Event #6: No-Limit Texas Hold 'em
Location: New Orleans, Louisiana
Buy-in: $500 (+50)
Number of Entries: 447
Total Prize Money: $216,795

Last Friday afternoon, Tim Whaley took a bad beat. He met up with a few friends who all planned to pile into Whaley's car and drive 700 miles from Atlanta to New Orleans. Their destination? The World Series of Poker Circuit -- at Harrah's New Orleans. Then, the unexpected happened. The car broke down.

While the rush hour traffic began to pile up in Atlanta, Whaley and his friends sat bored out of their skulls inside an auto repair shop, desperately waiting for a spare part to arrive. It was not a good way to start a poker trip.

Whaley was just about to give up on the idea of driving across four states, simply to play in a poker tournament. Then, he thought of another idea. Whaley decided to rent a car instead, and just a short time later he was barreling down I-20 on his way to New Orleans. It was an all-night road trip that left the three young men mentally and physically exhausted.

Somehow, Whaley and his friends made it to New Orleans and started playing poker the next day. Whaley entered the $500 buy-in no-limit hold'em tournament. Just twenty-four hours later, Whaley was going to the final table the chip lead (with 112,000) - barely covering Benjamin Cahan (with 111,500) and Peter Falcon (with 95,000).

It took four hours to get down to the final two players. The heads up match between Tom Whaley and Chip Garrett started with Whaley holding a 5-to-2 chip advantage. Four hands into heads-up play, the end came. Whaley was dealt Q-10 against Chip Garrett's 3-3. A ten on the flop essentially locked up the tournament and Whaley had won his first major poker tournament.

He collected a gold ring and $67,230 in prize money.

After his victory, Whaley made at least one very astute observation.

"Poker should be legal nationwide," Whalen said. "Where I live, we have a problem with (private) games being robbed. The sad part about it is that no player should have to feel his life is in jeopardy, simply by sitting at a card table."

When he was asked what he will do with the prize money, Whalen was uncertain. However, a new car might be a wise investment.

View final results.

Tournament reporting by Nolan Dalla / worldseriesofpoker.com