New Orleans, LA (December 17, 2009) – John Dolan won the most recent Bayou Poker Challenge tournament held at Harrah’s New Orleans. The $1,000 (+70) buy-in No-Limit Hold’em tournament attracted a strong field of 124 entries. This was the tenth event of 15 on this year’s Bayou Poker Challenge schedule. The two-day tournament generated a prize pool totaling $120,280 – the biggest payout so far of this year’s winter Bayou series.
This marked Dolan’s second major live tournament victory. In September, he won an event at the Gulf Coast Poker Championship. So far this year, he has collected nearly $100,000 in tournament earnings. It took Dolan about six hours of play at the final table to earn his victory. His share of the prize money amounted to $31,874.
Dolan is a 23-year-old full-time poker player from Bonita Springs, FL. He attended Florida State University for two years. He has been playing poker consistently for the past three years and has supported himself with poker winnings for most of the past year. This was Dolan’s biggest cash, to date. He also received a stylish gold ring, similar to the coveted jewelry awarded to most WSOP Circuit winners. The larger buy-in events at this year’s Bayou series include gold rings for the winners.
The tournament’s top 18 finishers (the final two tables) collected prize money. Among those who cashed were former WSOP gold bracelet winner Joe Petro, from Lafayette, LA. The final table included four former WSOP Circuit gold ring winners – including Timothy Miles, Kai Landry, Walter Chambers, and Tyler Smith. Also, Barron Whipple became the first and only player at this year’s Bayou poker series to make it to three final tables. The top ten players were eliminated in the following order:
10th Place – Kenny Milam, a 55-year-old trucking contractor from La Place, LA was the tenth-place finisher. He is a Vietnam veteran and says that he once kissed “Miss Universe” during her reign back in 1971. Milam has previously made it to seven WSOP Circuit final tables. He also cashed ninth in Event #1 earlier at this Bayou series. Milam added $2,706 to his poker bankroll.
9th Place – Kent “Bobby” Buckingham, a 57-year-old attorney from Midland, TX finished ninth. This was his fourth time to cash in a major tournament – including one previous in-the-money finish at Harrah’s New Orleans. Bennett arrived at the final table with a healthy stack (third when final table play began) but was unable to win any key hands. He ended up with a mixed blessing – a disappointing finish considering his early stack size, but a nice payout totaling $3,307.
8th Place – Timothy “Timkrank” Miles, a poker pro from New Orleans, LA ended up with an eighth-place finish. He took a wicked beat on his final hand and was eliminated by a three-outer. Miles has nearly $500,000 in career tournament winnings, including multiple cashes at the WSOP in Las Vegas, and the WSOP Circuit event in New Orleans. He won a gold ring at the 2007 WSOP Circuit stop. Miles started off with an average-sized stack on day two, had his hopes crushed by a bad beat, and ended up with $3,909 in prize money.
7th Place – Kai Landry, a 37-year-old part-time poker player from Biloxi, MS was the seventh-place finisher. Landry won an event earlier this year at the WSOP Circuit event at Harrah’s New Orleans. In fact, he has currently five WSOP Circuit final table appearances and nearly a quarter million in tournament winnings. However, this was not Landry’s day, as he was short-stacked throughout and collected a consolation prize totaling $4,811.
6th Place – Pascal “Frenchy” Boutineau, a 47-year-old car salesman and real estate broker from Houston, TX finished in sixth-place. This was Frenchy’s second time to cash at this year’s Bayou series. He finished seventh in Event #7. He says that he loves playing with friendly poker players. Frenchy received $6,014 for his sixth-place finish.
5th Place – Barron Whipple, whose name sounds like a fictional character right out of a John Grisham novel, finished in fifth place. The Louisiana attorney has now made it to three final tables at this Bayou series. Whipple, who is 64-years-old and lives in Houma, LA picked up another $7,517 in prize money.
4th Place – Tyler Smith, a 22-year-old professional poker player from Smithdale, MS ended up taking fourth place. Smith started off the final table with the chip lead, but faded late. He was short stacked when he played his final hand – which ran into pocket aces. Smith has previous final tables at WPT event in Mississippi and won a WSOP Circuit gold ring in 2008 in New Orleans at one if his first tournaments. Even at a young age, he has already cashed 13 times in majors around the country and seems well on his way to a successful run on the tournament circuit. Smith received a payout totaling $9,622.
3rd Place – Walter Chambers, a 35-year-old business owner from Baton Rouge, LA finished in third place. He came close to winning for the second time at Harrah’s New Orleans. Chambers won the inaugural WSOP Circuit championship back in 2005, which was televised on ESPN. Unfortunately, Chambers ran into some bad luck late in this competition when he moved all-in with a pair of aces, after an ace flopped. But opponent John Dolan had A-8 and flopped two pair, which held up as the winning hand. Chambers, who invested most of the $700,000 he won here in New Orleans five years ago, pocketed another $12,328 in cash.
2nd Place – Bill Dehart, a local part-time poker player from New Orleans, LA, was the runner up. He came close to victory, but missed a flush draw on his final hand and had to settle for second-place status. Dehart was all-in hoping for a heart, but missed. His final adversary, tournament winner John Dolan, ended up dragging the final pot of the night with a pair of queens. Dehart, making his first recorded cash in a live event, accepted a nice payouts totaling $19,244 in prize money.
1st Place – John Dolan, a 23-year-old poker pro from Bonita Springs, FL was the winner. He collected $31,874 and bragging rights for his second official major tournament victory.
The 2009 Bayou Poker Challenge, which is an official World Series of Poker Satellite location, continues for three more days. Coming up will be the Main Event, which runs Friday-Sunday. There will also be one-day special events for ladies and seniors played on Sunday. The tournament series concludes on December 20th. There’s still time to make plans to come to Harrah’s New Orleans and join in the poker action. For more information, please visit: www.harrahsneworleans.com