John Juanda

He has won 2 "Best All-Around Player Awards" in the last few years and won 11 major tournaments. He now resides in Alhambra, California and lists Daniel Negreanu, Allan Cunningham, Phil Ivey, Randy Holland, and Erik Seidel as his most respected poker players for being not only excellent poker players but also role models. His favorite poker games are pot-limit & no-limit hold'em and if he could change anything in the poker world it would be to make poker rooms less intimidating for new players and to attract corporate.

The inaugural World Poker Tour event took place at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, Nevada. Six well-known players battled for a first prize of $556,460. The players on this particular episode are a nice mix from the ultra-aggressive, Gus Hansen to the conservative, Chris Bigler. Although this episode was a nice mix of players, it wasn't as eventful as some of the other WPT episodes. Scotty Nguyen, who happens to be one of my favorite players to watch, didn't shine as he normally does. However, I did enjoy the interview with Scotty where he said, "Scotty Nguyen gonna win it baby". That statement is more like the Scotty that I know.

There were a couple of hands I enjoyed, including one between Scotty and John Hennigan. John flopped trips and slowplayed his hand giving Scotty the opportunity to bluff at the pot twice with his Ace high. When the river came an ace, Hennigan led out and Scotty made the difficult decision to lay his hand down. Watching this event on television makes it easy for us to scream at the players for making bad moves. I was yelling at Scotty to give the hand up after Hennigan called him on the flop. He didn't give it up at that time, but when a card that should have been good for Scotty's hand came, he made a terrific decision to finally lay it down.

The hand rivalry between Gus Hansen and Freddy Deeb was also interesting. After Gus knocked Deeb out, Freddy complained that "he played very bad." Gus Hansen does not play the hands that other "odds dictated" players might play. However, Gus has a tremendous ability to play his hands and his opponents well.  His take home winnings from the prize pool were $556,460.

The hand rivalry between Gus Hansen and Freddy Deeb was also interesting. After Gus knocked Deeb out, Freddy complained that "he played very bad." Gus Hansen does not play the hands that other "odds dictated" players might play. However, Gus has a tremendous ability to play his hands and his opponents well.  His take home winnings from the prize pool were $556,460.