After three days of competitive, high level poker playing at the WSOP at Rio in Las Vegas, a prize pool of $730,740 was won by 21 year old, James Mackey of Columbia, MO. Mackey was one of the initial 640 entrants for the $5000 buy-in no-limit Hold'Em championship.
Mackey, a former medicine student at UM, was not long ago positioned in the Prorank 1 at number 3421. Today, he owns a WSOP winner's bracelet. At 21 years and 4 months, he is slightly older than Jeff Madsen and Steve Billrakis, making him the third youngest WSOP player winner in history.
Mackey studied medicine for 2 years at UM, but left in his junior year to play poker. He supported himself for en entire year entirely from his winnings, which reached approximately $25,229. He was supported by a core group of poker players whom he met online, and is well-known in the online gambling community. Although he plans to return to his studies eventually, Mackey is currently focused on improving his poker skills as a professional player.
Event number 22 featured a solid line-up of poker pros, and was broadcasted live over the internet from inside the bluff tent. The seating arrangement and chip counts at the start of play were as follows:
Seat 1: William McMahon - 524,000
Seat 2: Tex Barch - 709,000 (who finished 3rd in the 2005 $10,00 buy-in main event)
Seat 3: Michael Binger - 240,000 (3rd place winner in 2006)
Seat 4: Jan Sorensen - 349,000 (former winner of 2 WSOP gold bracelets at Pot Limit Omaha in 2002 and Seven Card Stud in 2006)
Seat 5: Stuart Fox - 718,000
Seat 6: Maciek 'Michael' Gracz - 534,000 (former winner of 2WSOP gold bracelets at final table with winnings of over half a million dollars)
Seat 7: Karga Holt - 1,211,000
Seat 8: James Mackey - 1,074,000
Seat 9: Nick Schulman - 1,045,000
The lead up to the final table was grueling; the first elimination occurred during the 16th hand, when Michael Gracz moved all in and was called by Mackey, with pocket queens. Gracz tabled nines but when Mackey drew another queen, Gracz had reached the end of the line. This enabled him to build up a significant chip lead.
Two hands later (hand 18), Stuart Fox eliminated Tex Barch, who finished in eighth place. Michael Binger followed suit and soon after kicked out European poker pro Jan Sorensen with pocket tens, who had called all in with pocket aces.
Mackey soon took action once again as he battled it out against Nick Schulman. Mackey raised from the all blind only to have Schulman move all in. Yet when the board was blanked, Schulman's A-5 was too weak for Mackey's A-10, and the 21 year old’s lead was further extended. Schulman left the table with a very rare six figure cheque.
Karga holt had been the chip leader of the game throughout nearly its entirety, yet was taken down in 5th place by Michael Binger. Karga tried a steal with Q-3 off, yet Binger had pocketed Jacks.
It took less than 30 hands for the rest of the game to be decided – one of the fastest tables at this year's WSOP. Mackey chose to look up William McMahon after an all-in push and was behind with 10-7 to McMahon's A-6 off. However he soon found a seven on the flop, and McMahon left the tent in fourth place.
This left Mackey with a 3:1 advantage over the other players. Mackey's A-Q beat Binger's pocket tens, and he was next to be booted out of the game. Binger had went from a commanding 3, to 1 chip lead. From this point, it only took an additional 4 hands to determine the winner.
Stuart Fox found a hand of K-4 to call with, and this beat Mackey’s usual moved all in 10-2. Although the flop missed, the 10 gave Mackey a strong lead, as he was soon to draw another 10. With this Mackey claimed the victory bracelet and a prize pool of $730,740. With his 1st ever WSOP gold bracelet at age 21, it is likely we will be seeing more of Mackey in the near future.
The player earnings of the event were as follows:
1. James Mackey - $730,740
2. Stuart Fox - $448,892
3. Michael Binger - $295,245
4. William McMahon - $194,319
5. Karga Holt - $140,091
6. Nick Schulman - $108,457
7. Jan Sorensen - $81,343
8. Tex Barch - $60,254
9. Michael Gracz - $43,684
