Bodog Beat

Cornel Cimpan - whose picture we obviously do not have - won the WPT LA Poker Classic in the wee hours of the morning. (Bodog Beat Image)

It was a hard fought final table featuring the resurgence of a previous WPT champion, a No Limit Holdem wizard (savior?) looking for his first WPT title and an online poker pro trying to cement his place in the world of live tournament poker. However, in the end, the title went to none of them. As we all know, poker is still one of the only competitive arenas in which a realtive unknown can rise up and capture a major title, and new WPT LA Poker Classic champion Cornel Cimpan did just that.

While Cimpan has cashed in a handful of events over the past five years, including a WPT event two years ago, the $1,686,760 he walks away with from the LAPC is a lot times more than anything he has won to date. Definitely life-changing money. To get to this point, the Texan had to beat out the aforementioned collection of players that consited of the previous WPT champion – Chris Karagulleyan – the No Limit Holdem savior – Chris "Jesus" Ferguson – and the online poker pro Mike "SowersUNCC" Sowers. He did this by eliminating Ferguson and Karagulleyan himself and leaving Sowers to his eventual heads-up opponent Binh Nguyen.

The heads-up match itself required the poker gods to smile down on Cimpan as Nguyen had him all-in with a chance to win the event four times, but to no avail. On the last had, Nguyen once again went in with the best hand but ended up losing to Cimpan and his lousy pair of fives. Nguyen did receive $935,424 for his second-place finish, something that would go along way to sooth our frustration if it were us.

Next up for the WPT is the WPT Celebrity Invitational, which starts tomorrow but isn't open to mere mortals, hence the name of the event. Since the only time we've been on TV was that episode of COPS back in '89 and we didn't get an invitation (unless the crack whore on the street inviting us to partake in her earthly delights in return for some change counts), we will not be playing. No, for those who are not D-list celebs or poker pros, the WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star on March 16 is the next opportunity to get a shot at winning millions.

Qualify online for the WPT through the Bodog Poker's new Flight Club promotion and get a chance ot head to that event or any of the other events on the WPT schedule.