Cowboy roped by young lions

Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2005 | 9:28 a.m.

The top finishers, with prize money won, at the fourth annual Five Diamond World :

1. Rehne Pedersen, Denmark, $2.08 million

2. Patrik Antonius, Finland, $1.05 million

3. Doyle Brunson, Las Vegas, $563,485

4. Joanne "J.J." Liu, Palo Alto, Calif., $362,140

5. Darrell Dicken, Waterloo, Iowa, $241,495

6. Phil "Unabomber" Laak, San Jose, Calif., $160,995

In a neat crystallization of the modern-day poker scene, the final table of the Five Diamond World Poker Classic came down to a clash between the old cowboy and the Internet kids.

Doyle Brunson, at age 72 a fearsome competitor in elite poker circles, was one of three players left sitting in the early hours of Saturday from an original field of 555 entrants in the Five Diamond tournament, the latest stop on the popular, made-for-TV World Poker Tour.

Brunson had most of the crowd in the Bellagio's Fontana Lounge behind him -- he was the only player of six at the final table to receive a standing ovation during introductions -- but he also had two young poker hotshots across from him.

Rehne Pedersen, 26, of Aalborg, Denmark, the eventual winner, won his entry into the tournament through a $100 online satellite tournament and parlayed that modest investment into the event's $2.08 million top prize. (A satellite is a small tournament in which players compete to earn their way into a larger tournament.)

To Pedersen's right was another kid who had been tearing it up in Europe and online before making his mark in Las Vegas: 25-year-old Patrik Antonius of Helsinki, Finland, a former model whose good looks had some women in the audience plotting ways to slip him a phone number.

Antonius belongs to a group of clean-cut young poker pros who have dubbed themselves the "Circle of Outlaws," a term that carried more than a little irony in this tournament, as Brunson had to contend with some real outlaws during his days as an old-time Western road gambler in the 1950s and '60s.

Of course, that was well before poker "got big," as some veteran pros like to put it.

"Unlike Michael Jordan, who can't compete with young superstars like LeBron James, Doyle's still here mixing it up against the young kids," tournament director Jack McClelland said. "That's what makes poker great."

Brunson, a two-time World Series of Poker champion who also has a World Poker Tour title on his resume, was shooting for the biggest tournament score of his storied career in the Five Diamond no-limit Texas hold 'em event.

With five players remaining, Brunson had the smallest stack of chips at the table before rallying. He doubled his chip count when his ace-king held up against Darrell Dicken's ace-jack, and later took the chip lead when he made two pair, 8s and 10s, to crack Antonius' pocket 9s.

"After being almost out, at that point it looked like he was going to take the whole thing," Doug Dalton, the Bellagio's director of poker operations, said. "What an oustanding performance."

Brunson has always embraced an attacking style of play that he long ago termed "power poker," but even the rugged Texan seemed taken aback at times by the hyper-aggressiveness of the Internet kids.

"I'll have what he's drinking," Brunson said at one point after Antonius fired in yet another big raise.

Brunson was finally KO'd a little after 1 a.m. when his king-jack ran into Pedersen's pocket kings. For finishing third, Brunson earned a payday of $563,485 -- along with another standing O and the admiration of his opponents.

"It was a great experience to play against somebody you look up to so much," said Pedersen, who also earned a $25,500 entry into April's World Poker Tour World Championship at the Bellagio. "Doyle's still the greatest."

For Brunson, it was a short walk back to the Bellagio's main poker room, where he plays regularly in the world's highest-limit cash poker games.

"Both these kids were very aggressive; both were good players," Brunson said. "When the blinds and antes get so high, (tournaments) are a different game than cash games. It's an entirely different game."

The two remaining players, now holding roughly equivalent stacks of chips, went mano a mano for another 40 minutes before Antonius got all his money in with ace-king against Pedersen's ace-4. Although he was a solid underdog, Pedersen made a straight to cripple Antonius and virtually clinch the title.

Antonius, who collected $1.05 million, said later he was surprised Pedersen called his big bet holding ace-4. Unless he put Antonius on a stone-cold bluff, that hand was likely to be either a small favorite or a big underdog, Antonius said. (Then again, Antonius has been known to run his share of stone-cold bluffs.)

"I don't care about the money as much as the championship," Antonius said. "Winning an event like this is much bigger than the (extra) $1 million. People remember the winner of these."

The size of the field -- 48 percent larger than last year's Five Diamond event -- and the prize pool for the tournament, which carried a $15,000 entry fee, made it clear that the old pros are right.

Poker has indeed "got big."

"You have 555 people, a $2 million top prize," sixth-place finisher Phil "Unabomber" Laak said. "This is insane."

Jeff Haney can be reached at 259-4041 or at haney@lasvegassun.com.