Read on for the exciting play by play results of the first PartyPoker.com Million tournament in March 2002 aboard a luxury Mexican riviera cruise! Jump ahead to the FINAL 45 Jump ahead to the results of the FINAL DAY

The final rounds of the PartyPoker.com Million - the World's largest online poker tournament - drew near on Sunday, March 10, 2002 as 139 players boarded the Carnival Cruise ship Elation in Los Angeles, CA to leave port on a Mexican Riviera cruise.

As the ship sailed out of port, the tournament players and their guests enjoyed complimentary food, drinks, gifts, music and entertainment at a private party hosted by Mike Sexton, PartyPoker.com Host & creator of the PartyPoker.com Million tournament and Linda Johnson, the "First Lady of Poker."

Later that evening, the 100 players who fulfilled a dream by qualifying online at PartyPoker.com, and 39 other players who paid $8,000 to enter the PPM, registered for the tournament and drew their seat assignments.

70 total players started play on Monday and played down to 27 players. The remaining 69 players started play on Tuesday and played down to 18 players. 45 players then remained to play for their dream of winning the 1st PartyPoker.com Million Championship Title and becoming a millionaire on the final day of play the following Saturday.

Monday, March 11 brought some much-anticipated excitement as the first hand of the first PartyPoker.com Million tournament was dealt at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time. Many of the world's top poker players were dealt in, including former World Champions Phil Hellmuth, Tom McEvoy, Johnny Chan, and Huck Seed. Other notable players included Marsha Wagonner, Men "The Master" Nguyen, T.J. Cloutier, Barbara Enright, reigning TOC champion Brian Saltus, former TOC champion David Chiu, Ken Flaton, Card Player Magazine mogul Barry Shulman, and Phil Ivey. These 70 players fought it out for 8 hours before they took a break for dinner. When play resumed after dinner, the final 27 from day one was determined with less than two hours of play. The 27 from day one are:

Name Chip Count Ken Flaton $ 52,000 Michael James Parma $ 46,000 Bruce Yamron $ 40,000 Allen Green $ 39,000 Phil Hellmuth $ 36,000 David Danheiser $ 30,000 William Shenk $ 29,500 Adam Schwartz $ 26,500 Kenneth Giles $ 26,500 Tony Hartmann $ 23,000 Yosh Nokano $ 23,000 Johnny Chan $ 22,000 Gordie Donald Puckett $ 21,500 Kenneth Robison $ 20,500 Sal Carotenuto $ 20,500 Berj Kacherian $ 17,500 Andre Germann $ 16,500 Jerry Shields $ 14,000 Michael Lilley $ 14,000 Joseph Fedak $ 12,500 Mickey Seagle $ 10,000 Tina Sue $ 7,500 Scott Buller $ 6,500 Matthew Singletary $ 6,000 Michael Cunningham $ 6,000 Won Goag $ 5,500 Barbara Enright $ 4,000

Of these 27 players, 20 qualified directly via PartyPoker.com (some with as low as $22 investment) and 7 bought in to the tournament for $8,000 per seat.

On Tuesday, March 12, the 2nd day of finals play started with 69 players including reigning world champion Carlos Mortenson, former World champion's Dan Harrington, Scotty Nguyen, and Chris Ferguson. Other notable players included David Pham, Melissa Hayden, Jack Fox, Jim Lester, Eric Seidel, Kathy Liebert, Daniel Negreanu, and Layne Flack.
Play was fast and furious as the field played down to 28 players by the time the dinner break arrived. When play ended on day two, the following 18 players remained:

Of these 18, Nine qualified on PartyPoker.com, and nine bought in for $8,000.

The 45 remaining players now have 3 days to rest and relax as they prepare to fight for a seat at the final table. Kathy Liebert is the current chip leader with $64,500. The final player standing on Saturday, March 16 will be crowned PartyPoker.com Million champion and be rewarded with a guaranteed first-place prize of $1,000,000!

The Final 45:

As the luxury cruise liner departed from Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, the excitement was in the air for the final 45 players of the PartyPoker.com Million tournament. One of these 45 players would be $1,000,000 richer just a day later.

Play began for the final 45 players with 30 minutes remaining at the $1,000/$2,000 level.
The first player to depart was Vadim Svecharnik in 45th place. Although play was mostly cautious, players were dropping fast. Within the first ½ hour, Tina Sue, Adam Schwartz, Mickey Seagle, Mathew Singletary and Barabra Enright all found themselves enjoying the great views of the beaches of Mexico as they ran out of chips.

With the limits going to $1500/$3000, and the average stack moving up, players were less willing to depart the tournament room. The next player to go was Donald Puckett. As the first table was broken down, seven of the nine players that were gone had qualified on PartyPoker.com.

While still at the $1500/$3000 level, the next players to depart were Jim Lester, Yosh Nokano and Michael Lilley. When the round ended, some of the approx. chips counts were as follows:

Play resumed at $2000/$4000 and play again sped up. Within a few hours players who were eliminated included: Bott, James,Germann, Andre, Fedak, Joseph, Giles, Kenneth, Cunningham, Michael ,David, Pham, Hartmann, Tony, Parma, Michael, Clark, Eskimo, Babb, Raymond , Gazes, Bill, Chan, Jon, Oertli, James, Shenk, William, Carotenuto, Sal

With 2 tables remaining, there was a redraw for seats. Phil Hellmuth and Chris Ferguson had played next to each other almost all day. When the redraw was done they drew the same seats side by side. Phil and Chris were the only 2 former world champions left in the tournament and they were playing side by side. Play resumed with 18 players at the $3,000/$6,000 level. The first to go was Kenneth Robison in 18th place. Shortly after Kenneth, David Oppenheimer and Timm Miller went out in 17th and 16th place respectively. When the bell rang sounding the end of the $3,000/$6,000 limit, the players were sent on a 3-hour break for dinner. Friday night was formal night on the ship; so all players got to enjoy a glamorous night of fine dining as they dressed their best.

With their stomachs full of lobster tail and caviar, the remaining 15 players took their seats. Since we had left Cabo San Lucas earlier in the day and were now heading north into the Pacific Ocean, the seas got rough and the boat was rocking. This proved to be a bit of a test for some players as they not only had to fight the butterflies of playing for $1,000,000 but also had to deal with the swaying ocean. As it turned out no one was affected by the waves and all the players enjoyed their time.

Play started back up at the $4,000/$8,000 limit, and immediately the play was fast and furious. The first to run out of chips after dinner was Buddy Lockwood. Buddy raised all in with KQo and was called by Berj Kacherian with JQc. When the final board showed J8769 Buddy was out in 15th place.

The next to fall was Yvan Courchesne. Yvan went all in with JT when the board came down QJ5 but failed to improve against Ken Flaton who had flopped a set of Queens. Yvan finished in 14th place. Jerry Shields had been holding on to his chips for many hands when he finally found an AJo and went all in only to see Chris Ferguson find two Aces. When the final board showed J8854, Jerry was finished in 13th place. David Rabbi had been short stacked for many all in hands when he was forced to play a T5o in the big blind. The only player to call him was Scott Buller who held 66. When David failed to improve his hand he was out in 12th place. Allen Green found a good spot to go all in with AJo against Phil Hellmuths A7o. But when a 7 fell on the turn, Allen's hopes fell and he finished in 11th place.

With 10 players remaining, the tension was thick as these players were one away from the final table. Play continued hand for hand at the $5,000/$10,000 limit. The bubble is a tough place to finish. Ross Brandberg thought he had picked the perfect spot to pick up some chips to take to the final table. He got all of his chips in the pot with A9c againt Chris Ferguson's A7h. When the flop came AK5, an innocent deuce on the turn and the only card that could knock Ross out was a 7. The tension mounted as the dealer burned and turned a river card 7 that set up the final table for Saturday. The final table will be played at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday with the following players:

The action on the final day was fast and furious. Click here to see the results of the final day of the PartyPoker.com Million!

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