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Five-Time WSOP Gold Bracelet Winner Victorious in Caesars Palace Championship

Las Vegas, NV – All great athletes possess intangible qualities. There’s something extraordinary about stars such as Michael Jordan, Joe Montana, and Wayne Gretzsky performing in the prime of their careers. It’s not just that they were winners. Many athletes win championships. It was the way they won which captivated fans everywhere leaving an indelible mark on the consciousness of a generation.

Witnessing the final table of the most recent World Series of Poker Circuit championship at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, one had a sense of absolute inevitability. Like watching Jordan, Montana, or Gretzsky trailing on the scoreboard with the clock ticking, every fan in the house knows the next play is likely to be a score and the champion will pull out a victory. Allen Cunningham may have started his quest for yet another tournament victory ranked seventh in the chip count of the final nine, but all eyes were focused on the phenomenally-talented 31-year-old winner of five WSOP gold bracelets. Indeed, very late in the competition, Cunningham began heads-up play down by a 4 to 1 stack margin. But every spectator packed to the rafters inside Caesars Palace seemed to expect Cunningham’s inexorable fate – yet another championship on his burgeoning resume of poker accomplishments. Only a rare few stars in any sport or field have the capacity to instill such confidence.

This is not to say Cunningham’s victory came easy. To the contrary, the tournament’s runner up -- 24-year-old Ben Fineman -- was an arduous adversary. Facing anyone except a dozen or so players in the world, including Cunningham, Fineman would certainly have been a prohibitive favorite to win the match, given both his talent and massive chip count during most of the five-hour finale. But true champions have a way of displaying their best game under the most extraordinary of circumstances and in that manner Allen Cunningham proved once again why he is so revered by so many as a great tournament player.

The $5,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em championship event was played inside the expansive $10 million tournament facility at Caesars Palace. With poker’s icons looking down from photographs encircling the 63-table room (including Allen Cunningham’s portrait) Caesars has quietly become the venue with Las Vegas’ busiest tournament schedule. With five daily tournaments, and major poker events including the Caesars Classic, NBC’s Heads-Up World Poker Championships, and the WSOP Circuit series each year, Caesars Palace has regained its foothold as a place where history is made.

This year’s main event attracted 334 entrants, making it the largest main event turnout of the 2007-2008 WSOP Circuit season. The strong field also included a whopping 28 former WSOP gold bracelet winners. After 280 players were eliminated on the first day, 54 survivors returned for day two. After 45 more players were eliminated, the final nine continued to play on day three with Ben Fineman holding a commanding chip lead with 828,000 in his stack. In fact, Fineman enjoyed a better than 2 to 1 advantage over every player at the table. Five of the nine finalists were from Las Vegas. Three nations – Japan, Canada, and the United States – were represented. The exact starting chip counts were as follows:

Seat 1: Motoyuki “Moto” Mabuchi 142,000
Seat 2: Kelly “K-Boy” Samson 385,000
Seat 3: Ben Fineman 828,000
Seat 4: Ralph Perry 319,000
Seat 5: Thomas Hover 407,000
Seat 6: Blair Hinkle 382,000
Seat 7: Justin Bonomo 272,000
Seat 8: Allen Cunningham 296,000
Seat 9: Doug Lee 323,900

Opening blinds were 6,000-12,000 with a 2,000 ante.

First place paid $499,069. He also was awarded a seat in the $10,000 buy-in championship event at the Rio Las Vegas, which begins in July. Allen Cunningham proves that in poker, the rich continue to get richer. And those of us watching and cheering will continue to marvel at the talent and flair demonstrated by Cunningham at poker’s highest levels.

Dreamers hope to win. Champions expect to win. Allen Cunningham just wins – and makes it all look too easy. Jordan, Montana, and Gretzsky now have some serious company.

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