2006 WSOP Winner Jamie Gold
Written January 31, 2008 by Jack Jones
Jamie Gold won the Main event at the 2006 World Series of Poker, dominating the largest field that was ever entered into the history of the WSOP. He was the chip leader for the final four rounds of the event, which due to the large field lasted for the entire week.
Jamie Gold is from Malibu, California, was sponsored by BodogLife, and used to be a Hollywood agent. He amassed a huge chip lead during the first eight days of the tournament. When he got to the final table he had ammassed $26,650,000 in chips, good for $8.88 million more than his closest competitor.
Gold had held the tournament’s lead since last Friday, when he won the first pot of the day the quickly knocked out Dan Nassif right after. That was only a preview of the domination that was to come and after only 14 hours of final table play, he knocked out the rest of the competitors, which included professional Allen Cunningham.
The $10,000 entry into the Main Event was staked by his sponsor, BodogLife. On the last day he competed with eight other players who were left standing out of the original field of 8.773 and he won a first place prize of $12 million, the largest in history, plus the gold championship bracelet.
After his big win, Gold said talked about how happy he was, how tough it was to get started, and then how he once he was in control he felt that if he continued to play his style then he would have a great chance at winning his first bracelet. He also wanted to thank his supports, including his friends, family, and the guys at BodogLife.
The win was big for Bodog, who signed Jamie Gold to a two-year endorsement deal that not only included the standard tournament buy-ins and promotional appearances, but also a $1-million television production deal. Gold also was to have his own table on BodogLife, where he will sit frequently to enable other players to take their chances with the defending WSOP champion.
Calvin Ayre, the founder and CEO of Bodog, was obviously happy with this development. He said everyone was proud to have Gold to have on board and they were thrilled with his excellent play throughout the tournament. He thought Gold’s performance was the most dominant that he had ever seen since the WSOP expanded in popularity with the growth of online poker.
There were more than 500 players who qualified for various events at the 2006 World Series of Poker by playing in online qualifiers at Bodog.
Jamie Gold is a 36-year-old former agent who came from Paramus, New Jersey and his list of former clients include: James Gandolfini, Felicity Huffman, Lucy Liu and Brandy. He quit his job as an agent six months before winning the 2006 WSOP to become the head of production at Buzznation, a branded entertainment media and production company based in Los Angeles.
Gold has always been an avid poker player as he grew up in a family of poker enthusiasts. His mother was a longtime player and his grandfather was a gin rummy champion. He plays almost 40 hours a week in the LA card rooms and had amassed almost $100,000 in tournament winnings before his Main Event victory. He learned a lot from his coach, 10-time WSOP champion Johnny Chan. The two of them met on a poker television project and he has been helping Gold refine his game ever since. Chan and Gold’s mother helped cheer him on through the final stages.
The sad news was that Gold’s father, Dr. Robert Gold, couldn’t be there to cheer his son on. He has ALS, aka Lou Gehrig’s Disease, and is confined to his home. Gold plans on using his winnings to help his father live as comfortably as possible.
If you think you have what it takes to be a world champion, then get signed up at one of the poker rooms on this site and start honing your skills for the next WSOP.