Tournament Details

The Mirage Poker Showdown kicked off the 5th season of WPT action in fine style. Last season's champion, Gavin Smith, went on to become the WPT player of the year. This season started with six tough, quality players - five pros and one amateur - looking to emulate the congenial Canadian by starting the year with a win. At the start of the final day of play, here's how it looked. In Seat 1, 22 year old Devin Porter, at his second final table, with 961,000 in chips. In Seat 2 Robert Mizrachi, the "Grinder's" older brother and early mentor, with 2,016,000. In Seat 3, crafty British pro Harry Demetriou, with 819,000. In Seat 4, self-professed semi-professional Steve Frederick, the short stack, with 542,000. In Seat 5, Tennessee ticket broker, amateur Stan Weiss, the chip leader with 2,452,000. In Seat 6, young phenom David Williams, with 918,000. Antes and blinds started at 3,000, 15,000, and 30,000.

At the start of play, everyone seemed content to chip away at small pots, and "conservative" was the watch word. But while the others took their turns raking pots, Mizrachi just couldn't get a break. Bluffed and then snapped off on a bluff of his own on consecutive hands, things finally looked up when he found wired Q's in the small blind. Weiss, in the cut-off, made it 190,000 to go. Porter, on the button, re-raised it 440,000 to go, with pocket 3's. Mizrachi pushed all-in for 1,330,000. Weiss wasted no time pushing right back, all-in over the top. Porter was forced to muck, and Mizrachi's eyes rolled heavenward when he saw Weiss flip over the dominators, K's. The flop came J, 9, 8, all clubs, giving Mizrachi the straight flush draw, as well as making him a small favorite to win the hand. But Jh on the turn put Weiss back in the lead, even though Mizrachi still had eight outs. Jd on the river gave Weiss the full boat, and put Mizrachi on the paddle boat to the rail, where he commiserated with brothers Michael and Eric on how cold-blooded the game can be. The $129,476 he took with him for his 6th place finish warmed him up a bit.

With antes and blinds up to 5,000, 25,000, and 50,000, it was Weiss, the one man band with a crushing stack of 4,350,000, outchipping his nearest competitor by 3 to 1. Looking for a spot to get his money in good all day, perennial short stack Steven Frederick picked his spot, and moved all-in with Ac-Ks for 105,000. With the blinds up so high, David Williams was priced in from the big blind, apologizing when he flipped up his paltry holdings, 9h-5s. The flop came As-7d-6h. 9s on the turn brought a few more outs to Williams, and then came the river, a miracle 5c to give him the pot. Dolly Parton ran down Big Slick for a change, and Frederick was philosophical as he strolled to the rail, $166,469 richer, with a 5th place finish. "5 on the river" would prove to be a recurring theme throughout the final table.

After Porter doubled up on Weiss, who's A-Q failed to improve against pocket 6's, Williams got involved in a critical hand with Demetriou. Finding pocket 9's, he popped it to 150,000. Demetriou, though, woke up with J's, and pushed all-in for $1,090,000 more. Williams made the call, but the board offered only a brief whiff of hope on the turn, running out Ks-Th-7h, Qs, 4s. The huge pot bolstered Demetriou, while crippling Williams. Williams, on fumes and steaming, doubled up immediately by calling Weiss's all-in bluff with 7-high and flopping a straight. Porter immediately emulated the desperate short-stack move, with the same result, staving off elimination when his 8-7 offsuit beat Demetriou's suited A-T.

Antes and blinds continued their climb, moving up to 10,000, 40,000, and 80,000, and it seemed to become the Harry and Stan show, as the chip leaders traded jabs. Finally the short stacks got into the action. Action was folded to Williams, in the small blind, with Jh-6d. He decided to strong-arm Porter in the big blind, raising it to $230,000. But Porter, with Kh-3h, decided to defend, and looked him up. It came with help for both, Kc-Jc-Th, unfortunately for Williams, who quickly pushed all-in with middle pair. Porter called, and before he could celebrate his lead in the hand it vanished when the turn came 6h, giving Williams two pair. With the crowd going nuts, Porter looked shell-shocked. But it was Williams whose hopes imploded when the river came Ks, giving the pot to Porter, and sending Willams out, disappointed, in 4th place, with a $221,958 payout. Not exactly the last three players prognosticators would've picked, but that's poker.

Weiss, having dwindled off chips to become the short stack, would have to catch lucky against the two crafty pros, and he did. For a while the three players traded steals and bluffs, with Demetriou maintaining a slight chip lead. Then a key hand broke out. Demetriou, with Td-2d in the small blind, limped, and Weiss checked from the big blind with J-5 offsuit. The flop came Kc-5s-2s. Weiss bet his middle pair, and Demetriou called with bottom pair. The turn came fantasy for Demetriou, 2h, and he trap checked his monster set. Weiss jumped, pushing all-in, and was stunned to see that he was dead to a 5 when Demetriou called. But, continuing a motif, up floated one of the two outs in the deck, 5h on the river.

Porter managed to stay alive for a while, but after Demetriou caught him stealing, he was so out-chipped that even following a double-up and triple-up he was barely ahead of the blinds. Finding Qh-6h, Porter pushed all-in for 165,000. Demetriou called the remaining 45,000, and the flop came Kd-9h-4d. 8h on the turn gave Porter hope for hearts, but Td on the river sealed his fate. The young Utah tyro took home $332,937 for his 3rd place finish.

In heads up play, Demetriou started with the lead, a solid 4,700,000 to Weiss's 3,000,000. But Weiss was not content to play the meek amateur, instead managing to chop into Demetriou's lead with continual aggression, repeatedly stealing blinds and antes. To everyone's surprise, Weiss was now back in the lead, comfortably, 5,480,000 to 2,220,000. And with antes and blinds climbing to 20,000, 100,000, and 200,000, Demetriour was going to be forced to make a stand.

Weiss, on the button with Ks-5d, made it a million to go, forcing the action. Demetriou looked down to find Kh-6c, and decided to play back, hard, pushing all-in for another 2,200,000. Weiss, without a flinch, called, only to find himself dominated and in danger of surrendering the chip lead. The flop came Js-9s-7d, 3s on the turn added the flush draw for Weiss. But as it had come all day, the river delivered up one final 5, the heart, stabbing Demetriou's dreams of a WPT title, and handing it over to Weiss. Demetriou went out in 2nd place with $637,272, with class and a congratulatory shake for the champion. Weiss joined the elite group of WPT champions, netting himself $1,320,255 in the process. Not bad for a $60 investment. Who's next?