HomePoker News Mike Spegal Wins Event #4 - Gavin Smith Runner up
Mike Spegal Wins Event #4 - Gavin Smith Runner up
Written by Administrator
Wednesday, 06 June 2007
Michael Spegal won $252,290 for first place. He overcame a decisive chip advantage. He was arrived sixth in the chip count going into the final table, versus several top pros. He overcame the odds and won his first gold bracelet in what was his first-ever cash at the WSOP. This is his third year to play at the WSOP.
On this night of his victory, Michael Spegal was celebrating his ninth wedding anniversary. His wife Jeanne sat at ringside and celebrated their win. “She can have the prize money. I’ll take the bracelet,” Spegal joked. ESPN commentator Norman Chad ribbed Spegal during the post-tournament interview, noting “You are the only married man I know of who gets to play poker on his anniversary.” Spegal is 39-year-old former United States Marine. He was born in Newton, IA. He owns an equipment rental and UPS store in southeast Georgia.
Spegal’s poker nickname is “Bob Cat Spegal.”
The final table lasted approximately five hours. The star-studded field guaranteed a full house, which was packed inside the ESPN poker arena at the Rio.
Event #4 Pot-Limit Hold’em Buy-In: $1,500 Number of Entries: 781 Total Prize Money: $1,066,065 Date of Tournament: June 3-6, 2007
Among the players who came up short were former WSOP gold bracelet winner Jon Freidberg and tournament pro Gavin Smith.
Gavin Smith was the runner up. He battled with Spegal for the win, but ended up with a frustrating second-place showing. Smith is widely considered to be one of the best tournament players NOT to have yet won a WSOP gold bracelet. During the heads-up battle with Spegal, Smith delivered the line of the night when he said to his opponent, “Why don’t you start playing like a business man and not like a poker player. Stop it!”
The ninth-place finisher Marco Traniello has the somewhat shadowy status of being married to one of the best poker players in the world, wife Jennifer Harman. However, it is Traniello who has outperformed just about everyone at WSOP over the past two years. Traniello cashed a whopping seven times at the 2005 World Series. He cashed four times in 2006. Now with a cash in this event, Traniello has a combined total of 12 WSOP cashes dating back to the start of the 2005 WSOP. No other poker player has more in this time frame. The sixth-place finisher Dr. Bruce Van Horn is a physician (pathologist) from Ada, Oklahoma. He is most famous for being the runner-up in the 1996 main event to Huck Seed. Dr. Van Horn’s son also played in this event, and cashed. Archie Van Horn took 48th place – good for $4,365.
The most popular area inside the tournament room appears to be the Milwaukee’s Best Light beer garden set up over the poker arena. Spectators can visit the elevated deck and see action on both sides of the room. With tables and chairs for spectators, it may be the only vantage spot in the room to actually watch six tournaments going on all at once, which is what was taking place on this day – two final tables, two Day Twos, and two start-up events.
This was the third WSOP poker event this year to be recorded for broadcast by ESPN. The show is expected to debut sometime in July.
Place Player Prize
1. Michael Spiegel $252,290 2. Gavin Smith $155,645 3. Jon Friedberg $101,276 4. William Hill $67,162 5. Thomas Savitsky $47,973 6. Bruce Van Horn $36,779 7. Eric Lynch $27,718 8. Jeff Langdon $20,255 9. Marco Traniello $14,925 10. John (spyder) McCarthy $10,115 11. Nick Binger $10,115 12. Tony Basile $10,115 13. Stephen Jones $9,050 14. Bill McNamara $9,050 15. Robert Gerstenzang $9,050 16. Javad Navran $7,985 17. Steven Mills $7,985 18. Ken Koski $7,985 19. Mark Wilds $6,921 20. Josh Patterson $6,921 21. Jean-Robert (Bobby) Bellande $6,921 22. Graham Wheldon $6,921 23. Cody Slaubaugh $6,921 24. Frank Margolis $6,921 25. Robert Ziph $6,921 26. Eugene Todd $6,921 27. Jameson Hughes $6,921 28. Robert Thies $5,962 29. Francois Safieddine $5,962 30. Bart Wetsteijn $5,962 31. David Roepke $5,962 32. Robert Ellis $5,962 33. $5,962 34. Andre Webking $5,962 35. Nhan Le $5,962 36. Shannon Puskarich $5,962 37. Matthew Shepsky $5,962 38. Shane Beckham $5,111 39. Zorn Venture $5,111 40. Nick Andricopulos $5,111 41. Gilbert Salas $5,111 42. Ed Giron $5,111 43. Mark Smith $5,111 44. $5,111 45. Kassam (Freddy) Deeb $5,111 46. Keith Tilston $4,365 47. Kirke Rivkin $4,365 48. Archie Van Horn $4,365 49. Wallace Darling $4,365 50. Colin Shattock $4,365 51. Danny Ciaramella $4,635 52. Scott Bohlman $4,365 53. Robert Firestone $4,365 54. Dan Alspach $4,365 55. David Hipperson $3,567 56. Jan Christoph Von Halle $3,567 57. Larry Vickers $3,567 58. Kenneth Auker $3,567 59. Joe Lazaro $3,567 60. Jesse Jamison $3,567 61. Ben Sarnoff $3,567 62. Katja Thater $3,567 63. Ishak Noyan $3,567 64. David Plastik $2,981 65. Nicholas Rosenberger $2,981 66. Lee Kun $2,981 67. Nesbitt Coburn $2,981 68. Derek Tomimoto $2,981 69. Jonathan Snyder $2,981 70. Kevin Manley $2,981 71. Mark Lowe $2,981 72. Jorge Arias $2,981
Poker News 
Michael Spegal won $252,290 for first place. He overcame a decisive chip advantage. He was arrived sixth in the chip count going into the final table, versus several top pros. He overcame the odds and won his first gold bracelet in what was his first-ever cash at the WSOP. This is his third year to play at the WSOP.