The 2006 World Series of Poker Main Event remains one of the most well-remembered poker tournaments of all time, in big part thanks to the man who won it, Jamie Gold.
At the age of 37, Gold entered the Main Event as a complete amateur, but his unorthodox approach to the game and incessant table talk took him all the way to the final table, and eventually to the biggest victory of his life.
Gold ascended to the very top of the poker world overnight, but fell out of favor nearly just as quickly, as controversies surrounding the tournament winnings and lavish spending eventually led to the champion allegedly being broke in just a few years.
This is the story of Jamie Gold, one of the most recognizable WSOP Main Event winners and one of the staples of the Poker Boom era that made poker into the game it is today.
Gold Steamrolls the Main Event Through Relentless Table Talk
Jamie Gold entered the World Series of Poker Main Event with very little poker experience compared to most of his peers. A talent agent by day, Jamie had started playing poker in 2005, just a year before he joined the competitive Main Event field.
While he was new to high-stakes poker tournaments, Jamie was already acquainted with some of the big names in the game, such as Chris Ferguson, who was his neighbor prior to the event, and like Jamie’s playing style.
Yet, just being friends with a former World Champion was not enough to make a deep run in the Main, and Jamie had the odds stacked against him, as he had joined the biggest playing field in WSOP history, with 8,773 runners in total.
The massive playing field and the lack of experience would work against Gold, but his incredible confidence and ability to make people do what he wants were his secret weapons.
Starting on Day 1, Jamie never really stopped talking while playing. He would ask players unconventional questions, disclose his cards, and make comments that threw even professional poker players off their game.
At the time, no one expected the approach that Jamie was taking, and it wasn’t just the table talk that made people uncomfortable. Jamie was also incredibly aggressive with his chips, constantly moving all-in and putting players in very tough spots.
Since the Main Event is traditionally a poker tournament that players hate busting out of, Gold’s aggressive playing style paid off, as he steamrolled the first few days, and eventually held a massive chip lead at the end of Day 4.
What’s unusual is that he never struggled from that point on, as his chip stack simply kept on growing, as he eliminated one player after another, steamrolling the field and having tons of fun doing it.
Gold was running like a god, but also making the right plays and forcing his opponents to make mistakes they normally would not have.
At the final table, Gold was up against a field of relatively inexperienced players, although former Main Event champion Allen Cunningham was still in the running.
Gold abused the final table, eliminating seven of his eight opponents, and winning his first WSOP bracelet and $12,000,000 in cash with relative ease.
Some of the table talk and other shenanigans Gold pulled in 2006 are against the rules of tournament poker these days, but 20 years ago, they were all normal parts of the game.
Following his victory, many poker professionals criticized the way Jamie played and attributed his victory to pure chance more so than great play.
Yet, some of what Gold was doing certainly worked as well, as he was able to crawl under people’s skins and get players to make expensive unforced errors time and time again.
With just one tournament poker victory before the 2006 Main Event, Jamie Gold was now a World Champion of poker, but he would soon face problems that eventually led to his downfall.
Main Event Winnings Brought Into Question
In the immediate aftermath of the 2006 WSOP Main Event, information came out that Gold had made a deal with online poker operator Bodog Entertainment to recruit players to play with their logos, while Bodog would pay for Gold’s entry into the Main Event.
Gold had apparently taken this deal and gotten help from Crispin Leyser in recruiting players for Bodog’s cause. In return, Gold agreed to pay Leyser half of his Main Event winnings.
Now that Gold had won $12,000,000, Leyser wanted his share, and since the champion wasn’t prepared to pay, Leyser sued him in August of 2006. The judge froze one-half of Jamie’s payout until a verdict was made.
The two settled the case outside of court before a judgment could be passed, which indicated that Gold and Leyser did have some sort of a deal in place before the Main Event.
The exact numbers were never disclosed, but it was later suggested that Gold had other debts and partners to worry about, making his seemingly massive win far less impressive when all was said and done.
Did Gold Really Lose It All?
Winning the WSOP Main Event had made Jamie Gold a poker celebrity, and in the years following his victory, he was invited to poker shows and games all over the country and the world.
Namely, Gold participated in TV poker shows like High Stakes Poker and Poker After Dark, where the stakes were much higher than the $10,000 buy-in for the Main Event, and the opponents were far more fierce.
Gold lost big on High Stakes Poker, and was eventually losing in private and public games all over the country as well, while also gambling on pit games and spending more than he could afford.
The exact accounting was never made clear, but in 2013, Jamie Gold put his Main Event bracelet up for auction, eventually selling it for just over $65,000.
A man who had won millions just ten years earlier was now selling a valuable piece of WSOP memorabilia for a fraction of the prize money, indicating the years had not been too kind to him in a financial sense.
Many claims were made by people in the poker world that Gold had lost it all and was completely broke, and while this was not confirmed, the story of his ascent and decline is one that young poker players should certainly take seriously.
Where Is Jamie Gold Today?
Despite all the troubles he encountered over the years, Jamie Gold never disappeared from the poker world, nor did he stop being the fun-loving character we all met in 2006.
Jamie’s appearances in poker tournaments were sporadic over the years, but he would emerge every so often to remind the poker world that he was still around.
Gold kept playing the Main Event and a limited schedule of other WSOP events most years in the hopes of repeating his success, or at least coming close to it.
Yet, despite all his efforts and more than two decades in the game, Gold only accumulated about $600,000 in tournament winnings away from his big scoop, which is likely an indicator that his Main Event win had more to do with chance than good play.
Jamie Gold remains an important figure in the poker world and was even asked by the WSOP to announce the historic “shuffle up and deal” for a record-breaking Main Event in 2023.
While his presence in the poker world is still felt to this day, the $12,000,000 first-place prize was enough to turn Gold into a far greater success than he became, which serves as another reminder of the volatility of poker and the importance of proper bankroll management.
