Atlantic City, NJ – On January 27 – 28th, Showboat Atlantic City hosted the 1st Annual World Series of Poker Wall Street Championship.  The two day event started with eighty six participants who bought in for $1,125 to have a chance at obtaining bragging rights as the Poker King of Wall Street.  At the end of day one, the field was narrowed to 22 players.  On day two, it only took a couple of hours to get to the final table of 10. 

The final table included:  David Katalan from Bank of America, Evan Kralstein of Raymond James, Paulo Loureiro from Fortis, Michael Genovese from Citigroup, Dennis Tapinekis from Montauk Financial, Michael Nankin from Lantern Investments, Jeffrey Wu from Deutsche Bank, George Juscsak from Bear Stearns, George Pan from Deutsche Bank, and Dominic Dicicco from Boenning & Scattergood. 

After two days of back and forth play, David Katalan of Bank of America emerged as the winner.  David started off the final table as the chip leader with 187,500.  For the next few hours he increased his stack but soon found himself in a number of heads up plays that chipped away at his chip count.  Finding himself in a precarious situation as one of the short stacks, David went all –in on a few hands where he was able to double up at the expense of other players.  Soon, David found himself with a monster chip stack of about 600,000 chips and a 2 to 1 edge over Evan Kralstein.

Evan began the final table as one of the shorter stacks with only 50,100 in chips.  He played steady throughout the final table choosing his battles wisely.  He slowly chipped away at his fellow finalists and amassed a chip stack of about 300,000 to challenge David Katalan in heads up action for the Championship.

In heads up action, David and Evan dodged each other through a handful of hands before going on a much deserved break.  After the break, on the second hand, Evan was in the small blind for 15,000 and David in the big blind for 30,000.  David still held about a 2 to 1 advantage in chips.  Evan was first to act and pushed all in with pocket 4's.  David immediately called and flipped pocket 9's.  The flop came out Kh, 10h, 10s. – no help for Evan.  The turn came – Ad.  The river card – 6s.  With that, David Katalan of Bank of America was crowned the First WSOP Wall Street Champion.


The final table was in order of winnings:

1st - David Katalan  - Bank of America  - chip count: 187,500

2nd - Evan Kralstein  - Raymond James  - chip count: 50,100  

3rd - Paulo Loureiro  - Fortis   - chip count: 52,000  

4th - Michael Genovese  - Citigroup   - chip count: 21,500  

5th - Dennis Tapinekis  - Montauk Financial  - chip count: 51,000  

6th - Michael Nankin  - Lantern Investments  - chip count: 86,500  

7th - Jeffrey Wu  - Deutsche Bank  - chip count: 76,500  

8th - George Juscsak  - Bear Stearns   - chip count: 136,500 

9th - George Pan  - Deutsche Bank  - chip count: 178,000 

10th - Dominic Dicicco  - Boenning & Scattergood - chip count: 24,000

 


FOR RELEASE:   February 7, 2007
CONTACT:  Paul Yoo
                    Director of New Market Development
                    609.343.2616