Casino: Bellagio Resort and Casino
Location: Las Vegas, NV
Buy-in: $10,000
Entry Fee: $200
# of Players: 312
Prize Pool: $3,026,400
Final Table Date: Oct. 22, 2004
Results:
1. Carlos Mortensen $1,000,000
2. Kido Pham $496,400
3. David Pham $255,000
4. Erik Seidel $165,000
5. Hung La $120,000
6. John Juanda $84,000

The beautiful Bellagio Resort and Casino in Las Vegas played host to the Doyle Brunson North American Poker Championship. With a $10,000 buy-in and over 300 entrants, this tournament set a record for the largest prize pool for any inaugural poker event in history. The prize pool was set at $3,026,400 and some of the world’s finest poker players took their shot at the $1,000,000 first place prize.

This final table can be summed up in one word, unpredictable. Some of the world’s most aggressive players found themselves at the final table. Carlos “El Matador” Mortensen came in as the dominant chip leader with 2,523,000 chips. The next closest was Erik Seidel with just over a million in chips. The fast and aggressive group was topped off with the likes of Thang “Kido” Pham, John Juanda, Hung La, and David “the Dragon” Pham.

Mortensen was muscling his opponents right out of the gate, forcing Hung La to fold several decent hands. Others did get involved with each other, however. After Kido Pham raised preflop, John Juanda moved all-in with Th-Tc. The aggressive Kido had it this time though. He made the call and showed Qs-Qd. The board failed to help Juanda and he was out in 6th place.

Hung La was eliminated in 5th place and on the very next hand, Kido Pham took out another opponent. This time it was the solid pro, Erik Seidel. Seidel would take home $165,000 for his 4th place finish. After David “The Dragon” Pham went out in 3rd place, the unpredictable opponents, Kido Pham and Carlos Mortensen would battle for the title.

The match was short and sweet, however, as Mortensen put the pressure on Kido nearly every hand. Kido’s stack continually took hits until he finally went all-in with Kd-8d only to see Mortensen holding Kc-10c. The board failed to help Kido and Mortensen took down his 1st WPT title.