Final Recap

Wow, what a tournament. 583 players came out to Bellagio for the Five Diamond North American Poker Classic, comprising of what was probably the toughest field of 2006. In the end, one true champion remained.

Joe Hachem, the 2005 World Champion, has joined the elite fraternity of players who have won both a World Series and a World Poker Tour, joining Doyle Brunson, Carlos Mortenson and Scotty Nguyen. For Hachem, it was massive validation, and put to rest any suggestion his ’05 victory was anything but earned.

Hachem defeated former NFL player Jim Hanna in the final, after Hanna disposed of the new all-time WPT money leader Daniel Negreanu. It was just Hanna’s second World Poker Tour. We expect there will be many more.

Outside of the final table, the big stories of the weekend centered around Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi winning the CardPlayer Player of the Year title and the depth of the field. Every day one table had multiple famous faces, with some table holding as many as seven well-known pros. Regardless of who the victor was, the win here was going to represent a remarkable achievement. That it was Hachem just made it more so.

Congratulations to Joe Hachem on his victory. The World Poker Tour will be back in the new year when we travel to to Atlantis in the Bahamas. In the meantime, be sure to keep checking in at worldpokertour.com, where WPTAacademy and our new weekday content will keep your poker appetite satisfied. Thanks for following along everyone. Happy Holidays!