Daniel Christopher Alaei was named the grand prize winner of the Doyle Brunson Five Diamond Poker classic that ended this week. He had outdone the other 328 players who are on the field and take home an astounding $1.4 million in bag money.
He’s known specialty is the cash games in the NLHE wherein he amass a whopping $3.7 million dollars all through out his poker career. He owned 2 WSOP bracelets to be proud of and also had been successful in winning the $10,000 World Championship Omaha Hi/Lo 8-or-better tournament. He has a record of cashing in 18 events in the WSOP which gain him $1,533,917 take home pay.
On the first day of the WPT event that had a $15,000 buy-in he joined the side tables, leaving the first set of plays behind. “I signed up to play and some guys were starting up a big cash game,” Alaei thought. “So, I played in that over the tournament for the rest of the day.”
The time comes for the final table to be set and Alaei was group with the most daunting opponents of the field and that includes: includes Josh Arieh, Faraz “The-Toilet” Jaka, Shawn Buchanan, Scotty Nguyen, and Stephen “MrTimCaum” O’Dwyer.
Holder of five WSOP bracelets, Scotty Nguyen tried to play at his best but just ended up in the fifth place and not the title. He took home $249,976. Then he was commended by his colleagues and he thankfully replied:
“Everybody is a good player these days. You’ve got to respect that. All these young kids these days, they come in to play and they have nothing to fear. They have nothing to lose, only gain.”
The hardest part of the game for Alaei was when he was head to head with 2 time WSOP winner Josh Arieh. They played a good deal of cards before the final hand that decided it all appeared. Arieh holds 7 pockets and the flop is 10-2-5. He placed all his money on the pot post-flop. Then Alaei made a call with a 10, 8 card. Alaei won with the hand and Arieh went home $952,290 richer.
“It was not an easy call for me,” Alaei stated. “If he had a 10, I was pretty much dead.”
Alaei got the pot of $1.4 million and wins the WPT title. He was questioned about how he feels for his win. He stated that he wanted to win for a long while now and it feels great. All his friends already gained the title and he’s the only one who’s not.