Jeff Haney on how a Southern California native stared down his opponents to win the poker title at Bellagio

Wednesday, April 26, 2006 | 8:16 a.m.

The major poker tournament scene in Las Vegas remains packed with activity, with Caesars Palace hosting a World Series of Poker Circuit stop from Thursday through May 11.

The 15-day schedule is capped by the featured $10,000 buy in no-limit Texas hold 'em championship event, which will run May 8-11. The winner will receive prize money determined by the number of entrants as well as a seat in the 2006 Tournament of Champions, a free roll in which 27 players will vie for $2 million in prize money.

Preliminary tournaments carry buy ins as low as $200 and as high as $5,000 for the "HOSE" event, which tests entrants' expertise in four games - hold 'em, Omaha, stud and stud high/low split (eight or better).

Satellites begin Thursday morning at Caesars. For more information, visit harrahs.com, worldseriesofpoker.com, or call the Caesars Palace poker room at 785-6566.

Joe Bartholdi, a wispy 26-year-old poker pro with an intense stare-down technique befitting his tenacious style of play, can usually be found firing it up at the tables in the Bellagio's poker room.

He enters tournaments only occasionally, Bartholdi said, preferring the juicy cash-game scene that has thrived on the Strip, going hand-in-hand with poker's astounding growth in popularity.

But this time, Bartholdi chose the right spot to test his tournament skills.

Bartholdi, a Las Vegas resident for seven years, collected the top prize of $3.76 million Monday night by winning the World Poker Tour Championship tournament at the Bellagio.

The featured event, and finale, of the World Poker Tour's fourth season, the championship drew a field of 605 entrants at a buy in of $25,500 apiece for a prize pool of more than $15 million, making the tournament one of the biggest and most anticipated on poker's calendar.

After seven full days of poker, Bartholdi appeared emotionally exhausted late Monday night as he mugged for the cameras behind piles of cash stacked on a poker table in a Bellagio ballroom.

"I didn't really have a general strategy; I just tried to adjust to each situation as it came up," Bartholdi, a Southern California native, said. "I thought I was going to win (Sunday), when everybody around me started telling me I could do it. I just went with that, and started feeling I was going to win it."

He said he hoped to buy a house with his winnings. Plans were also afoot for a Caribbean vacation.

"But I haven't really thought about the future yet," he said.

Bartholdi - who ponied up the entire entry fee at once rather than trying to win his way in through a "satellite," or preliminary tournament - gave credit to his ample cheering section, made up of friends and family from Las Vegas and the San Diego area.

"We're just so happy for him; words can't explain," said Joe's younger brother, Thomas Bartholdi, 22, also of Las Vegas.

Two crucial decisions marked Bartholdi's path to the title - one on just the fourth hand of the day, the other on the final hand about six hours later.

Bartholdi became the chip leader on that early key hand. He called down a couple of big bets by James Van Alstyne and won a sizable pot with pocket eights after Van Alstyne mucked his hand. The board was showing an ace and four baby cards. By taking the lead in the betting, Van Alstyne was trying to represent a pair of aces, but Bartholdi would have none of it.

On the last hand, Bartholdi called David Matthew's all-in bet after the flop revealed an ace, a nine and an eight with two hearts. Bartholdi was holding a nine and a five for a pair; Matthew was on a heart flush draw that never materialized.

A small-business owner from Toronto, Matthew said his second-place prize of $1.9 million will finance his new career as a professional poker player.

Matthew qualified for the tournament by investing $25 in an online satellite while playing Internet poker in his hotel room at the Excalibur last fall.

"I was playing in the Festa al Lago (tournament at the Bellagio), and I got bounced on the first day," Matthew said. "You know how you feel when you get bounced early - you want to play again right away. So I saw this $25 satellite, I decided to go for it, and that's how I got here."

Van Alstyne of Las Vegas entered the day as chip leader but got caught running a couple of big bluffs. He finished fifth to earn $439,375, but left bitterly disappointed in his showing.

"That was probably the worst final table performance in the history of poker," he said.

Las Vegan Claus Nielson, originally from Copenhagen, Denmark, placed fourth and collected $659,120. Also at the six-man final table were Roland de Wolfe of London (third place, $1.02 million) and tournament veteran Men "the Master" Nguyen of Bell Gardens, Calif. (sixth, $292,915).

The 17 tournaments making up World Poker's fourth season carried a collective prize pool of more than $85 million. The tournaments air at 9 p.m. Wednesdays on the Travel Channel (Cox cable channel 66), with the championship event scheduled to air June 28.