Tonight we saw what proved to be a truly action-packed final table with Jamie Gold personally knocking out seven of the other eight players. Gold certainly had some help from the cards in this match but showed that he was able to mix it up with some well-timed bluffs and key plays as well. After eliminating Paul Wasicka a short time into heads-up play, Jamie was able to put on the bracelet he had worked so hard to earn and finally bask in the knowledge that he had done the seemingly impossible and become this year's World Champion of Poker. In a short Q&A session after the match, Gold talked a bit about his experience at the WSOP this year.
With the chip lead you had coming into this final table this event was really yours to lose, how did you deal with that here tonight?
Absolutely, I didn't focus on it. A few of my friends said "C'mon, there's no way you can lose this." I just didn't want to listen to that, I didn't think about it. All I thought about were the players I was playing with at each table, I never thought about the tournament, everyday I would think about my table and I crushed every table I played at except for one that I was on with Danny Negreanu. I could not beat him. He was amazing - I could not beat him.
Daniel actually gave you a lot of compliments tonight; he said he couldn't figure your game out.
Well, I think he's incredible. I tried to bluff him and he caught me with the one hand we were in together. I can't play as well as he plays, but I played pretty well in this tournament.
You're your own agent, how are you going to market yourself now?
I'm actually not. I have amazing agents. I'm not going to market myself at all, but these guys are amazing and I'm really lucky to be with them.
You're very successful in Hollywood, so how are you going to bridge the gap, because you're going to be amazing for poker with your communication skills.
I'm going to do both. I have incredible partners who have allowed me to take two weeks off while I'm supposed to be in charge of a production that's happening right now, but they believed in me and understood that this was something that was so important to me. I told them I wanted to give it one shot. I've never played in the World Series before, but I believed I could do it. I've won a lot of small tournaments but I wanted to see if I could compete with the best.
Johnny Chan told me I could, all my friends told me that I could, I thought that I could and my partners were kind enough to let me do it.
Whenever I'm not working, all I do is play poker, and I really love it, and I'm going to continue doing it. I'm going to play as many tournaments as I can, and my partners will understand but I'm not going to leave them. Next week I'm going back to work.
Your style of play has been described as "controlled chaos," do you agree with that and if so what does it mean?
Absolutely, I don't have a style of play. I change my style based on the players I'm playing against. I happen to get great reads on most of the players I play against, except Daniel Negreanu. Thank god he wasn't at the final table.
Are you going to be here next year to defend your title?
Oh yeah. Unless I'm in a hospital somewhere, I'm going to be here. I can't wait to play again.
Source: 2006 WSOP
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