Tournament Details

Play started with antes at $2,000 and blinds at $6,000 and $12,000. James Tippin and Barry Greenstein squared off when Tippin limped with wired J's, but Greenstein found Ah-Kh, raising him $300,000. Tippin called, but after a flop of K-T-3 rainbow, Greenstein went all in and forced Tippin to fold with half his chips in. After that, Tony Hartman went all-in with Ad-Js, but he ran into Randy Jensen, who called Hartman's raise when he found Ah-Qd. When the board came As, Kd, Kh, Tc, 8h, Tony left the building in 6th place with $120,927, giving Jensen the chip lead.

Jensen marched ahead with Js-Ts, and steamrolled Chip Reese, holding Ac-Tc, into mucking the dominating hand when the board came Qh-8s-4h-4c-6c, and Jensen raised $50,000 on the river. Emboldened, Jensen limped on the button with 8c-3c, and found himself heads up with Greenstein who called with Ks-7d. When the flop came Kc-8s-7s, Randy checked, and found himself in trouble when Greenstein decided to slow-play his top and bottom pair, raising $30,000. When As came on the turn, Barry checked to Jensen, who raised $40,000 and was quickly called. 4d on the river brought another check from Greenstein, and Randy paid him off with a hefty $120,000 raise.

Jensen tried to steal with 9-3 offsuit, but Reese and his pocket 8's stood up to him when the flop and turn helped neither of them. The trend continued when Greenstein mixed up his play, taking Kc-2h out of position against Jensen's Qs-Js. When the flop came Q-9-8, all clubs, Jensen settled for calling a smallish $50,000 raise. After a 7h at the turn brought check-check, Jensen ran into big trouble when the river came Tc, making his straight, but also making Greenstein's flush. Once again, Jensen made a donation to Charity, paying off Barry's $150,000 raise, and giving Greenstein the chip lead at 1.3 million.

Can Kim Hua, yet to find a hand he felt like playing, finally emerged from the weeds, going all-in for $232,000 with Ah-Tc. He picked a bad time, running aground on the shoals of Jensen's pocket T's. When the board brought no ace, Hua headed back home to Los Angeles in 5th place, $155,477 richer. Tippin seized the opportunity to make some noise, coming in hot with As-Qd, announcing before the flop that this was "the best hand I've had." Greenstein wasn't convinced, raising $100,000 with Ac-9d, only to have James make him a believer when he went right back over the top, all-in. Tippin rolled on, next finding Kc-6c. Jensen was the small blind with Jh-9s, and when the flop came 9c-6h-4c, Tippin raised $100,000 on a semi-bluff. Jensen re-raised $200,000, Tippin went right back over the top, all-in, and this time it was Jensen who mucked the best hand, dropping down to third chip position with a little more than a million.

Chip Reese hadn't seen too many opportunities to build up his stack, and to make matters worse, immediately after the antes and blinds went up to $2,000, $10,000 and $20,000, he was struck down by a stone bluff from Greenstein. As the short stack now, with just under $300,000, he picked the wrong time to go all-in with Ks-5s. Tippin called with Qc-Qd, and then Greenstein went all-in over the top of both of them, with Ad-Kd! As an overjoyed Randy Jensen watched from the sidelines, the board went Ah-Kh-6c-8d-As, knocking out two players with four left, a first for the WPT. Chip went to the rail in 4th place with $207,304, and Tippin joined him in 3rd with $328,230.

Down to heads up play now, the battle for nearly $1,300,000 went into high gear. After battling back and forth for some time, Jensen tried a favorite strategy: table talk intended to disrupt Barry's play. But the unflappable former software programmer was unaffected, even after laying down a pair to a stone bluff, and even after Jensen showed it to the audience, rubbing it in. "Show some guts and build some big pots," Jensen crowed, finding Jh-9d on the next hand. But when Greenstein obliged and went all-in with Ad-Qc, Jensen could only lay it down. After trading hands on alternating all-in bluffs, Jensen flummoxed himself, missing the correct bet for the third time of the day while he was busy chip-chattering. Holding 7s-4s to Greenstein's Qd-Tc, he was called. The flop came Td-4c-3d and Jensen picked the wrong moment to move all-in. Barry called smooth, and when the board went 9c, Ah, he had won a massive first place cash-out of $1,278,370, and a coveted $25,000 seat to the WPT Championship. Jensen walked away with an excellent 2nd place money of $656,460, scratching his head at what might have been. Arts and Miseries, indeed...

This tournament is included in the World Poker Tour Season Two DVD Collection. Special features include commentary by Phil "The Unabomber" Laak, Antonio Esfandiari, Daniel Negreanu and Erik Lindgren.