Thursday, Feb. 23, 2006

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$2.4 million L.A. Poker Classic first prize awarded to newcomer

By Lianne Elias

Relative newcomer Alan Goehring beat the world's top players and a slew of poker-playing celebrities to take home $2.4 million at the World Poker Tour (WPT) L.A. Poker Classic $10,000 main event after six days of play today.

Goehring defeated a field of 700 players at the Commerce Casino, in Commerce, Calif., where the No-Limit Hold'em tournament was being held.

Pros who forked over the $10,000 buy-in to compete in the event include Phil Ivey, Men "The Master" Nguyen, Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi, Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth, Jennifer Harman, Barry Greenstein, Antonio Esfandiari, Michael Gracz, Erick Lindgren, Mike Matusow, John Juanda, David Williams, Juha Helppi, Bill Gazes, Chris Bigler, Amir Vahedi, Allen Cunningham, David Plastik, T.J. Cloutier, Scotty Nguyen, and Ted Forrest. Celebrity players who participated include Bodog.com-sponsored actor Shannon Elizabeth, Gabe Kaplan, Los Angeles Lakers owner Dr. Jerry Buss, Jennifer Tilly, and James Woods.

In addition to his massive first place payout, Goehring was awarded a $25,000 seat to the WPT Championships at the Bellagio in Las Vegas this April.

Final table results are as follows:

Place	Name	Prize
1st	Alan Goehring	$2,391,550
2nd	Daniel Quach	$1,162,560
3rd	Michael Woo	$571,315
4th	Steven Simmons	$338,803
5th	JC Tran	$265,728
6th	Per Ummer	$199,296
7th	Anahit Galajian	$166,080
8th	Kevan Casey	$132,864
9th	Michael McClain	$99,648

The total prize pool for the Championship was $6,643,200.

Please see World Poker Tour for further details.

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