Sammy Helps Launch the Poker Boom

Level 2 . Ante 200 . Blinds 100.200 .Entries 70

Come along with me, ladies, gentlemen and poker players alike, on a trip down memory lane to 20 years ago last Tuesday. Peer back into the dimly-lit Binion’s Casino and Poker Room in downtown Las Vegas, where today’s player at Table 14, Seat 2, is about to become part of poker history.

The game’s best player at the time – Phil Ivey – falls in 10th place and the World Series of Poker Final Table is established. Just beyond all the television camera lights is tournament director (at the time) Matt Savage on one knee, proposing to now-wife Maryanne. One by one, the table’s combatants dwindle down until there’s just two remaining.

At one end is a most-definitely-recreational player named Chris Moneymaker.

At the opposite end is today’s Table 14, Seat 2, cigarette dangling from the lips of Sammy Farha.

While most everyone in-the-know in the poker community expects Sammy to roll over this unknown, the end could have been announced by Al Michaels with a Do You Believe in Miracles call.

Sammy Farha, laying down top pair to a ridiculously-brave bluff, helps launch the poker boom as Moneymaker runs that bluff to victory in the WSOP Main Event bracelet on May 23, 2003.

Welcome, Sammy, to the inaugural PokerAtlas Tour Title Event.