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August 16th 2006
Jeff Madsen: WSOP Wunderkind
Of all the amazing stories to come out of this year’s World Series the only one which can stand toe-to-toe with Jamie Gold’s main event win is the one scripted by Jeff Madsen, the youngest ever winner of a WSOP bracelet and the 2006 World Series of Poker Player of the Year.
Aged just 21 Madsen came to Vegas having been used to playing low-mid limit Hold’em games at “Chumash”, an Indian casino not far from Santa Barbara, California, where he goes to school.
He first showed up on the WSOP radar when he finished third in the $2000 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi/Lo tournament, a game not too many have mastered aged 31, let alone 21. Good for $97,552, that finish alone would amount to a good debut World Series for any normal player. But of course, as we know now, Madsen isn’t a normal player, a fact he proved emphatically when he went on to win the $2000 No-Limit Hold’em tournament little over a week later. That win made him the youngest player to win a WSOP bracelet, and credited a cool $660,948 to his bankroll.
Already a sensation for his performances up to that point, Madsen’s star went supernova when he won the $5000 No-Limit Hold’em Shorthanded event a few days later, overcoming a super-strong final table including “Captain” Tom Franklin and Erik “EDog” Lindgren. “You have got to be kidding” shouted the headlines in disbelief.
At this point in the Series Madsen did the obvious thing and signed up to Full Tilt Poker, joining the ever growing roster of superstar poker players at that site. But by the end of the World Series, after yet another final table (his fourth! - this time a third place finish in the $1000 Seven-Card Stud Hi/Lo) Madsen’s star had risen to the point where his signature was courted by Poker Royalty, an agency representing the likes of Daniel Negreanu, Michael “the Grinder” Mizrachi, and Phil Hellmuth. He even had Jay Leno and David Letterman clamouring for an interview. Now that’s some debut World Series!
It is stories like these that make the poker world what it is. For whilst Jamie Gold’s win was superb, and made greater still by the fact that he was not a seasoned poker pro, Gold was nevertheless a rich man before his World Series win and had Johnny Chan in his corner. It wasn’t exactly a story the average Internet player could aspire to.
Madsen on the other hand lived the journeyman’s dream. A complete unknown before the World Series began; his was a journey the average low-mid limit online player could dream of for themselves. It was a truly extraordinary achievement; one that will be remembered for many years to come and one that made him one of the greatest Players of the Year in recent times.
Submitted: 16/08/2006 12:54:20
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