And what makes it even worse is that he is catching hands, big ones...AK...KK...and so on.

Nothing seems to change after dinner. Gold could even win a hand with J-6 and another 6 from the board for only a small pair.

Cool, right after I said that, Cunningham got some from Gold to even things up a little.

Chip counts for the final table on Thursday:

1. Jamie Gold - 25,650,000
   
2. Allen Cunningham - 17,770,000
   
3. Richard Lee - 11,820,000
   
4. Erik Friberg - 9,605,000
   
5. Paul Wasicka - 7,970,000
   
6. Doug Kim - 6,770,000
   
7. Rhett Butler - 4,815,000
   
8. Michael Binger - 3,140,000
   
9. Dan Nassif - 2,600,000

Can't wait for them to announce $1 million dollar blinds by the time the final table gets to heads-up.

The final table is set and they are about to start. Should be a great final.

who are those people. I mean I'm not much into poker, but I know a few players. Never heard of any of them.
But I think I root for Rhett Butler and hope that if he wins he'll climb on the table and cry "As God is my witness, I'll never be hungry again" (and if he goes out he should say "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn")

First elimination already!

Nassif eliminated by Gold with his set of twos.

Cunningham is sitting tight early on, haven't played a hand yet.

I haven't been following thjis year's series much, but still rooting for Cunningham.

Gold ha had some amazing, really amazing luck so far if I look at some of his winning hands.

Okay, check this hand out, this is just wrong and it would make me want to cry:


Hand 20: Three players limp into the pot, including Allen Cunningham, and the big blind checks. The flop comes 8 9 9 and Gold shoots out $1,000,000. Erik Friberg calls, as does Cunningham. Turn comes 5 and Gold and Friberg check to Cunningham, who bets $2 million. Gold calls and Friberg gets out of the way. River comes A. Gold checks and Cunningham bets $2 million. Gold calls with a set of nines and a ten kicker, and Cunningham shows a nine as he mucks. Gold takes a massive pot and Cunningham is down to $10 million.

Jamie Gold, even with his lucky run of cards, has shown his ability to change gears with strong agression but also playing it safe with weak-kicker hands. It is his event to lose. Richard Lee has been playing pretty excellent so far (not to mention his intimidating look) and seems to be a dark horse to win it. Doug Kim is making a lot of moves to increase his chip stack considerably, so he is somebody to watch out for. Allen Cunningham seems to becoming more agressive this round compared to the first round of blinds, it'd be interesting to see if this change pays off. The rest of the players seem to be a lot tighter and could get blinded off, but then again Joseph Hachem was tight in the early stages of the final table last year.

Erik Friberg is eliminated by Gold as well. Three-man race at the moment.

What a call by Cunningham at hand No. 111.

What a fumble by Richard Lee in that hand! Going bust w/ JJ preflop like that despite his 2nd chip position. I'll be very surprised if Gold doesn't get first after this.

I don't fault Lee for going all in there. There are only three hands that can beat pocket J's pre-flop, and he is going for the win, not position. I can see his feeling was if he folds that hand, he might just give up and let Gold bully the table around. Also Gold only re-raised to $4m and didn't necessarily have a hand, and Lee wanted to buy the hand right there instead of waiting for the flop and Gold having a hand like A-K.

Okay, my opinion of Gold has changed now. I first thought that it was all luck but he has made some very savvy calls and made some great reads. I like his style and i was glad to see Cunningham go. He seemed to have this attitude that he was deserving to win because he was "the only pro" left at the table. What a stupid attitude. Let's see, since poker has exploded in popularity, you have Moneymaker, Raymer and Hachem, all winning the main event. All non pros. I often get that feeling from the pros that they feel that they are more deserving to win than amateurs. And I say that is bullshit. Poker is a game of about 70% skill in my mind and about another 30% luck. These guys that are "pros" are just as lucky as the next guy when they play so this holier than thou attitude that some of them display is annoying at times. Good for Gold and Wasicka. Nicely played and I wish them both luck.

Congrats to Gold! He played well with the chip lead, mixing up aggressiveness and timely lay-down to confuse the table on what he had at any given time, and was able to catch high pocket pairs a few times when the opponents moved all in.

Exactly, his lay downs are what's impressed me. He has not gambled too much with his chip lead. The torunament is all but locked up.

Congratulations to Jamie Gold who just won 12 million for first place and to Paul Wasicka who has to go home with a paultry 6 mill. The final hand was Wasicka with wired 10's and Godl Q9..Both players limped preflop and then the flop came Q..8..5...Wasicka bet 1.5 mill, and Gold went all in, Wasicka thought for about 5 minutes and then called....Gold is this years 12 MILLION DOLLAR WINNER!!!!!!! Congrats!!

I disagree with you Baumer...

Poker is about 90% luck... and 10% skill.

If anything, it is the other way around. There is so much skill and math and odds and so on the consider when you play. It is about position and it is about betting. That's why you have three rounds of betting and hole cards that no one can see. If it was more about luck, then you might as well just lay your cards down face up, then flop 5 cards, and the person with the best 7 card hand wins. Luck plays a part no doubt, but no even half of it is luck. Especially in no limit. Limit is more of a bingo game because it is hard to bet anyone out of a hand, but with no limit, you can and that is how many pots re taken.

The only "skill" hold 'em involves is bluffing.

If I have a good hand, I'll play it... then it's all luck of what cards you get.

There are MANY MANY MANY stories of people pulling the LUCKIEST card on the river to win a hand... that my friend, is NOT skill.

What's a good hand though? Sure, lucky cards on the river are bound to happen but its how you play your cards before hand. Poker is a game of position and betting. Bingo is a game of drawing numbers and hoping for the best. Poker is not bingo. A skilled player will beat a lucky player 7 times out of 10.

Jamie Gold's streak of luck was the craziest I've ever seen at a final table catching so many great hands while cold decking his opponents. That said, he did handle himself very well he times he didn't have the best cards, and he was expert at inducing calls/all-ins from worse hands. Well-played and deserving win of the bracelet.

btw, Paul Wasicka's fold of his open-ended straight flush draw where Binger got elminated by Gold was hands-down the worst play of anyone at the final table. If he called, he would have won a three-way poot and obtained more chips than Gold going into heads-up. He definitely deserved to lose to Gold with his poor level of play.