With Only Eight Chips, Sacramento’s Darrell Cain Wins $363,936 in Record Setting Event at Commerce by Staff filed under Poker News on 2010-02-18 [Originally appeared in the Feburary 15, 2010 issue of Poker Player]

The first event of Commerce Casino’s LA Poker Classic is in the books and is one for the books too. Not only did the $335 buy-in event become the largest tournament ever at that casino with 5,847 entrants—a field that size sounds more like the main event at the World Series of Poker— but the winner, Sacramento’s Darrell Cain, made the most remarkable comeback in LAPC history. Thinking he was finished for the day after losing virtually all of his chips, he was cashing out when someone noticed he left eight chips on the table. Called back to the table, he went on to win the event and take home $363,936.

“It’s unbelievable,” said Cain. “Those eight little green chips… Man, the good Lord was looking over me. I’m just elated.” Cain, who was taught to play poker by his father, will split the proceeds from his victory with his dad. “That’s just the way we do it. We are a team at playing poker.”

Commerce Casino, known for providing poker enthusiasts relatively small buy-ins with large prize pools, guaranteed a cool $1 million for this first event in the 51-tournament series. Cain’s return on investment was 1,086 percent. The other final table players sharing in the prize money were:

1 Darrell Cain . . . . . . $363,936 Sacramento, CA

2 Amir Ghazvinian . . $189,480 Reseda, CA

3 Joel Tushnett . . . . . $107,970 Reseda, CA

4 Michael Blocksidge . $88,220 Rocky River, OH

5 Andreas Dassopoulos . $68,470 Rancho Cucamonga, CA

6 Michael Woo . . . . . . $55,300 Hacienda Heights, CA

7 Abraham Barbarian $42,140 North Hills, CA

8 Scott Takeshita . . . . . $28,970 Chino, CA

9 Charlie Ng . . . . . . . . $21,070 Camarillo, CA

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