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 he Guardian Poker Column |
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| Elkan Allan in Las
Vegas writes for the Guardian News Group |
| Thursday July 14 2005
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TheEditor on any
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| Williamson hangs on as big guns move into
place |
There are just 27 players left in the World Series of Poker.
Tiffany Williamson, from London, is one of them
The 5,619 starters
who each paid $10,000 to enter the World Championship Hold'em Tournament at the
World Series of Poker in Las Vegas have been whittled down to 27 players. All
of these will take home at least $304,680, which is what the 27th player who
goes out with.
Easily dwarfing the pay-outs of all other annual sporting
events, the first prize this year will be a cool $7,500,000 (and a gold
bracelet). Second will win $4,250,000, the third $2,500,000 and so on down to a
measly $1,000,000 for ninth.
Most of the famous players who started have
been eliminated. Best-known among those remaining are Mike Matusow, currently
in chip-count first place; Phil Ivey, lying second; and Greg "Fossilman"
Rayner, last year's winner, who recovered from several bad beats to move to
fifth in the chip count last night.
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 The only woman left is Tiffany Williamson, who qualified via a
freeroll tournament at London's Gutshot Club, where her only stake was a buy-in
for ten pounds after she lost her starting chips. If she can maintain or
improve 10 places on her current 19th, she will be only the second female to
make the final table - and Barbara Enright (eliminated early this year) had
only to best 300 players to get there in 1995, before the poker
boom.
Afro-American, she hails from South Carolina but now thinks of
herself as a Londoner, having worked in the City as a corporate lawyer for the
last seven years.
Two other Brits - professional poker player Nick
Gibson from Windsor, who has already spent some of his guaranteed winnings on a
first-class air ticket to bring his wife over to watch him, and Conor Tate,
from Bury, Lancashire, father of seven children and owner of a window-making
factory - were knocked out last night.
However John McCrane, a London
black cab-driver who has been playing for just eight months and who qualified
online, is clinging on in 25th place.
Not only has no English player
ever won The Big One but none has ever even made it to the final table.
McCrane, therefore, is in with a strong chance of creating history for England.
And honorary Londoner Williamson has en even stronger one. |
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