American player Darren Elias is enjoying a spectacularly rewarding year, having won the WPT Borgata Poker Open for $843,744 in September, and this weekend the WPT Caribbean main event for a further $128,680 despite having to overcome a 4 to 1 chip disadvantage in the heads up.
Two back-to-back wins in such a major event is a feat achieved previously by Marvin Rettenmaier, but not in the same season, as was the case for Elias this weekend.
118 players registered for the WPT Caribbean main event, creating a prize pool of $366,272. The event was hosted at the Sonesta Maho Beach Resort and Casino Royale in St. Maarten.
It was a tough competition, with second-placed Christophe Rosso a formidable and fiercely aggressive opponent who had dispatched much of the opposition to face Elias in the heads up with most of the chips in play.
The heads up did no start well for Elias as Rosso leveraged his massive chip lead in an attempt to eliminate his last opponent as quickly as possible, winning five straight hands before Elias began to make headway in reducing Rosso’s lead.
45 hands later the two were still going hammer-and-tongs when Elias secured a major double up after risking everything on a key hand. That levelled the chip counts, but the battle raged on for a further 50 hands until another major opportunity saw Elias again risk his tournament life and pull it off to take firm control.
With a chip advantage of 2.7 million to Rosso’s 350,000, it was Elias’ chance to batter his opponent into submission, but Rosso fought on and managed to double up twice in the next ten hands. It was not sufficient to rein in the now rampant Elias, however and on the final hand he sent Rosso to the exit and a second placing take-home of $64,900.
Other final table pay days were:
George Griffith, $42,100
Mike Linster, $28,950
Ziga Jamnikar, $22,280
Dan Murariu, $17,370