Jerry Yang Is Winning Big Ass Poker Tournaments

Yes, the Main Event of the World Series of Poker is over and a champion has been crowned. Jerry Yang is another complete unknown, following in the footsteps of Chris Moneymaker from 2003, who has never even cashed in a poker tournament. No, he’s not the co-founder of Yahoo, but is instead a psychologist and social worker. Yang collected all the chips in play, besting 2nd place Tuan Lam on the last hand:

Hand #205 - Jerry Yang has the button, he raises to 2.3 million, Tuan Lam moves all in for 22.2 million, and Yang thinks for about ten seconds before he calls.

Yang shows , and Lam shows . It’s a race situation, and Lam needs to improve to stay alive. The crowd erupts into chants of “U.S.A.! U.S.A.!” and something similar with “Canada! Canada!”

There is standing room only here, and everybody is on their feet, including the players. (But excluding your faithful tournament reporters.)

The flop comes , and half of the ESPN Arena erupts in applause as Tuan Lam flops a pair of queens to take the lead, and he is a big favorite to double up, making this a much closer heads-up match. Yang needs an eight or something runner-runner.

The turn card is the , and Yang picks up a gut-shot straight draw, winning with an eight (for a set) or a six (for a nine-high straight).

The river card is the — ! Jerry Yang spikes a six on the river to win the hand — and the 2007 WSOP World Championship — with a nine-high straight.

88 v AQ suited for the win. He takes home 8.25 million, while, Lam wins 4.84 million. Not bad! Yang has pledge to donate 10% of his winnings to several charities, and was noteworthy for being the player at the table to constantly thank his God and talk about his Christianity. While that’s not my thing (does your God pick which players he wants to give sets and full houses to?), I guess it works for Yang. He certainly seems like he’s a guy that will appreciate the money. He also vowed to give his children the best education possible.

My final table rooting interest was Alexander Kravchenko, who seemed to be a down-to-earth guy that will use the money he won wisely. He took home 4th place and 1.85 million dollars, as well as winning a bracelet earlier in the Series when he bagged first place and $228,446 in the $1,500 Omaha Hi/Lo Split 8 or Better tourney. He stated in his exit interview that he would play LESS poker, not more, and I completely respect and support that. Why put all the money you earned back into the poker community, simply because you feel you have to ‘prove’ you can play at high-limit levels in the cash games? No one says you have to prove anything to anyone. Take the money and enjoy it.

Well, the World Series of Poker is officially over. Thanks to Poker News for the great updates, and thanks to the people over at 2plus2 for their fun analysis of the tournament. ESPN will certainly slice and dice the coverage down into all-ins, bluffs and backstories, partially ruining what should be the best televised poker program out there (that goes to High Stakes Poker). Oh well, it’ll still be fun to see the tournament play out when they do show it.