BY TOM SOMACH

There won’t be a repeat champion at the World Series of Poker (WSOP) main event.

Jamie “Good As” Gold, the obnoxious California television producer who won the 2006 WSOP main event, has been knocked out of this year’s WSOP main event.

The knockout means the last person to win back-to-back WSOP main event championships will continue to be Shanghai, China’s own Johnny “The Orient Express” Chan, who lives in the U.S. now and who turned the trick in 1987 and 1988.

Other back-to-back WSOP main event winners were Johnny Moss, who did it in 1970 and 1971, Doyle “Texas Dolly” Brunson, who did it in 1976 and 1977, and Stu “The Kid” Ungar, who did it in 1980 and 1981.

Brunson and Chan earlier were knocked out of this year’s WSOP main event.

Ungar died of a drug overdose several years ago.

Gold, of Malibu, Calif., USA, earned $12 million for beating out 8,772 other poker players and winning last year’s WSOP main event.

That cash prize is the largest in WSOP main event history, and likely will never be topped, now that newly-implanted restrictions on who can compete in the WSOP are in effect.

With the WSOP for the first time this year banning any players from qualifying by winning online tournaments, there were only 6,358 entrants in this year’s main event, down almost 30% from last year.

With fewer players in the main event, there were fewer dollars in registration fees, and thus, the top prize will be much lower this year–only $8.25 million.

(E-mail Tom Somach at tomsomach@yahoo.com.)