Daniel Alaei Takes Down Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic

Published on December 20th, 2009 4:34 am EST

Daniel Alaei outlasted 328 other entrants to take down the WPT Doyle Brunson Classic Championship earlier this evening, taking home $1,428,430, an entry into the $25k WPT Championship and a Rolex watch in the process.

Alaei, who is a very skilled cash game and tournament player, managed to come from behind to defeat Josh Arieh in heads-up play. Arieh had a 13 million to 6.8 million chip lead after Faraz Jaka was eliminated in third place, but had to settle for the second place finish (and $952,290).

The final hand of the tournament came when Alaei and Arieh had nearly identical stacks (Alaei had about 10.3 million, Arieh had about 9.5 million).

After a pre-flop raise to 700k (blinds were 120k-240k with 20k antes) from Alaei, Arieh called.

The flop came 10d-5d-2s. Arieh checked, Alaei bet 900k, Arieh pushed and Alaei ended up making the call.

Arieh flipped over 7h-7s for a pair of sevens.
Alaei flipped over 10h-8d for a pair of tens.

The turn brought the 6h, which helped neither player.

The river brought the 8c, giving Alaei two pair and the victory.

With his victory, Daniel Alaei now has about $3.8 million dollars in total lifetime tournament cashes. Alaei also managed to accomplish the very difficult task of winning both a World Series of Poker bracelet and WPT title in the same year.

In order to win his first WPT title, Daniel Alaei had to battle through a very stacked final table that included the likes of Josh Arieh, Faraz Jaka and Scotty Nguyen.

Here is how the final table finished out:

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

Nguyen, with his $250k cash, now has just under $11 million dollars in total lifetime tournament cashes. Scotty is now 4th on the all-time money list, passing both Joe Hachem and Phil Hellmuth Jr. with his fifth place finish.

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This was the last major poker tournament of 2009. Next up - the 2010 PCA, which gets underway in early January.

Source: PS Blog - EPT Season 5


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Filed Under: Tournament Results