Yesterday's Gold Strike World Poker Open final table was tailor made for television.  Not only did the final table feature Buff Magazine's 2006 Player of the Year Chad Brown, but also a chip leader who is recognized by many as the man most responsible for the poker boom- Chris Moneymaker.  In fact Tunica's final table had pretty much everything you'd need to make great, compelling television, with one minor problem, there was no TV crew in attendance.

Not filming the 2009 World Poker Open final table was arguably the biggest poker production blunder since last year, when an unfilmed Clonie Gowen won- coincidentally- this same event, yet even without this exciting tournament being recorded for posterity, the 2009 Gold Strike World Poker Open is still worth examining. 

126 players initially entered this year's $5,000 buy-in main event, held once again at the Gold Strike Casino Resort in Tunica, Mississippi, creating a total prize pool worth more than $600,000 and a first prize worth close to a third of that pool. 

That top prize was eventually taken down by a poker pro, but not by one of the two previously mentioned, as neither Brown nor Moneymaker were able to even make it into heads-up play before being dispatched to the Gold Strike rail. Moneymaker, for his part came close, but was only able to ride his huge starting day chip stack as far as third place before finally being busted by the eventual champion of the event, Jeremy Gaubert. 

For the win, Gaubert earned $192,953, the biggest score of his still relatively new professional poker career.

The final table finish positions for the 2009 Gold Strike World Poker Open were as follows:

1st.  Jeremy Gaubert- $192,953

2nd.  Stephen Hamontree- $109,400

3rd.  Chris Moneymaker- $60,110

4th.  Chad Brown- $48,088

5th.  Thomas Creel- $36,066

6th.  Gilbert George- $30,055

7th.  Tommy Vedes- $24,044

8th.  Jerry Milanos- $18,033

9th.  Paris Heard- $12,022


Story by Mark Anderson