Lake Garner, Former Reality Show Contestant, Earns His Second Gold Ring Victory at Harrah’s New Orleans
The poker world is pretty much divided into two camps, those who like re-buy tournaments and those who don't. Re-buy tournaments are attractive to many players because the prize pools are often two to three times the payout for a conventional freeze out tournament. The larger the number of re-buys, the bigger the prize money is for those who are fortunate enough to cash. The downside to re-buy tournaments is they can be expensive if things go bad. Re-buy tournaments also play differently, especially during the re-buy phase, which typically takes place during the first few levels. With the prospect of re-buys available, many players like to gamble early, and this increases variance, which is already part of the tournament equation.The most recent World Series of Poker Circuit tournament held at Harrah's New Orleans was a No-Limit Hold'em event, with $100 re-buys during the first three levels. The tournament attracted 164 players, which was about the expected number for the midweek start. What blew everyone away was the number of re-buys, a whopping 656 reloads, which amounts to an average of four re-buys per player. On average, most poker re-buy tournaments have 1.5 to 2 re-buys per player. Indeed, to anyone who still doubts the poker action in New Orleans is not among the best in the country, just check out the numbers.
Note -- Video highlights of this tournament can be seen at YouTube here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJHv1X9g2JM
This was the ninth gold ring event of 19 on this year's WSOP Circuit schedule at Harrah's New Orleans. The $300 (+40) buy-in No-Limit Hold'em tournament was played over two consecutive days during May 13th and 14th. The top 18 finishers divided a prize pool totaling $106,206.
The winner was Lake Garner, from Hattiesburg, MS. He won his second WSOP Circuit gold ring, following a victory which also took place here at Harrah's New Orleans in 2007. Garner also won a major tournament held in Mississippi in 2005 and among his many accomplishments has cashed at the WSOP of in Las Vegas.
Garner, accompanied by his wife Michelle who sat near the final table for the duration, became well-known to fans of reality television when they jointly appeared on the popular program, "The Amazing Race." During the 2006 season, they traveled around the country together logging 72,000 miles. The Garners ended up finishing sixth.
This time, the outcome was far better, first place. Garner pocketed $28,144 and received his second WSOP Circuit gold ring. He also took just two re-buys, only half the tournament average.
Also among those who cashed, was two-time WSOP Circuit gold ring winner Johnathan Westra, who ended up with an 11th place finish. After 155 players were eliminated on the first day, final table play began on a Thursday afternoon. New Yorker Sholom Lipszyc arrived at the Final Table with a slight chip advantage over Lake Garner. The remaining seven players were outchipped by 2 to 1 or more. The final table was also notable for the appearance of "Johnny Chicago" Nowak, who was making this third top ten showing and fourth cash so far at this year's Bayou series.
Carl "Spanky" Guillot, an antique dealer from Baton Rouge, LA was the subject of one of the tournament's most interesting storylines. Spanky was down to just a round of blinds when play was with 17 players. He managed to squeak into the money. Then, he nursed a short stack for the better part of two days en route to a stunning second-place finish. Spanky was all-in a number of time at the finale, and managed to survive each time. When heads-up play began, Spanky was down by about a 7 to 1 margin and was offered a deal to take the runner up spot, to which he agreed. Second place officially paid $16,992.
Lake Garner (a.k.a. "Terry Lake Garner"), from Hattiesburg, MS collected the top prize of $28,144 and his second WSOP Circuit gold ring. Garner's previous win came in a $1,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold'em event held in May 2007. Garner has only three career cashes in WSOP Circuit play, but nevertheless also has two victories.
A short interview with Garner and his wife at tableside can be seen at the link posted above
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by Nolan Dalla
posted by Kurt at 10:36 AM
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