Jamie Gold – 2006 World Series of Poker champion

Jamie Gold, a relative newcomer to tournament poker, is the winner of the 2006 World Series of Poker. Gold earned $12,000,000 in the $10,000 No Limit Texas hold’em main event. This win makes Gold the first person to eclipse the $10,000,000 mark in tournament poker. The win came after the elimination of 8,722 other players and almost 16 hours of final table play. Other than Allen Cunningham of FullTiltPoker.com, the 4th place finisher, Gold had more casino tournament final table finishes than the rest of his final table opponents combined.

Jamie Gold’s accomplishments in tournament poker are particularly remarkable since he only began regularly playing poker tournaments in 2005. In April of 2005 Gold won his first major no limit Texas hold’em tournament at the Bicycle Casino, earning $54,225. In the next twelve months, Gold had seven more money finishes in California tournaments, including five at the Bicycle Casino.

It is believed that Gold’s recent and extensive live table experience helped him reach the final table in the WSOP, a large, grueling multi-day event. Another advantage Gold had in the tournament was a significant chip lead from the forth day of the tournament until the end. He held more than 30% of the chips going into the final play. Gold was consistently playing for a portion of his stack against players who had to commit all of their chips.  As you could see from his wardrobe, Jamie was sponsored by BodogPoker in the WSOP main event.

Jamie Gold was borne in 1969 in New York City and was raised in Paramus, New Jersey. Gold comes from a family of card players. His mother was an avid poker player and his grandfather was a championship gin rummy player. Gold earned a bachelor’s degree from the State University of New York at Albany, and later studied entertainment law at UCLA. Gold worked as a talent agent and eventually moved into management and production. Famous clients have included James Gandolfini, Donnie Wahlberg, Lucy Liu, Felicity Huffman and Natasha Henstridge. Gold is currently president of production at Buzznation, and lives in Malibu, California. Gold recently stated that, in spite of his recent success in tournament poker, he plans to continue working at his regular job, and only play poker in his spare time.