Booted Giant Panda Among Highlights at WSOP Main Event Final

With two players nobody has heard of competing for a $8,361,570 first-place prize at this week's World Series of Poker Main Event final table, why not enter a giant panda to the equation to spice things up?

Better yet, have that giant panda escorted out by security.

The panda was finalist Jay Farber’s mascot, escorted out of the Penn and Teller Theater at the Rio in Las Vegas early Tuesday morning.  Up until that point, the panda may have brought Farber some much-needed good luck.  Ultimately it was Ryan Riess who walked away with the grand prize.

Farber didn’t do so bad himself.  The consolation prize was a cool $5,174,357.

Riess is a former poker dealer and Michigan State University student. 

Winning the World Series of Poker Main event is a dream come true that few can even comprehend being that there are thousands of entries, including the biggest names in poker today.  Riess was not one of them until this huge win. 

"I've been dreaming about it for a long time, ever since I was 14 and saw [Chris] Moneymaker win it," Riess said shortly after his victory.

Riess had a hard time finding words to describe what it felt like winning over $8 million in front of a large crowd of friends and family. "I was so excited waiting 100 days or whatever it was to play this. I'm just speechless."

Getting back to Farber’s panda, this wasn’t the first beast to be removed from a WSOP Main Event.  Back in 2006, World Series of Poker organizers demanded that Mickey the real life chimp be barred from taking part in that year’s event.

Oh the humanity!!!!

- Ace King, Gambling911.com