2004 at the World Series of Poker was remarkable because of one older patent attorney’s crazy glasses, a summer for the ladies and a group of kids who stated they’d take over the poker world and for one year they did.  Let’s look at the youngsters first:  the nascent batch of online poker buddies Scott Fischman, Dutch Boyd, and Brett Jungblut comprised The Crew and all three finished first or second in ‘04.  Fischman did double duty winning two bracelets and Boyd who came into the series as the most well known of the trio came up short.  These guys got their own article in Rolling Stone magazine, mainstream success rarely seen in poker.

Boyd’s went to final tabling online poker tournaments to a live final table at the 1.5k Seven Card Razz and he locked horns with the irascible old Texan bull TJ Cloutier for the bracelet.  Cloutier’s run of bad cards outlasted Boyd’s (remember it was Razz) and gave him enough momentum to win the modest 90.5k first place prize.  Boyd came into prominence with his deep run the previous year, and despite having modest poker success to that point, the young genius was all over re-runs of Moneymaker’s World Series win.

Boyd also  made the bold proclamation the year before on the telecast that “The Crew will take over the world.”  Escourted away from the cage by Fischman and Jungblut one year later Boyd was proving prophetic.  Things got started in the 9th event.  Scott Fischman, a former dealer, and now an avid poker pro got into heads up action with grinder Joe Awada.  Fischman fell over the table kissing his money and bracelets after banking the 300k win.

For some players like James Vogl, winner of event 2, a bracelet is a highpoint perhaps never achieved again.  For Fischman, who enjoyed a poker name of his own even if it wasn’t quite a Moneymaker, victory again  was just around the corner a 2k H.O.R.S.E. tournament.   Jungblutt won his bracelet by taking out Miami John Cernuto in the 5k Omaha Hi-Lo Split for 187k. 

Fischman looked like the best of the Crew when John Cover faced one of only two two time winners at that World Series.  Fischman added 100k to his bankroll for the win.  The other two timer was Ted Forrest who place first in a 1.5k No Limit Hold’em tournament, denying Susan Pritchett for 300k.

Pritchett had a shot to be one of many women to win a bracelet that year.  Cyndy Violette, Kathy Liebert, and Annie Duke all won bracelets.  Hung Doan won the 1k Ladies Limit Hold ‘Em tournament over Millie Shiu, but the other ladies bested the men.  The beautiful Cyndy Violette added the first bracelet to the female wrist when she won the 2k Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo Split in event 10. 

Poker has gone through many permutations and there is always hope that it will go through a female boom but it never has really taken hold.  Still, for one year the ladies (and The Crew) were winning bracelets left and right.  Annie Duke whose later stint on Celebrity Apprentice propelled her to one of the biggest names in all of poker beat Ron Graham for her bracelet in the 2k Omaha Hi-Lo Split.  She won 137k for her favorite noncharity… herself.  Ante Up for Africa would have to wait.

Kathy Liebert won her bracelet by beating Kevin Song in the 1.4k Limit Hold ‘Em Shootout.  Liebert’s first place prize was over 110k.  Gavin Griffin, who would later paint his hair pink in honor of breast cancer research became the youngest ever bracelet winner. 

There were several other big names to win bracelets in ‘04.   Chau Giang, Joe Awada and Farzad Bonyadi added bracelets to their collections. Daniel Negreanu, Barry Greenstein, John Hennigan,  Thomas “Thunder” Kelly all also won one.  Greenstein was narrowly denied in the last event before the main event to win his second of the series.   Course the Main Event was just to come and evidence of the seismic shift in poker Moneymaker’s victory the year before had cause.