After surviving an engrossing battle at one of the toughest final tables in recent history, it was Brazilian wizard Alex Gomes who got Season VIII of the World Poker Tour off to a flyer with victory at this year’s Bellagio Cup V.
BELLAGIO CUP V
WHEN: July 13th-19th
WHERE: The Bellagio, Las Vegas
BUY-IN: $15,000+$400
ENTRANTS: 268
PRIZE POOL: $3,899,400
The Bellagio Cup has long earned itself a reputation on the World Poker Tour circuit for being something of a proving ground for internet legends seeking to take their game to the live arena.
Shannon Shorr, Kevin “BeLOWaBOVe” Saul and Mike “SirWatts” Watson have all etched their names into the history books by taking down the prestigious bracelet and at this year’s tournament, a new online phenomenon rose above the competition to join their rank.
Having already made himself known to online regulars and forum denizens the web over, Alexandre “allingomes” Gomes has slowly but surely been carving out a name for himself on the live circuit in the past year. The Brazilian internet sensation first samba’d his way to the attention of the live poker elite at last year’s World Series, where his success in the $2,000 NLHE event earned him his debut gold bracelet.
BOY FROM BRAZIL
Following that milestone, Gomes went on to secure notable cashes on his native tour – the Latin American Poker Tour – and at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, but all of the 26-year-old’s live winnings to date were easily eclipsed by his latest triumph at this year’s WPT curtain-raiser. The battle may have been long and the competition fierce, but at the end of a gruelling final table featuring the best of poker past, present and future, Gomes emerged victorious to net himself $1,187,670 and the second major title of an increasingly glittering career in live tournament poker.
Lining up alongside a formidable final six that included fellow online pros Alec “traheho” Torelli, Faraz “The-Toilet” Jaka and Justin “BoostedJ” Smith as well as eight-time bracelet winner Erik Seidel and Swedish pro Christoffer Sonesson, Gomes was eventually able to navigate his way to victory after defeating Jaka heads-up. The final hand occurred when Gomes opened for 535,000 and Jaka moved all-in over the top for the remainder of his chips. Unfortunately for Jaka, Gomes had the goods to call as well as the stack and quickly did just that with Ac Jh, leaving his As 7h in need of serious help going to the flop.
A drama-less board of 8d-6s-2c-6d left Jaka drawing to the three remaining sevens in the deck, but an innocuous 9s on the river left his ace-high out-kicked by Gomes to spark wild celebrations from the Brazilian contingent on the rail. A booming chorus of Portuguese song erupted in the Bellagio as Gomes picked up his first WPT title and bumper first place pay-out, with fellow pro Andre Akkari among the most vociferous of the Brazilian’s supporters. In addition to the title and prize money, Gomes became the first player of the new season to book his place in the WPT World Championship, where he’ll be hoping to emulate the success of yet another online hotshot come good on the WPT, last season’s winner Yevgeniy Timoshenko.
SEASON OF THE RICH
The ear-shattering celebrations that greeted Gomes victory were certainly a worthy climax to what proved to be an exhilarating start to Season VIII of the WPT. In total, 268 players turned up for the season opener, with the bulk of the competition taking their place in Day 1B. Indeed, so heavy was the disparity between the two opening days of play that only 79 runners began on the official first day of the tournament, but any one hoping that the smaller field would make for an easier passage through to Day 2 was to be sorely disappointed. Each table at Day 1A boasted five or six well-known pros and among them, Torelli quickly rose to the occasion to capture the end-of-day chip lead.
However, while Torelli started quickly and maintained his stack all the way to the final table, it took a little longer for Jaka to get his engine started. After scrapping away for the first two days, the online pro began running white-hot during Day 3 and propelled himself to an overwhelming chip-lead after making quads in back-to-back hands. Former WPT winner Seidel and Smith followed in his footsteps by picking up steam during Day 4, with the latter building a healthy stack after successfully picking off one of Seidel’s bluffs late in the day.
Gomes and Sonesson, meanwhile, took the unspectacular route and simply grinded their way through five days of play to slowly and steadily climb up the chip counts ahead of their first ever appearances at a WPT final table. With the cast now set for what Seidel would later describe as “possibly the toughest WPT final table ever”, an epic battle was ready to unfold and, fittingly, it took a record-breaking five hours and 108 hands before the day’s first casualty took their place on the rail.
When the bust-out eventually came, it was the table’s elder statesman, Seidel, who became the unlucky player to be eliminated first. After starting the day fourth in chips, the 49-year-old rallied to climb his way up to second before faltering and eventually getting the last of his chips in with a flush draw against Smith’s overpair of nines. The nines held up to send Seidel packing in sixth place, and he was followed shortly after by the only other “live” pro at the table after Sonesson’s pocket fours lost out to the ace-queen of Gomes.
With just the four internet pros remaining, the aggression was understandably kicked up a couple of notches and Gomes soon able to steal the chip lead from Jaka for the first time in three days after doubling through his opponent. Gomes was also able to eliminate the dangerous Torelli in fourth after winning a huge race with pocket tens against ace-queen, but not before Jaka had avenged his earlier misstep by doubling back through the Brazilian with pocket kings.
SAMBA BOYS
During all this, Smith had been quietly plodding away on the short-stack until two fortunate double-ups rocketed him into the chip lead. The second of these lucky breaks proved to be so miraculous that Smith’s vigorous celebrations actually caused him to injure himself while sharing the moment with his supporters on the rail. Fortunately, the young pro was able to continue, but he soon found his stack decimated after his dominated ace-queen failed to improve against Gomes’ ace-king and Jaka soon hoovered up the remainder of his chips a few hands later with pocket kings.
That left just Gomes and Jaka remaining to contest the title, and after a short while of back-and-forth play, Gomes managed to pull away from his web-savvy opponent before delivering the knockout blow in 243rd hand of play. While the battle for his first WPT title may have been long and arduous, Gomes was by no means short of energy when it came to savouring the moment with his friends and family - and if the Brazilian spirit in the Bellagio was anything to go by, their celebrations will have lasted long into the Las Vegas night.
Final Table Payouts
1st Alexandre Gomes - $1,187,670
2nd Faraz Jaka - $774,780
3rd Justin Smith - $464,870
4th Alec Torelli - $271,165
5th Christoffer Sonesson - $203,385
6th Erik Seidel - $164,640 |
