PartyPoker.com got off to a flying start on Saturday March 19th.
Hosts Mike Sexton and Linda Johnson welcomed the guests aboard
with a surprise announcement - The prize pool stands at $7,430,000.

‘The PartyPokerMillion IV is the biggest party in Poker on the World Poker Tour to date,” said Mike Sexton.” This is the largest prize pool in World Poker Tour history For the first time ever on the WPT, two millionaires will leave the boat this week’.

500 decks of cards & over 160,000 poker chips (weighing over 2 tons) were brought onboard in preparation for a week of non stop poker action. The media were given the opportunity practice their skills against some top professionals including Mike Sexton, Mark Tenner, Chris Hinchcliffe and Kathy Liebert (winner of the first PartyPoker.com Million) to get prepared for their media tournament later in the week

Day Two: Sunday March 20, 2005

366 players from all over the world took to the tables at 10 am. By the end of the day only 136 remained to play the next round which starts on Tuesday March 22.

Winners and Losers:

The top 9 chip leaders were all online qualifiers, with Mimi Tran being the only pro (in 10th place)

The top 10 players (with highest chip count) were as follows:
Michael Mills, USA $92,000
Bjorn Petter Jocumsen, Norway $71,000
Tino Lechich, Australia $70,000
Terrence Chan, Canada $65,500
Richard Kain, USA $62,500
Thomas Daniel, USA $61,500
Dustin Woolf, USA $60,500
Long LUU, Canada $58,500
Daniel Stewart, Canada $56,500
Mimi Tran, USA $56,500

Some top pros were eliminated on Sunday (Day 1 of the tournament):
Josh Arieh - 2004 WSOP Main Event 3rd place finisher,
Richard Grijalva - 2004 WPT Championship 4th place finisher
Scott Fischman - WPT past Tournament Winner

Sadly both the tournament’s oldest player , 82 year old Peter Fisher and the youngest, Damien Rennie who turned 21 last week, failed to make it beyond the opening round.

Today’s leader: Chip Jett, USA, finished in the lead of both days 1 & 2 with a chip count of $101,000. His wife Karina also qualified on Day 1 with a chip count of $10,000. Last year’s winner Erick Lindgren is well placed in third place with a chip count of $72,000. The highest online qualifier is Michael Mills with a chip count of $92,000.

Kathy Liebert, winner of the inaugural PartyPoker Million tournament in 2002 and now a spokesperson for PartyPoker.com was able to spend the day relaxing after her first day qualifying round. She finished with a chip count of $31,500. ‘I’m feeling fairly confident about the rest of the tournament,” she says.” although at one point I was down to $10,000 and managed to make it up to $31,500 in the last 40 minutes’.

Mike Sexton, is thrilled with the smooth running of the tournament. ‘So far, after the first two days of play, the tournament is running like a Swiss watch, smooth as glass, “he says. “ There are a large number of top players remaining but many more online qualifiers also. It should make for an exciting finish.

“Tomorrow (March 22nd) is a key day as 180 players will place in the money; the top 27 players will make it through to the next day’s play. The current remaining 280 players from the two qualifying heats are certainly eyeing the two top spots, as these winners will be walking off the ship as Millionaires.”

Top ten from March 21: Day 2 qualifying heat:
Chip Jett $101,000
Tom Doyle $74,000
Erick Lindgren $72,000
William Mastandrea $71,500
Adam Csallany $62,500
Martin Schaeffer $61,500
Joe Cassidy $56,000
Albert Chaney $52,000
David Fried $52,000
Steven Suh $51,000

Top 10 qualifiers day 1 & day 2:
Chip Jett $101,000
Michael Mills $92,000
Tom Doyle $74,000
Erick Lindgren $72,000
William Mastandrea $71,500
Bjorn Petter Jocumsen $71,000
Tino Lechich $70,000
Terrence Chan $65,500
Adam Csallany $62,500
Richard Kain $62,500
Thomas Daniel $61,500
Martin Schaeffer $61,500

"Today was outstanding," Chris said. "I came in today with 6,000 chips and doubled up early. Then I lost most of my chips when I flopped a straight and the other person turned a full house but I didn't lose all my chips. Then, a couple of hands later, I picked up Ac 10h against Qd 7d and he flopped three 7s. That busted me out of the tournament."

By 9:00pm, things were really intensifying. "Today is pay day on the boat," Mike Sexton explained. "180 players are going to make the money. Right now, we're down to 187 players, and it's crunch time. The next seven players to be out have played all this time, but unfortunately they're not going to get anything. But those are the trials and tribulations of tournament poker - someone has to go out on the bubble (be the last player to go out before the money). It's sad but true. Well, whoever it's going to be in this tournament, I hope they don't jump overboard!"

A half-hour later, tension was high as 181 players vied for the 180 winning places with blinds of $1,000/$2,000. At 9:35pm, "the bubble" burst for American Lisa Gaines when she was knocked out at 181st place. However, Mike needn't have worried - she didn't wind up in the Pacific!

At 11:00pm, Kathy Liebert was knocked out at 98th place. Kathy, who won the inaugural PartyPoker Million tournament in 2002, walked away this year with $10,426.

A short while later, Lona Rubenstein, 71, was knocked out at 86th place. She also took home $10,426, not bad considering that PPM4 was only her second live tournament (she won 90th place in PPM3 last year).

By midnight, Tom Doyle was chip leader with $260,000.

At 1:00am, there were 55 players still in the game, but a couple of hours later, this number had dropped to just 27, with Erick Lindgren, winner of PPM3 and WPT player of the year, in front with a chip count of approximately $240,000.

"I was getting a bit low and the blinds were going up," Erick said. "I had an Ace, 7 and the other guy had a pair of 6's and luckily I flopped a 7 and he paid me off all the way down. It was a big pot, and if I had lost, I'd have been down to 10,000, but luckily I won so I was up above 22,000."

Erick's luck didn't hold, and he finished day 3 with $160,000. However, Casey Kastle, who masterfully played his $8,500 short stack to start the day, is up to $225,000.

Chip leaders, end of day 3:
1. Richard Kain: $445,000
2. Klein Bach: $415,000
3. Adam Csallany: $415,000
4. Gary Germann: $395,000
5. Tino Lechich: $335,000
6. Tom Doyle: $320,000

After just a couple of hours of action, several heavy hitters had gone out: Grant Dowd (37th place), William Mastandrea (36th place), Daniel Stewart (35th place), Mark Vicuna (34th place), Chris Dirs (33rd place), Bob Coates (32nd place), David Baker (31st place), and Michael Lawrence (30th place).

Of course, Dirs, the last British player to go out, wasn't complaining – he walked away with $31,000. That's not a bad win considering he qualified through a $25 online satellite!

By 9:30pm, the player count had dropped to 20, and blinds were $20,000-$40,000. Perry Meltzer held the chip lead with $920,000. Just in case you were thinking "I'll never get into a big-money game like this", bear in mind that Perry qualified online for $32!

In second place was last year's PPM3 winner, Erick Lindgren, with $880,000. This was a considerable jump from his 22nd place finish yesterday with just $160,000. Tuesday's chip leader Richard Kain, also an online qualifier, had dropped to third place with $745,000.

Lindgren just busted out Casey Kastle. Casey had Qd-10d and Erick A-A. The flop came Ad-10d-6c. However, the flush didn't come for Kastle, with a turn the Qs and river Qc, which gave Lindgren Aces over Queens.

An hour later, only 16 players were still on the tables. Lindgren was now chip leader with over $1,000,000!

Mike Sexton, who's been keeping an eye on all the action for us, said: "Today is crunch time. It's the time we play down to six players who will make it to the final table. There's a lot of pressure on these players now - they're vying for the big bucks and the television show. There are currently 12 players left and among them are three buy-in players and nine that qualified on PartyPoker.com to win entry onto the ship. But this is every poker player's dream - whether they're amateur or professional - to win a WPT title."

By 11:45pm, that dream was a little closer for the remaining 10 players, with online qualifier Richard Kain racing to first place with an amazing $1,590,000 chip lead.

"It's crunch time on the ship tonight," Mike Sexton said. "Tensions are running high as the six finalists each vie to become one of two millionaires."

Play kicked off at the final table at 8:00pm with blinds of $20,000/$30,000. Limits started at $30,000/$60,000. By 9:00pm, after six hands, these were the chip counts:

Adam Csallany: $330,000
Mathew Cherachal: $1,440,000
David Minto: $2,330,000
Paul Darden: $1,100,000
Richard Kain: $1,170,000
Michael Gracz: $860,000

By 9:50pm, Michael "The Kid" Gracz has soared into first place and is up to over $2.5 million. Richard Kain, who had been the chip leader coming into day four's play and came into the final table in second place, is busted out in the 54th hand of the night when Michael's 7-7 beat his A-Q.

Chip count:
Adam Csallany: $1,700,000
Mathew Cherachal: $1,060,000
David Minto: $1,600,000
Paul Darden: $500,000
Michael Gracz: $2,500,000

By 10:30pm, Paul Darden has been knocked out. He had gone all in, showed 7-7 but his set was beaten by chip leader Michael.

Chip count:
Adam Csallany: $2,000,000
Mathew Cherachal: $750,000
David Minto: $1,600,000
Michael Gracz: $3,000,000

With only four players remaining, the limits increase to $100,000-$200,000 and the blinds are now $50,000-$100,000.

By 11:35pm, after a series of million-dollar hands, Adam Csallany goes out in fourth place with $500,000. Adam had quite a run but his aggressive play was capped when he was check raised out of some big hands in late action. We are now down to three players.

Chip count:
David Minto: $1,700,000
Mathew Cherachal: $1,500,000
Michael Gracz: $4,300,000

Just before midnight, Mathew Cherachal bowed out in third place, taking home a tidy $700,000. Mathew, a regular player at PartyPoker.com, won his seat at the final table for just $32. However, he'd been on short stack and had been getting bullied left and right by chip leader Michael Gracz's aggressive pre-flop raises. Mathew finally got a hand and was all in pre-flop with A-Q. Michael called with his 9-8. The flop came K-5-5, which kept Mathew in the lead. The turn came 4 and the river was a boon for Gracz, the 9. The winning pair of 9s locked up at least $1 million for Gracz. He was now in commanding chip position with $5.6 million going heads up against David Minto.

Chip count:
David Minto: $1,750,000 approx.
Michael Gracz: $5,600,000 approx.

Going into the final heads up action David and Michael reveal their screen names:
Michael – NC Kid
David – Mad Dog X2

Just before 1:00am, Michael raises preflop and David re-raises. There's now $960,000 in the pot preflop. Flop is A-Q-J rainbow. Both players bet $160,000. Turn is 4d. David bets $320,000. River is Ad. David bets and Michael re-raises David all in for his remaining $640,000. David doubles up with the diamond flush.

On a J-8-6 flop David bets and Michael raises. Turn is 2d. Michael checks. David bets $320,000. Michael re-raises to $640,000. David calls. River is the Kh. Michael bets $320,000 and David calls. Michael has flopped two pair with his J-8 and takes down a huge pot.

David now has $1,750,000 and Michael has about $6.5 million.

Heading into the final stretch, Michael and David are $1.2 million into the pot preflop. The flop comes 10-8-5. David bets and Michael calls. Turn is 7 and both players bet the minimum. The river is the 8. David bets and is called. His A-7 is outkicked by Michael's A-9. This leaves David with only $40,000 so it's showdown poker for the last hand of the PartyPoker.com Million IV as David cannot cover the blinds.

Michael turns over J-2 suited and David has 10-5. The flop is J-J-5. Michael has flopped a set of Js, and this holds up to earn him $1.5 million dollars and the PartyPoker.com Million IV championship title.

We caught up with David after the final round. "I'm married with three kids," he said, "and one of them is the same age as Michael! Winning $1 million probably won't change our lives, although it'll double out net worth! We'll probably save some and give some away."

In between celebrations, we asked Michael what he thought of the whole event. "I've had a lot of fun on the PPM4," he said. "It's one of the best tournaments on the WPT, although I swear everyone on the WPT is an alcoholic!" When asked by Linda Johnson for tips and advice, he replied: "Get lucky!"