Kevin Saul Takes the Bellagio Cup III

Filed in archive Tournament News on July 27, 2007

Why schedule a sizable buy in tournament during the World Series of Poker in the same city?

Probably because there are flocks ofhigh stakes players already there! The Bellagio Cup III kicked off its main event the $10,000 No Limit Em' tourney; 535 entries anteing up the buy in made its first prize finisher a millionaire and will be forever on TV as a WPT champion. But, to take on the granddaddy of all poker tournaments (the WSOP Main Event) and be successful with its attendance records, is a sign that poker isn't going away anytime soon.

$1,342,320 was awarded to internet phenom Kevin "BeLOWaBOVe" Saul after out racing Mike "the Mouth" Matusow's straight flush draw with pocket queens while holding a 4-1 chip advantage heads up. Saul had to not only overcome "The Mouth" but also fellow successful internet-to-live-play pro Shane "Shaniac" Schleger whom just appeared on my TV set at a WSOP final table the other night on ESPN.

Here's the final table bios from WorldPokerTour.com and set up before Saul took down his first WPT victory and was awarded a $25,000 seat into the WPT Championships (at the Bellagio of course):

Coming into the Bellagio Cup few knew what to really expect from the tournament. After all, the World Series of Poker Main Event was going on right down the street and, this was the first time that the World Poker Tour would televise the Bellagio Cup. Turns out this event would be right on par with every other great event held at the Bellagio; 535 players, $1.3 million dollar first place and an all-star set of characters playing to the final table.

Kevin 'BeLOWaBOVe' Saul dominated play for each of the three days, leading almost wire to wire with the chip lead. Saul is a self-described internet legend, and although the confidence may come off as cockiness it is well deserved. He blew away the field Day 1A gaining a monstrous chip lead over everyone at 262,000, followed it up with a solid Day 2, and played aggressive big stack poker to go into the final table with 4,210,000 in chips.

Fan favorite, Mike 'The Mouth' Matusow will be making his third appearance at a World Poker Tour final table. Mike is a veteran player that has been on the scene for a long time, gaining the most notice after making a final table at the 2005 Main Event. That million dollar payday was followed by a win at the TOC where Mike made another million dollars. Since then he has made several high profile television appearances on late night poker shows, but has yet to have any significant tournament cashes. That will undoubtedly change, but just like before, Mike will be aiming for that million dollar payday.

Danny Wong may be the best live tournament player under the age of 23 of all-time. This will be Wong's third WPT Final table in the past four months. He is coming into the final table defending his runner-up finish in the Bellagio Cup last year. As he was down to the final ten he told others at the table what a disappointment it was to not have the title from last year. With two sixth place finishes at the WPT final tables and the second place run last year at this event Danny is Hungry to take it all.

Like Kevin Saul, Shane 'Shaniac' Schleger, is an internet legend in his own respect - from the 'old' school of online poker. Shane has been playing online for years, and has proved that his live poker skills deserve recognition as well. Shaniac will be looking to take his career live tournament earnings to over the million dollar mark, as he is already around $750,000. Shane was getting short towards the end of the day, but in level 17 before the dinner break Shaniac blew up. His chip stack surged and he was over two million in by level 18. Shane is friendly with both Saul and Matusow, lining this final table to be one of the most entertaining in recent memory.

The four well known players will be joined by two others in Eric Eric Panayiotou and Konstantin Puchkov. Little is known about the Russian player Konstantin Puchkov, other than he has a lot of chips, has had a lot of chips the whole tournament, and is striving for all the chips by the end of the day. Panayiotou has made it to three other $10,000 final tables, all in Atlantic City. The business man is not a poker player by trade, however with $400,000 in cashes over the past eight years, he is sure to be a threat at the final table.

Action will start at 4pm PST in the Tower Ballroom at the Bellagio. This will be the first final table in WPT history to introduce a new blind structure, where the level swith be 90 minutes, instead of the traditional 60 (except for head's-up play). In addition there will not be an accelerated schedule and will instead follow the traditional Bellagio structure.