2004 World Series of Poker
Encyclopedia
The 2004 World Series of Poker
(WSOP) was held at Binion's Horseshoe
after Harrah's Entertainment
purchased the casino and the rights to the tournament in January. Harrah's announced that future WSOP tournaments will be held in a moving circuit of member casinos.
World Series of Poker
The World Series of Poker is a world-renowned series of poker tournaments held annually in Las Vegas and, since 2005, sponsored by Harrah's Entertainment...
(WSOP) was held at Binion's Horseshoe
Binion's Horseshoe
Binion's Horseshoe, also known as the Horseshoe Casino or simply The Horseshoe, was a hotel and casino located in downtown Las Vegas, Nevada on what is now the Fremont Street Experience. The casino was named for its founder, Benny Binion and had 366 rooms, three restaurants and a rooftop pool.The...
after Harrah's Entertainment
Harrah's Entertainment
Caesars Entertainment Corporation is a private gaming corporation that owns and operates over 50 casinos, hotels, and seven golf courses under several brands. The company, based in Paradise, Nevada, is the largest gaming company in the world, with yearly revenues $8.9 billion...
purchased the casino and the rights to the tournament in January. Harrah's announced that future WSOP tournaments will be held in a moving circuit of member casinos.
Preliminary events
| Number | Event | Winner | Prize | Runner-up |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $500 Casino Employee's Limit Betting (poker) In the game of poker, the play largely centers on the act of betting, and as such, a protocol has been developed to speed up play, lessen confusion, and increase security while playing... Hold'em |
Carl Nessel Carl Nessel In 2004, Carl Nessel, aka Coach, was a 57 year old retired fire fighter and part time poker tournament employee who won a bracelet in the Casino Employees Championship event at the World Series of Poker. Prior to the 2004 WSOP, Coach was a regular poker player around Thousand Oaks, CA and worked... |
$40,000 | Cory Pocket |
| 2 | $2,000 No Limit Betting (poker) In the game of poker, the play largely centers on the act of betting, and as such, a protocol has been developed to speed up play, lessen confusion, and increase security while playing... Hold'em |
James Vogl | $400,000 | Shawn Rice |
| 3 | $1,500 Seven Card Stud | Ted Forrest Ted Forrest Ted Forrest is an American professional poker player, currently residing in Las Vegas, Nevada.- Tournament Wins:... |
$111,440 | Chad Brown Chad Brown (poker player) Chad Lewis Brown is an American actor, poker player and color commentator, based in Los Angeles, California.-Early life & acting career:... |
| 4 | $1,500 Limit Hold-em | Aaron Katz | $234,940 | Richard Gardner-Brown |
| 5 | $1,500 Omaha Hi-Lo Split | Curtis Bibb | $160,000 | Paul Phillips Paul Phillips (poker player) Paul Phillips is an American entrepreneur and poker player.-Programming:Phillips wrote the Boa web server while attending the University of California, San Diego, but no longer maintains it... |
| 6 | $1,500 Pot Limit Betting (poker) In the game of poker, the play largely centers on the act of betting, and as such, a protocol has been developed to speed up play, lessen confusion, and increase security while playing... Hold'Em |
Minh Nguyen Minh Nguyen Minh Nguyen is a Vietnamese American professional poker player is a two-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner, residing in Bell Gardens, California.... |
$155,420 | Lorne Persons |
| 7 | $1,000 No-Limit Hold'Em | Gerry Drehobl | $365,900 | John Juanda John Juanda Johnson "John" Juanda is a Chinese Indonesian professional poker player based in Marina del Rey, California. Juanda lives in Los Angeles.-Personal life:... |
| 8 | $2,000 Pot Limit Omaha | Chau Giang Chau Giang Chau Tu Giang is an American professional poker player of Chinese descent, who is a three time World Series of Poker bracelet winner and a three time final tablist of the World Poker Tour with over $3 million in live tournament winnings alone.- Biography :Giang fled Vietnam in a small boat in the... |
$187,920 | Robert Williamson III Robert Williamson III Robert Williamson III is an American poker player from Dallas, Texas.Williamson grew up with three sisters and his best friend, Chris Caywood in Granbury, Texas and received B.B.A. degrees in finance and real estate from Angelo State University in San Angelo.He began playing aged 10 or 11, after... |
| 9 | $1,500 No Limit Hold 'Em | Scott Fischman Scott Fischman Scott Fischman is an American professional poker player based in Las Vegas, Nevada.Fischman grew up in South Jersey and moved to Las Vegas at the age of 12. He was introduced to poker by a schoolfriend and went on to become a poker dealer at the Sahara and the Mirage... |
$300,000 | Joe Awada Joe Awada Joe Awada is a professional poker player, based in Las Vegas, Nevada.Awada moved from Lebanon to the United States in his early teenage years, working as a juggler, eventually touring with the Harlem Globetrotters... |
| 10 | $2,000 Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo Split | Cyndy Violette Cyndy Violette Cyndy Violette is an American professional poker player who won a World Series of Poker bracelet in 2004.-Early life:... |
$135,900 | Pete Kaufman |
| 11 | $2,500 Limit Hold'Em | Eli Balas Eli Balas Eli Balas is an American professional poker player, based in Las Vegas, Nevada.Balas has won 3 bracelets at the World Series of Poker . He has also finished 2nd in 5 WSOP preliminary events.... |
$174,440 | Steve Shkolnik |
| 12 | $2,000 H.O.R.S.E. | Scott Fischman Scott Fischman Scott Fischman is an American professional poker player based in Las Vegas, Nevada.Fischman grew up in South Jersey and moved to Las Vegas at the age of 12. He was introduced to poker by a schoolfriend and went on to become a poker dealer at the Sahara and the Mirage... |
$100,200 | John Cover |
| 13 | $5,000 No Limit Hold'Em | Thomas Keller Thomas Keller (card player) Thomas Keller is an American professional poker player, residing in Scottsdale, Arizona and Las Vegas, Nevada. He is the brother of Shawn "Lightning" Keller.... |
$382,020 | Martin De Knijff Martin De Knijff Martin de Knijff is a professional sports bettor and high-stakes poker player from Gothenburg, Sweden.His last name is from his Dutch father. His mother is Swedish... |
| 14 | $1,500 Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo Split | Hasan Habib Hasan Habib Hasan Habib is a Pakistani American professional poker player.During his early years in Pakistan, Habib was the Pakistan 14-and-under National Tennis Champion. Habib went to America at the age of 18 to study business at the University of Redlands. He also once owned a nationwide chain of video... |
$93,060 | Tommy Polk |
| 15 | $2,000 Limit Hold' Em | Daniel Negreanu Daniel Negreanu Daniel Negreanu is a Canadian professional poker player. He has won four World Series of Poker bracelets and two World Poker Tour Championship titles. He is currently ranked second in the all-time career earnings list and is the star of poker game show Million Dollar Challenge. He plays a big... |
$169,100 | Chris Hinchcliffe |
| 16 | $5,000 No-Limit Deuce to Seven Draw Draw (poker) A poker player is drawing if they have a hand that is incomplete and needs further cards to become valuable. The hand itself is called a draw or drawing hand. For example, in seven-card stud, if four of a player's first five cards are all spades, but the hand is otherwise weak, they are drawing to... |
Barry Greenstein Barry Greenstein Barry Greenstein is a professional poker player. He has won a number of major events, including three at the World Series of Poker and two on the World Poker Tour. Greenstein donates his profit from tournament winnings to charities, primarily Children, Incorporated, earning him the nickname "the... |
$296,200 | Chris Ferguson Chris Ferguson Christopher Philip Ferguson is an American professional poker player. He has won five World Series of Poker events, including the 2000 WSOP Main Event, and the 2008 NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship. On September 20, 2011, the U.S... |
| 17 | $1,500 Limit Hold 'Em Shootout | Kathy Liebert Kathy Liebert Kathleen H. Liebert is an American professional poker player.- Poker :Liebert started her professional poker career as a prop player in Colorado... |
$110,180 | Kevin Song Kevin Song Kevin Song is a Korean-American professional poker player from Hacienda Heights, California who started playing poker since 1980 and began playing in poker tournaments since 1994 where he has cashed in many of them throughout his poker career, among them are over 20 cashes at the World Series of... |
| 18 | $1,500 No-Limit Hold 'Em Shootout | Phi Nguyen Phi Nguyen Hung "Phi" Nguyen is a Vietnamese-American professional poker player who is a two time World Series of Poker bracelet winner with multiple live tournament results adding up to over $1.5 million in career earnings.- World Series of Poker :... |
$180,000 | Kirill Gerasimov Kirill Gerasimov Kirill Gerasimov is a Russian professional poker player.Gerasimov worked as an insurance salesman in Moscow, and started entering poker tournaments throughout Europe in 2001... |
| 19 | $2,000 Omaha Hi-Lo Split | Annie Duke Annie Duke Annie Duke is a professional poker player and author who won a bracelet in the 2004 World Series of Poker $2,000 Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better Event and was the winner of the 2004 World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions, where she earned the Winner-Take-All prize of $2,000,000... |
$137,860 | Ron Graham |
| 20 | $1,000 Ladies Limit Hold 'Em | Hung Doan Hung Doan Hung Doan is an American player and a World Series of Poker bracelet winner.She was a World Series of Poker champion in the 2004 $1,000 Ladies - Limit Hold'em event.As of 2008, her total WSOP tournament winnings exceed $$65,515.... |
$58,530 | Millie Shiu |
| 21 | $2,000 Pot Limit Hold 'Em | Antonio Esfandiari Antonio Esfandiari Antonio Esfandiari is a professional poker player, known for his elaborate chip tricks.-Early life:When he was 9 years old his family moved to San Jose, California... |
$58,530 | Phi Nguyen |
| 22 | $5,000 Omaha Hi-Lo Split | Brett Jungblut Brett Jungblut Brett Jungblut is an American professional poker player, born in Atlantic City, New Jersey and based in La Jolla, California. With only one class left to graduate college, Jungblut left school to pursue his dream as a professional poker player.... |
$187,720 | John Cernuto John Cernuto "Miami" John Cernuto is an American professional poker player based in Las Vegas, Nevada, specialising in Omaha hi-lo events.-Early years:... |
| 23 | $1,500 No Limit Hold'em | Ted Forrest Ted Forrest Ted Forrest is an American professional poker player, currently residing in Las Vegas, Nevada.- Tournament Wins:... |
$300,300 | Susan Pritchett |
| 24 | $5,000 Seven Card Stud | Joe Awada Joe Awada Joe Awada is a professional poker player, based in Las Vegas, Nevada.Awada moved from Lebanon to the United States in his early teenage years, working as a juggler, eventually touring with the Harlem Globetrotters... |
$221,000 | Marcel Luske Marcel Lüske Marcel Lüske is a Dutch professional poker player. He finished 10th in the 2004 WSOP main event and as of 2009, his total live tournament winnings exceed $3,700,000 USD... |
| 25 | $3,000 Pot Limit Hold'Em | Gavin Griffin Gavin Griffin Gavin Griffin is an American professional poker player. He attended Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas.... |
$270,420 | Garry Bush Garry Bush Garry "The Whacker" Bush is an English professional poker player based in London.Bush started off as a cash game player in North London, but turned to tournaments in the late 1990s... |
| 26 | $1,500 Seven Card Razz Razz (poker) Razz is a form of stud poker that is normally played for ace-to-five low . The object of Razz is to make the lowest possible five-card hand from the seven cards you are dealt. In Razz, straights and flushes do not count against the player for low, and the ace usually plays low... |
T. J. Cloutier T. J. Cloutier Thomas James "T.J." Cloutier is a professional poker player from Richardson, Texas. He was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 2006.-Early years:... |
$90,500 | Dutch Boyd |
| 27 | $1,000 Deuce to Seven Triple Draw Draw (poker) A poker player is drawing if they have a hand that is incomplete and needs further cards to become valuable. The hand itself is called a draw or drawing hand. For example, in seven-card stud, if four of a player's first five cards are all spades, but the hand is otherwise weak, they are drawing to... |
Farzad Bonyadi Farzad Bonyadi Farzad "Freddy" Bonyadi is an Iranian professional poker player based in Aliso Viejo, California, who has won 3 World Series of Poker bracelets.... |
$86,980 | Trung Ly |
| 28 | $1,000 Seniors No-Limit Hold'em | Gary Gibbs | $136,960 | Carl McKelvey |
| 29 | $5,000 Limit Hold 'Em | John Hennigan John Hennigan (poker player) John Hennigan is an American professional poker player from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, who, in his career, has won two World Series of Poker bracelets and a World Poker Tour title.... |
$325,360 | An Tran An Tran An Tran is a Vietnamese-American professional poker player, now living in Las Vegas, Nevada.Tran began playing poker in the mid-1970s and first finished in the money of a World Series of Poker event in 1989 in the $2,000 no limit hold 'em event... |
| 30 | $3,000 No-Limit Hold'em | Mike Sica | $503,160 | John Kabbaj John Kabbaj Jean-Michel Kabbaj is an English professional poker player, referred to by The Hendon Mob as their unofficial fifth member.-Before poker:Kabbaj quit school at the age of 16... |
| 31 | $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha | Ted Lawson | $500,000 | Lee Watkinson Lee Watkinson Lee Watkinson is an American professional poker player, originally from Longbranch, Washington.At the 2004 World Series of Poker , Watkinson finished 2nd in the $5,000 pot limit Omaha event... |
| 32 | $1,500 A-5 Draw Lowball Lowball (poker) Some forms of poker, often called lowball, sometimes called low poker, reward poor poker hands . There are four common variations on this idea, differing in whether aces are treated as high cards or low cards, and whether or not straights and flushes are used. The methods are:* Ace-to-five low:... |
Norm Ketchum | $84,500 | Barry Greenstein Barry Greenstein Barry Greenstein is a professional poker player. He has won a number of major events, including three at the World Series of Poker and two on the World Poker Tour. Greenstein donates his profit from tournament winnings to charities, primarily Children, Incorporated, earning him the nickname "the... |
Main Event
There were 2,576 entrants to the main event - more than three times the number of the previous year. Each paid $10,000 to enter what was the largest poker tournament ever played in a brick and mortar casino at the time. Many entrants, including the overall winner, won their seat in online poker tournaments.Final table
| Place | Name | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Greg Raymer Greg Raymer Gregory Raymer nicknamed "Fossilman," is a professional poker player. He is best known for winning the 2004 World Series of Poker Main Event.-Early life:... |
$5,000,000 |
| 2nd | David Williams David Williams (card player) David Anthony Williams is a professional poker player and popular Magic: The Gathering player.-Personal life:Williams was born in Arlington, Texas. He briefly attended Princeton University before switching to study economics at Southern Methodist University... |
$3,500,000 |
| 3rd | Josh Arieh Josh Arieh Joshua Arieh is an American professional poker player. Arieh has been competing in poker competitions since 1999... |
$2,500,000 |
| 4th | Dan Harrington Dan Harrington Dan Harrington is a professional poker player, best known for winning the main event world championship at the 1995 World Series of Poker. He has earned one World Poker Tour title, two WSOP bracelets, and over six million dollars in tournament cashes in his poker career... |
$1,500,000 |
| 5th | Glenn Hughes | $1,100,000 |
| 6th | Al Krux Al Krux Al Krux is an American professional poker player now based near Syracuse, New York.Before turning to poker, Krux was a diamond merchant... |
$800,000 |
| 7th | Matt Dean | $675,000 |
| 8th | Mattias Andersson | $575,000 |
| 9th | Michael McClain | $470,400 |
Other High Finishes
NB: This list is restricted to top 30 finishers with an existing Wikipedia entry.| Place | Name | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 10th | Marcel Lüske Marcel Lüske Marcel Lüske is a Dutch professional poker player. He finished 10th in the 2004 WSOP main event and as of 2009, his total live tournament winnings exceed $3,700,000 USD... |
$373,000 |
| 15th | Eddy Scharf Eddy Scharf Eduard "Eddy" Scharf is a German professional poker player best known for winning two World Series of Poker bracelets.... |
$275,000 |
| 17th | Gary Jones Gary Jones (poker player) Gary Herbert "The Choirboy" Jones is a professional poker player from Stafford, Staffordshire, England. He is also a regular color commentator on The Poker Channel.... |
$175,000 |
| 18th | Harry Demetriou Harry Demetriou Charidimos Demetriou is a British poker player.-World Series of Poker:Demetriou first became known in poker circles for his 3rd place finish at the $2,000 no limit Texas hold 'em tournament at the 2002 World Series of Poker won by Layne Flack... |
$147,500 |
| 26th | Chris Ferguson Chris Ferguson Christopher Philip Ferguson is an American professional poker player. He has won five World Series of Poker events, including the 2000 WSOP Main Event, and the 2008 NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship. On September 20, 2011, the U.S... |
$120,000 |