The Pokerstars.com Moneymaker Millionaire poker extravaganza culminated
in the final table over the weekend, held at the Atlantis Resort and
Casino in the Bahamas, where the Chris Moneymaker legend of an unknown
player beating formidable opposition was extended by another unfamiliar
player who became a major winner.
An incredible 830 000 players started out in the PokerStars.com freeroll,
with months of play finally culminating in a diverse field of 27 players,
who were flown to the Atlantis Resort and Casino in the Bahamas for
the televised finale. The number 27 was significant, being the age
at which poker celebrity Chris Moneymaker, then an unknown, took the
World Series of Poker crown in 2003.
This weekend an international group of finalists competed for a $1
million prize that included a 2007 Aston Martin DB9. 15 Americans,
10 Canadians, a German and one Slovenian player made the final cut
in a tournament that took five months and three rounds to generate
27 finalists.
Former ballet dancer Quillan Nagel, a 30-year-old grad student from
Ottawa, Canada, took down the final $850 000 pot and the shiny $150
000 car in the end - a surprise winner in a field as diverse as it
was competitive. After a tough 16 hours of play, in a tense final
heads-up Nagel eliminated Jerry Watterson of Florida, calling with
K-5 on what turned out to be a $700 000 Q-T bluff to win the main
prize.
The diversity of the Moneymaker 27 is showcased by some of the other
final table participants: a busboy who won $44 000, a fruit-packing
assembly line worker who won $72 000 and Steve Bazzo, a Subway employee
from Michigan who finished fourth and took home $118 000.
There was no respite in sight for the winner after the tense final,
however - he was on his way back to Ottawa to justify his Master's
thesis in International Affairs last we heard.