Jeff Haney on the role youth played when ‘Gigabet’ prevailed at a marathon poker event

Wednesday, March 29, 2006 | 7:16 a.m.

Play at the final table of the recent World Series of Poker circuit event at Harrah's Rincon in San Diego County stretched on for more than 13 hours before a winner was determined.

It was no coincidence that the last two men standing - sitting, actually - were also the two youngest at the final table, as stamina won out against experience.

Darrell "Gigabet" Dicken outlasted WeiKai Chang, to win the top prize of $372,780 in the $10,000 buy-in tournament.

"We played a lot longer than I thought we would," Dicken told tournament spokesman Nolan Dalla afterward. "We were four-handed for something like seven hours. That has to be some kind of record."

World Series circuit tournaments take place at Harrah's-owned properties throughout the nation and promote the annual World Series of Poker, scheduled for June 25 to Aug. 10 at the Rio.

This was the second consecutive year that Harrah's Rincon, in a scenic mountain setting on the Rincon Tribal Nation Reservation 60 miles northeast of San Diego, hosted a circuit tournament.

This year's event attracted a field of 109 players for a total prize pool of $1.03 million. The game is no-limit Texas hold 'em.

Dicken, a poker pro whose best previous major tournament finish was fifth place at the World Poker Tour's Five Diamond World Poker Classic at the Bellagio last December ($241,495), took an 11-1 chip lead into heads-up play. But Chang managed to double up several times and eventually took a slight chip lead.

After more than an hour of heads-up play, though, Dicken got all the chips in with pocket jacks against Chang's pocket tens, and Chang had to settle for a second-place payout of $207,100.

Asked what he was planning to do with his prize money, according to Dalla, Dicken replied: "I don't know. Put it in the bank?"

Among other notables at the final table were Adam Kagin of Henderson (sixth place, $62,130); and Las Vegans Andy Bloch (seventh place, $51,775) and Kathy Liebert (third place, $113,905).

The next circuit event in Las Vegas takes place from April 27 through May 11 at Caesars, with the $10,000 buy-in main event scheduled for May 8-11.

As many as 600 players are expected to participate in the World Poker Tour's World Championship tournament April 18-24 at the Bellagio, the finale of the fourth season of the popular made-for-TV tour.

If the tournament - which carries a $25,500 buy-in - attracts a full field, payouts would likely go 100 deep, meaning one in six players would make the money, according to tour organizers.

With a total prize pool of about $15 million, the top three finishers could each collect more than $1 million and first prize would approach $3.5 million, according to World Poker.

At last year's championship, Tuan Le of Los Angeles bested a field of 452 entrants to win $2.8 million. Previous winners were Martin De Knijff of Stockholm, Sweden, and Alan Goehring of Las Vegas.

The Bellagio will offer satellite tournaments for the championship event beginning April 5, including two super satellites on April 16 and 17 that will have an entry fee of $2,500.

Poker pro Chris "Jesus" Ferguson wants to make it clear: He is opting out of World Poker Tour events because of a dispute regarding the release form all players must sign, not as part of an organized movement.

"I don't think of it as a boycott," Ferguson told the Sun. "I feel I'm not being allowed to play. If I were to sign that document, it would violate two other contractual obligations I currently have."

Ferguson's other obligations include affiliations with the Web site fulltiltpoker.com and Activision's World Series of Poker video game. Signing World Poker's release could violate those existing agreements, Ferguson said.

And even if he considers World Poker's current management trustworthy, all bets could be off if the company is bought out or taken over, Ferguson said.

"If it's ever sold, you never know what could happen," he said.