Daniel Alaei Wins at Bellagio, Captures First WPT Title

• Author: Qid
• Filed under: Daniel Alaei, High Stakes News, High Stakes Results, Poker, Poker Tournament, Scotty Nguyen, WPT
• Date: Dec 21,2009

Alaei (pictured), a winner of two WSOP bracelets, added a WPT title to his resume after beating a strong final table at Bellagio, including former WPT winners Scotty Nguyen and Shawn Buchanan. At one point of the final Alaei was the short stack with only 8 big blinds, but managed to fight his way back to the heads-up against Josh Arieh and eventually to the victory.

First player of the final table was Steve O’Dwyer, who pushed his 19 big blind stack all in from the small blind with A-6 suited against Nguyen. Scotty quickly called with a pair of jacks in his hand and the flop of J-7-6 almost sealed the the fate of O’Dwyer. Ace on the turn gave him some more outs, but a four on the river meant that O’Dwyer was out in 6th Place winning $202,362.

Nguyen couldn’t keep up the pace though, as he was next player hitting the rail. After an under the gun raise by Josh Arieh, Scotty moved all in with 9-9 and Faraz Jaka repeated the move forcing Arieh to fold. Scotty was in a rough shape against a pair of kings Jaka had in his pocket. The board gave no help for “The Prince of Poker” and he was out in 5th place, pocketing $249,976 for his efforts.

A former WPT winner Shawn Buchanan couldn’t repeat the feat this time as he was ousted by future winner Alaei in 4th place. Buchanan moved all in with K-8, but was dominated by Alaei who had A-K in the pocket. Fourth place finish earned Buchanan respectable $333,302 in cash.

Three-handed play lasted only twelwe hands and the heads-up duo was set when Jaka moved all in with A-6 and Alaei woke up with K-K from the big blind. Alaei flopped a set and Jaka was out in 3rd place and $571,374 richer.

Josh Arieh started the heads-up play with a 2:1 chip lead, but Alaei turned the tide in just the second hand of the HU, when he won a coinflip with Q-Q against A-K. Alaei widened the cap between the two and almost had the victory in his hands when Arieh moved all in with A-7 against Alaei’s A-Q. Arieh luckboxed a seven on the turn and the pair was back in level.

But only three hands later Alaei got a revenge, when he flopped a top pair with T-8, on a T-5-2 board, against a pair of sevens. Arieh moved all in thinking his hand was good and the call from Alaei meant that Arieh was in a need of a miracle. Arieh couldn’t spike a seven on the turn or on the river though and Alaei was crowned the champion of the last WPT in 2009.

Here is the final payouts of the WPT Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic at Bellagio:

1. Daniel Alaei – $1,428,430
2. Josh Arieh – $952,290
3. Faraz Jaka – $571,374
4. Shawn Buchanan – $333,302
5. Scotty Nguyen – $249,976
6. Steve O’Dwyer - $202,362
7. Joe Cassidy – $154,747
8. Eric Hershler – $107,133
9. Curt Kohlberg – $76,183
10. Chad Batista – $57,137
11. John Juanda – $57,137
12. Lee Salem – $57,137
13. Mike Sowers – $47,615
14. Carter King – $47,615
15. Matt Waxman – $47,615
16. Joseph Elpayaa – $38,092
17. Brent Hanks - $38,092
18. Jamie Rosen - $38,092
19. Jeremy Brown - $28,569
20. Matt Stout - $28,569
21. Steven Landfish - $28,569
22. Farshad Fardad - $28,569
23. Antonio Esfandiari - $28,569
24. Joe Pulliam - $28,569
25. Steve Brecher - $28,569
26. Amit Makhija - $28,569
27. Michael McClain - $28,569

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