Weekend action in the 41st World Series of Poker spilled over into the early hours of Monday morning, with two events reaching a final table, popular pro Daniel Alaei winning his third WSOP bracelet and Huck Seed receiving the accolades as the best of 27 top names in the Tournament of Champions.
Seed is $500 000 wealthier following his victory in the hard-fought tournament, in which an elected field of 27 that included some of the best players in the world clashed over three days of poker. The fifteen year veteran pro faced Howard Lederer in the heads up, despatching him with a second placing payday of $250 000.
The win brings Seed, who holds four WSOP winner’s bracelets, up to almost $6 million in career earnings and adds to a long string of live tournament honours that includes winning the WSOP main event in 1996.
Other aces on the final table were eliminated like this:
Johnny Chan out in 3rd place ($100,000)
Joe Hachem gone in 4th place ($25,000)
Barry Greenstein eliminated in 5th place ($25,000)
Daniel Negreanu busted out in 6th place ($25,000)
Jennifer Harman exited in 7tgh place ($25,000)
Annie Duke left in the eighth spot ($25,000)
T.J. Cloutier was ousted at ninth ($25,000)
Event 54 – the $1,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em competition closed with the final table decided Sunday night and will reconvene Monday to decide a winner. The final table comprises:
1 David Peters 2,653,000
2 Marcel Vonk 2,253,000
3 Henrik Tollefsen 1,878,000
4 Nathan Jessen 990,000
5 Matthew Lupton 973,000
6 Dustin Dorrance-Bowman 794,000
7 Mehul Chaudhari 789,000
8 Paul Kerr 784,000
9 Espen Moen
Average Chip Stack1,281,333
Level 33 of Day 4 in event 55, the $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Championship completed in the early hours of Monday morning with Daniel Alaei taking the bracelet – his third – and the main prize of $780,599
French ace Ludovic Lacay had looked to be a shoe-in for the winning spot earlier but fell short, ending in fourth place for a paycheck of $262,208. Ville Mattila was eliminated in 3rd place for $354,218, setting the scene for the heads up between French Canadian player Miguel Proulx and Alaei.
Alaei used a solid chip advantage to quickly and decisively outplay his Canadian opponent and claim the main prize and his third bracelet, leaving Proulx with a second placing payday of $482,265.
Day 3 of event 56, a $2,500 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em competition and the last of the preliminary events failed to reach a winner despite continuing into the wee small hours of Monday morning, prompting the officials to bag up for the night and return Monday.
The good news is that at level 25 it did produce a final table when James Mackey busted out in the tenth spot for $47 232. This is the composition of the final table:
1 Salvatore Bonavena 4,505,000
2 Tomer Berda 3,410,000
3 Vladimir Kochelaevskiy 2,025,000
4 Joseph Curcio 1,205,000
5 Alfonso Amendola 910,000
6 Bryan Porter 740,000
7 Hungcheng Hung 740,000
8 Ali Alawadhi 670,000
9 Mike Wattel 365,000