Some of the greatest icons of the poker game were involved in the World Poker Open which started on 19th January, 2006, and lasted till the 23rd of the same month, comprising of 5 days in total.

327 people entered the contest, where the total prize pool was a big amount of $3,270,000. The contenders of the season would go on to join WPT Championship that has many veterans in the list. The competition was evenly contested, and the list of winners with their seats, payoffs and total points is summarized below.

Scotty Nguyen won the event, with a payout of a whopping $969,421, and Michael Mizrachi finished in second, getting a handsome amount of $566,352.

Raul Paez occupied the third seat, getting $298,908 as his payout, while Gavin Smith got $173,052 points.

The fifth and the sixth seat were occupied by An Tran and Bau Le for a payout of $125,856 and $88,099 respectively.

Scotty Nguyen claimed that he would surely win the game even before the start, but that seemed debatable with Nguyen just escaping defeat and surviving mainly due to his good fortune. Again, verbal calls by Scotty during the game raised some eyebrows as well.

Bau Le being an amateur was outdone by Raul later in the game. A few moments into the game which was closely monitored and contested, An Tran found that he was in the driver’s seat and could manage things his way.

Mizrachi and Raul, though, gave tough competition, and didn’t allow Tran to escape to victory so easily. After Smith and Paez were threatened, Scotty regained control over the game. He bluffed Mizrachi who was giving him some touch calls to be right in the game. Ultimately, Scotty did secure the first place, but he openly declared to the world that Mizrachi was a great player, and this game proved that he could give any pro in the game a run for his money.

- Thomas Hardy