsTh. The flop came 7d4h8d. Schleger checked quickly and opened the door for Saul’s bet. Immediately, Schleger put in a massive raise, nearly enough to put Saul all-in. With the gutshot and flush draws, Saul struggled to find a fold. “It looks like my luck has run out,” he said. Finally he decided, “I’m all-in. It’s not much more.”

Schleger was forced to call. The corner’s of Saul’s mouth turned up when he saw Schleger’s hand. “Well, I have more outs than I thought.”

On the rail, Saul had his hands in his pockets. “The sick part,” he said to a friend, “I knew he was on air and raising me because I was on tilt.”

Seconds later, the four of diamonds fell on the turn, guaranteeing Saul’s double up. It was an unexpected net against what had been an ugly freefall. Buoyed by the win, Saul went back to work in the same style that brought him into the day as chip leader.

In the span of the same amount of time it took Saul took fall apart and into sixth place, he recovered and made it all the way back to first place with a combination of aggressive play and the occasional good turn of the card.

“Now I can’t make fun of you anymore,” Matusow said.

To this point, the Bellagio Cup III final table had been the Kevin Saul show. Finally, the cameras were forced to focus elsewhere. Everybody folded to Konstantin Puchkov who limped in the small blind with Qc5s. Matusow, in the big blind with Qs9c, said, “Let’s see a flop.” His request was granted with 4hQd6h. Puchkov checked and Matusow made a small bet at the pot. Puchkov thought for a moment before calling. The turn, 3h, was interesting. It put both a potential straight and flush on the board. This time, Matusow overbet the pot when Puchkov checked. Puchkov, with only a little more than 400,000 chips left, pushed all in.

“I could be just stone dead here,” Matusow said. The problem was, he was pot committed. He put in the call and when Puchkov turned over his hand, Matusow let out a quiet, “Baby. Oh, baby.” Puchkov had outs, but couldn’t catch. The river was the 8h and Puchkov exited in sixth place earning $103,280. Matusow regained the chip lead and continued his never ending collection of trash talk.

The next big pot, though, would return Saul to the camera. After coming in for a raise with AdQd, he faced a huge decision. Schleger pushed in for more than one million chips. The over-raise confused Saul to no end. He said he could fold to nearly anyone at the table, but had so much history with Schleger, he wasn’t sure what to do.

“I don’t care,” Schleger said. “Just call or fold.”

Saul chose to call. When Schleger flipped over his AhKs, Saul winced. “Damn it. Thought it was jacks.”

The board offered Saul no help and he shipped more than a million ships to the man people call Shaniac.

“Nice hand, Shane.” Saul said. He remembered it had not been so long since Schleger put him back in the game. “One courtesy double-up deserves another.”

From there forward, it seemed Saul could do no wrong. If he missed the flop, he caught on the river. If his opponents raised, he re-raised with air and took control. And finally, when shortstacked Eric Panayiotou moved all in with JsTs, Saul woke up in the big blind with AsKc. Saul made the easy call and flipped over his hand. In the stands, his mother cheered.

“I haven’t won yet, Mom,” Saul said.

And he was right. A ten fell immediately on the flop. Then Panayiotou picked up a spade draw on the flop.

This, however, was Saul’s day. The river could not have been anything but an ace—the ace of diamonds. Eric Panayiotou finished in fifth place and earned $154,920.

If the oddsmakers had been at work, they would’ve picked the final four perfectly. The four most-seasoned pros remained with the following stacks:

Kevin Saul -- 4,263,000

Mike Matsusow – 3,612,000

Shane Schleger – 1,677,000

Danny Wong – 1,154,000

Whether Saul could continue his rollercoaster ride to the championship was still a matter for the future though. And it’s something we won’t learn until Part 2 of the WPT Bellagio Cup III.