The 2005 World Series of Poker begins broadcast tonight on the ESPN Network. The first hour brings you the final table of event #2 (Event #1 was limited to casino employees), a $1,500 buy-in No-Limit Hold'em contest. The second hour will be event #3, a $1,500 buy-in Pot-Limit Hold'em tournament. Enough quality poker action to satisfy the most jaded fan of poker.

The No-Limit Hold'em event features the result of three days of play. A record 2,305 players were seated for the tournament, the second largest crowd (at that time) to do so, right behind the 2004 WSOP main event that attracted 2,576 players. Early into the first day tournament officials realized the event could not be completed in the two days allotted and issued a press release announcing that an extra day would be added. This was a pattern repeated throughout the tournament because of the record numbers of players in every 2005 event. I was there, along with Dr. Pauly, for every hour of every event including this one. Even though the television series compresses it into something less than one hour, there was many hours of very competitive play before the final table was decided. The following roster lists the all-star players making the spotlight. Seat assignment ( ), hometowns and chip counts follow each name:

Allen Cunningham (4), Marina del Rey, California, $728,000
Scott Fischman (2), Las Vegas, $707,000
Charlie Huff (5), Geneva, Ohio, $509,000
Can Kim Hua (7), Rosemead, California, $440,000
An Tran (9), Las Vegas, $337,000
Devilfish Ulliott (3), England, $270,000
Richard Boutwell (1), Duluth, Georgia, ( $204,000
Liz Lieu (8), Los Angeles, $177,000
Randy Edmunson (6), Columbus, Michingan, $89,000

The event had a prize pool of $3,180,900 and offered the winner $725,405 plus a gold 2005 WSOP championship bracelet. Tao of Poker's Pauly live blogged the final table so if you want to know more including the actual details, Dr. Pauly's close-up view and hand-by-hand go to Pauly's Tao of Poker Blog. The complete results can be found at Poker Player Newspaper.

The second hour of 2005 WSOP action tonight will be the final table of the $1,500 buy-in Pot-Limit event #3. Another record crowd of 1071 players began play on the first day. The event collected a prize pool of $1,477,980 paying out $369,545 for first place plus another of the coveted gold WSOP champion bracelets. The final table nine complete with seat assignments and chip counts follows:

Seat 1; Arash Ghaneian 87,000
Seat 2: Ernest Patrick 118,000
Seat 3: Gavin Smith 73,000
Seat 4: Mario Valenzuela 116,000
Seat 5: Pierre Nasr 118,000
Seat 6: Tony Ma 48,000
Seat 7: Thom Werthmann 265,000
Seat 8: David Bach 130,000
Seat 9: Layne Flack 391,000

The final table action was live blogged by Dr. Pauly from his ring side seat at the media table. Complete results of this event can be found at Poker Player Newspaper.