AUTHOR: Jerry "Jet" Whittaker
TITLE: The 2 Million 2006 WSOP Poker Chips Mystery 
DATE: 5:02 AM
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BODY:
professionally researched article reporting investigations into the extra 2<br>million poker chips which mysteriously appeared during the final stages of<br>the 2006 World Series of Poker Main Event was recently published by Poker<br>News. Since the broadcast of the final table when ESPN first acknowledged<br>there were 2 million extra chips, not only was the $12 million prize pool at<br>stake. Also at stake were the reputation of the players, the premiere event<br>itself, as well as the reputation of poker that many have worked hard to<br>elevate to a respected sport. It is no wonder everyone is concerned whether<br>this was an innocent mistake or intentional.<br>Thanks to Poker News we now know why there has been such a lack of available<br>information about the extra chips. The Nevada Gaming Commission (NGC) put a<br>gag on Harrah&#39;s until the NGC could complete their investigations.<br>Apparently their criminal investigations are done and their enforcement<br>review will be complete within the week. So NGC will soon be releasing their<br>findings, at which time Harrah&#39;s will be free to speak. So what did happen?<br>Many people jumped to the conclusion that the chip leaders benefited from<br>the extra chips. PokerNews concluded that neither WSOP winner Jamie Gold nor<br>finalist Allen Cunningham received extra chips during the color up process,<br>since Gold and Cunningham were colored up separately prior to the official<br>color-up. Also, neither player was designated at their table to buy-up<br>chips. So they had no opportunity to benefit from any color-up miscount.<br>Based on close chip count, Poker News reported that Kevin O&#39;Donnell is one<br>of the two players to receive extra chips, 1.05 million extra chips to be<br>exact. He received them during the color-up, but he had no idea it had<br>occurred. O&#39;Donnell and all the other players were away from the table<br>during the color-up. On top of that, less than 30 minutes after the color-up<br>O&#39;Donnell busted out of the tournament in 21st place. Afterwards, O&#39;Donnell<br>was genuinely shocked that he might have received extra chips when he was<br>interviewed.<br>Poker News said the second player to receive an extra million chips was not<br>the second player they had identified through chip counts. At this time,<br>they are choosing not to reveal who they think the second player is, &quot;nor<br>the name of the player our research shows may be the other recipient.&quot; But<br>they feel assured that &quot;some form of limited viewing of the surveillance<br>tapes will put this matter to rest.&quot; We look forward to the mystery being<br>solved when the Nevada Gaming Commission&#39;s findings are made public and<br>Harrah&#39;s finally gets to speak freely about it.
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