WPT Championship at Mirage Won By Stan Weiss

And on the fourth day it came down to a five of diamonds for a first place prize of more than a million dollars. Stan Weiss was holding a King of spades and the five when he declared all-in. Harry Demetriou was holding a King of hearts and a Six of clubs when he decided to call after an hour of heads up play with Stan Weiss who was holding a slight chip lead. Harry was ahead by virtue of a Six and he stayed in the lead when the flop brought a 9d, 9s, Js. The turn was a 3s and Stan was down to catching a spade or a five for the win or anything over a six for a split pot. Lighting struck Harry down when the Five of hearts showed on the river giving Stan a winning pair of Fives and the Championship of the first WPT event of the season. Stan Weiss from Nashville, Tennessee won his seat in the WPT Championship after entering and winning a $50 satellite. His family was in the audience cheering him on then sharing in the victory and the $1,294,755 in winnings. Stan also gets a diamond and gold championship bracelet and a seat in the $25,000 WPT Season Championship at the Bellago in 2007.

Harry Demetriou heads home across the Atlantic to London, England with $673,272 for his second place outing. Devin Porter of Riverton, Utah finished third to bag $322,937. Las Vegas professional David Williams went out in fourth taking $221,958, Steve Federick of San Mateo, California was fifth and received $166,469 while the Grinder's brother, Robert Mizrachi, was eliminated in sixth place and pocketed $129,476.

The final table played six handed for over two hours before the first player was out. Some of the action was of the fast and furious variety but most of the evening the play was solid, cautious...well slow actually, no one taking a risk that could become a fatal mistake. Stan Weiss came into the final table as the chip leader and at one point in the night's play he was the short stack with only a few chips, but he got enough lucky boards to get back into the game and go on to win it all.

This was my first look at the World Poker Tour's new season, new set, new host and new rules for media. The new set is a slimmed down version of its old self, but it does retain some of the polished metal and translucent panel look. Gone is the old squared off stage, replaced by sweeping circles and curves lending the new final table set much more integrated feel, nothing like the disjointed, angled, flat geometry of old. Some of the new lighting appeared to bother the players when they would get a face full of an automated, articulated flood light sweeping around the table.

The latest WPT host, Sabina Gadecki, was doing her first show and my first impression says she's a good choice to replace the departing Courtney. No word yet on why Courtney Friel decided to pursue her happiness somewhere else. Sabina is the third blond in four years to host the WPT Poker Championships.

The media rules are still being worked out and some of the WPT people were actually interested in hearing what members of the media thought. What a concept. Most of us doing the media thing are usually the last consideration for input of any kind.