Council Bluffs, Ia. - "Jesus" busted out on the first day.

World-famous poker professional Phil Gordon did, too.

And by the middle of the second day of the three-day, $5,000 buy-in tournament at the World Series of Poker circuit events at Horseshoe Council Bluffs Casino, only one of the 10 Iowans in the tournament remained.

Dave Dicken of Waterloo had outlasted even Jesus - the nickname of poker celebrity and Christian messiah look-alike Chris Ferguson - as the field of 142 poker players was whittled down to 20 at the first World Series of Poker events ever held in Iowa.

Making the final 18 would mean Dicken would receive part of the $688,700 in total prize money for the final and largest tournament in the Council Bluffs' series of events.

But Dicken had, in poker lingo, a "short stack." The 30-year-old, who makes a living playing online poker, had $28,000 in chips. The chip leader, Jeff Banghart of Bennington, Neb., had more than $200,000.

Dicken didn't expect to last much longer.

"I'm not worried about finishing in the money," he said. "I'm looking for first place. But I'm not going to be here much longer."

His prediction was accurate: Dicken, the last Iowan in the event, busted out just before the field was narrowed to 18.

Event organizers and poker players - who came from Iowa and Nebraska as well as from New York, California, Florida and Canada - said the tournament was a success.

The first tournament, with an entry fee of $300, sold out with 531 players. The rest of the events garnered large fields, with a total of 5,000 players buying into the tournaments. The attendance is encouraging for the Council Bluffs casino, and executives said they expect to hold another event next year.

"It's a great event," said Nick Geber, who co-owns a poker media company that will announce today's final table live on Sirius Satellite Radio. "They do these events so people in the region can be part of the World Series instead of dreaming to get to Rio (the Las Vegas casino home of the World Series of Poker) for six weeks in the summer."

The atmosphere in the poker room was subdued for much of Tuesday. Poker chips clicked, cards flew in the air, and poker players remained mostly quiet. About a hundred spectators stood over the players' shoulders and discussed the hands being dealt.

As the tournament wore down toward the final day, some players said they were tired. They had played until midnight the night before, and Tuesday looked like it would last well into the evening.
By REID FORGRAVE