Alexandre Gomes Wins the WPT Bellagio Cup V

Poker News - July 20, 2009 - Written by Bruce

Alexandre Gomes made a great comeback to emerge victorious at the World Poker Tour's Bellagio Cup V. He came into the final table with the smallest chip stack and managed to fight through an extremely tough field en route to his first career WPT title. The tournament had a $15,000 buy in which created a massive first prize for Gomes of $1,187,670. The big chip leader coming into the final table was Faraz Jaka who had almost three times as many chips as the second largest stack. Jaka who was also the chip leader for the last three days of the tournament, got heads up with Gomes before being eliminated in second. Jaka earned a huge payday of $774,780 for his runner up finish.

The first player to be eliminated from the final table was one of the biggest names in poker Erik Seidel. It took over 100 hands for Seidel to bust out which broke the WPT record for the most hands played at a final table before the first elimination. Justin Smith's pocket nines held up against Seidel's flush draw to send the poker great to the rail earning him $164,640 for his sixth place finish. Smith went on to finish in third place earning $464,870 as his consolation prize. When heads up play began the two players were close to even in chips with Gomes holding a slight lead. After a short while it was Jaka who began to take control and he got out to almost a 2 to 1 chip advantage. Gomes then settled in some and managed to turn the momentum his way. Ultimately Gomes got the chip lead back and the last hand saw his AJ hold up against the A7 of Jaka. Jaka played a great tournament but it was Gomes who was able to persevere and take down this prestigious title. He now has a WPT victory to go along with his 2008 World Series of Poker bracelet. Gomes now has almost $2.8 million in live tournament career winnings.

Alex Torelli was the chip leader after the first day of play and managed to ride that momentum all the way to a fourth place finish. He outlasted Christopher Sonesson who was the fifth place finisher. They earned $271,165 and $203,385 respectively. All six players who made the final table had survived a very tough field of some of the top players in the world. The WPT Bellagio Cup is known for having one of the most difficult fields and with the $15,000 entry fee this turned out to be a very exciting tournament. After it was all said and done it was Alexandre Gomes who was able to battle back from a short stack to win the his first WPT event.