Joe Batholdi Bellagio Casino WPT World Poker Champion

April 26, 2006 -Another great world WPT World Poker Championship was turned in at the Bellagio Casino on April 25th. The WPT poker tournament had a record 605 entries.

This in turn led to the largest WPT prize pool in their history at more than $15 million. Further history was made as one lucky $25 satellite poker player won more than a million dollars. Joe Batholdi was crowned the champion and he took home a first prize of $3.76 million and a seat at the 2007 WPT World Championship at the Bellagio casino.

The final hand was delta amidst loud cheering for soon-to-be WPT World Champion, Joe Bartholdi. When asked what he would do with newly earned fortune, Bartholdi replied he would “celebrate for a while”. He also has plans to buy a house and possible head out to the Caribbean with all of his friends. There will of course be plenty of poker in Bartholdi’s future. The WPT World Championship proves that dreams do come true in poker and they are coming true with greater regularity as the poker boom continues to rocket upward. This year’s WPT World Championship had a $25,500 buy-in and top poker players from all over the world were in the field.

The second place finisher, Davidson Matthew, proved you don’t need a fortune to make one. Matthew only spent $25 to get into the WPT World Poker Championship. Matthew rode his satellite buy-in all the way to a seat at the big show. He played great poker during the tournament and his second place finish gave him over $1.9 million in winnings. When asked about his win at the tournament Matthew said, “It’s set me up to play poker. Now if I lose, financially, it just doesn’t matter.” One can only wonder what history next year’s WPT World Poker Championship will produce.