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Las Vegas Poker Blog
2005 Ultimate Poker Challenge
at the Downtown Plaza Hotel
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Michael Mirazchi, UPC event #13 WinnerThe Ultimate Poker Challenge is into the final days of the 2005 tournaments at the Plaza Hotel in downtown Las Vegas. The events, seventeen in all, will finish on July 27th. The Ultimate Poker Challenge works on a points system to qualify players for entry into the semi-final event, an explanation of which can be found here. Only those players that qualified through points awarded according to finish can play in the semi-final event. You can't buy into this one. A complete schedule of events and buy-ins are available here.
The Ultimate Poker Challenge scheduled the events to coincide with the "other tournament" going on here in Las Vegas, the 2005 World Series of Poker. This is the second season of the UPC at the Plaza and one of the major attractions is the opportunity to get on national television since the final table for all events is filmed for broadcast. Seventeen opportunities to win one of the seven seats at a final televised table attracts many of the pros already in town for the other tournaments.
Event #13 final tableI finally had the time to stop by the Plaza and check out the action this week. I had just come from the strip where I had been shooting photos of the heads-up play at the Bellagio Challenge Cup's final table between Amnon Filippi and Quinn Do. Shortly after I arrived at the Plaza in walks Amnon just minutes from his $362,400 victory at the Bellagio to a round of congratulations from the players waiting for the UPC final table to begin.
The final tables began play at 2:00 pm and unlike the all night final tables at the WSOP it was over and had crowned Mike "the Grinder" Mirazchi as the champion before dark. Spectators are invited and welcomed to fill the audience seats. You are provided a great view quite close to the final table live action with an added bonus of perhaps seeing yourself on TV. The final table for event #13, a $3,000 buy-in No-limit Hold'em tournament, was a star studded affair that included Kathy Leibert, T.J. Cloutier, Scott Fischman and Michael Mizrachi. Rick Fuller, Michael Wood and David Singer completed the seven players surviving to the final table. Well known professional players make the Ultimate Poker Challenge a "don’t miss" opportunity to see and be close to your favorites.
Amnon arrives from the Bellagio Challenge CupThe order of finish and payouts for event #13 follows:
1. Michael "Grinder" Mizrachi $41,905
2. Kathy Liebert $20,955
3. Rick Fuller $12,570
4. Michael Wood $10,475
5. T.J. Cloutier $ 7,335
6. Scott Fischman $ 6,285
7. David Singer $ 5,240
Posted July 23, 2005
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