Jamie Gold won a record setting $12 million and the World Championship title at the 2006 World Series of Poker. It took a while to get hold of the entire sum due to a dispute with a friend who allegedly had been promised half of Gold's potential winnings as payment for certain marketing efforts (the dispute came to an amicable arrangement.)

Gold, a media agent from California, studied entertainment law at UCLA and has helped launch the careers of several high-profile starts in film and TV such as James Gandolfini, Felicity Huffman and Lucy Liu. Before the WSOP 2006, Jamie Gold was mentored by his friend, world champion Johnny Chan, and he lives next door to Chris "Jesus" Ferguson, another poker world champion.