With the turn of the new millennium, poker was ready for a new wave of stars. The exciting finishes in 1997 and ’98 were marked by the old ways of Vegas and rank amateurism, while the ’99 main event was mundane, with the mild-manner, sixty-four year old Noel Furlong hardly making for excellent television. The 2000 event would mark the emergence of a new generation of stars who would define much of the televised poker era.
Old pros Johnny Chan and Jay Heimowitz both won bracelets, with Heimowitz becoming the first to do so in each of the Series’ four decades of play (Only Billy Baxter has joined him since), but this was a Series for the new. Jen Harman won her first bracelet in Deuce to Seven Draw, a game she’d never played before. She was one of a number of remarkable first-time champions.
Howard Lederer, who’d become the youngest player in history to final table of the main event thirteen years earlier, finally won his first. Phil Ivey, twenty-five years old and two years away from one of the great performances in WSOP history, won his first. They were joined by Chris “Jesus” Ferguson, whose seven stud win was just a harbinger of things to come.
Ferguson went on a massive run on the championship’s penultimate day, giving him a massive lead with approximately half the chips in play heading to the final table. While the big story on the final day was author Jim McManus unlikely run to fifth, that was only because Ferguson’s dominance was so complete. He marched through McManus, Hasan Habib and Steve Kaufman en route to a 10:1 lead in the final against TJ Cloutier, considered by many at the time the finest tournament player in the world.
Cloutier wouldn’t go without a fight. He doubled up, then did so again, playing remarkable poker in a stretch that never saw him get his chips in with the worst. The normally unflappable Ferguson was flapped; his hat came off along with the sunglasses and his hair became increasingly messed as Cloutier managed to take the chip lead. Ferguson won one uncontested pot to take the slim lead back before the hand that ended it all.
Chris made an initial raise and Cloutier, hoping for a call, moved all-in with Ad-Qc. This might have been a strange play for TJ if not for Ferguson’s state of mind, which at that point could be described as fragile. This was demonstrated by Ferguson’s questionable call with As-9c. He was dominated.
The flop came Kc-4h-2h, leaving Ferguson with little hope. Kh on the turn gave him a number of outs for the chop, an event that had already saved Ferguson once in the sequence. Fortunately for him, the chop didn’t come; 9h on the river, one of his three outs for the victory, came on the river. No one was more shocked than Ferguson that the championship was his.
“That’s poker” TJ said of his second Main Event final without a win. He hasn’t gotten back since.
Gary Wise
gary@wisehandpoker.com
