North American Poker Championship - Season 5
- Oct 29, 2006
Canada, shuffle up and deal! The newest addition to the World
Poker Tour’s lineup made a big splash in Ontario, Canada
when the beautiful Niagara Fallsview Casino Resort hosted
the first annual North American Poker Championships.
497 players turned out for the $10,000 buy-in, no-limit hold’em
championship event; Canada’s first, providing new evidence
of tournament poker’s increasing popularity. The biggest
name at the final table, and coincidentally the only non-Canadian,
was tournament pro John Juanda, who managed a 5th place finish
after entering the final table as the short stack.
In the end, the day belonged to Soren Turkewitsch, who defeated
Jason “Big Bird” Sagle in a heads-up match that
could have easily gone either way. Sagle fell victim to a
four-outer that gave Turkewitsch an inside straight, and a
commanding chip lead. Turkewitsch landed a $1,225,920 payday
and a coveted World Poker Tour title.
John Lam, James Worth and Marc Karam filled out the final
table.