Daniel Alaei Wins!
by Court on 12.20.09, 3:56 am
He came into heads up play with only about half as many chips as Josh Arieh but Daniel Alaei was able to rally, win a big race and go on to take the title at the Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic.
Josh Arieh had a shot to win the title when he had Danny all in with his AK against the pocket queens of Alaei. The two had raised back and forth preflop until all the chips were in in a classic race situation. Once the betting was done there was over 14 million in the pot and after the queens held up Danny Alaei jumped to the chip lead.
The two battled and Arieh dropped to below 5 million chips before they were all in again. This time Alaei had Arieh dead to rights with his A
Q
dominating the A
7
of Arieh. The 9-9-2-7-8 board paired the live card for Arieh though and he was able to double up to bring the players to almost dead even in chips with 10 million each.
Soon the two were all in again. Danny had opened for 700k and Arieh made the call. On the {T}52 flop Arieh check raised all in over the 900k bet from Alaei. After a brief pause Alaei made the call and turned over the T8 while Arieh was drawing thin with the 77. “I’m lucky but I don’t think I’m that lucky,” Arieh commented after seeing the hands. He was right, the board ran out with the 6 and the 8 ending and impressive final table run for Arieh and sending the title to Daniel Alaei. For second place Arieh takes home $952,290.
The victory is worth $1,428,430 for Daniel Alaei along with the other perks of winning a World Poker Tour title including a Rolex watch and an entry into the $25,000 buyin World Poker Tour Championship here at the Bellagio in April.
Faraz Jaka 3rd ($571,374)
by Court on 12.20.09, 2:57 am
With Josh Arieh holding a majority of chips it didn’t take long in heads up play before one of the short stacks was all in and called. Faraz “The-Toilet” Jaka moved all in for 2.59 million (blinds at 100k / 200k 15k ante) and Danny Alaei called with pocket kings. Faraz had the A6 but just like O’Dwyer earlier his A6 did not improve against the pair and he Jaka (right) was eliminated in 3rd place for $571,374.
Jaka now has a 3rd place finish to go along with his runner up finish here in July where he took home $775,000 for his efforts. He is now over 1.25 million in earnings at the Bellagio alone this year, but has come up just short of a title on two separate occasions.
The elimination of Jaka leaves Josh Arieh and Danny Alaei heads up for the title. After eliminating Jaka the chip gap has drawn slightly closer with Alaei going into heads up play with 6.8 million to the 13 million of Arieh. The second place finisher will get $952,000 while the winner will take home an extra half a million for a total of $1,428,000
Busto: Nguyen 5th, Buchanan 4th
by Court on 12.20.09, 2:16 am
The short stacks at the Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic found the time right to get the chips in the middle. With the blinds up to 80k /160k and a 15k ante and Josh Arieh amassing the lion’s share of the chips it was time for the rest of the players to ratchet up the intensity. That, along with some big hands led to a deluge of all ins and calls.
After Josh Arieh opened for 350k Scotty Nguyen moved his last 1.365 million in and Faraz “The-Toilet” Jaka moved all in over the top for 5 million plus. Arieh wanted no part of it and gladly got out of the way leaving the two all ins heads up. Jaka had found the KK and had the 99 of Nguyen dominated. Nothing changed when the board was ran out and Nguyen (right) became the 5th place finisher for $249,976.
A steady upward climb for Josh Arieh finally picked up a small dip when he doubled up Danny Alaei. Josh had opened for 425k and Alaei moved in for 1.77 million. Josh took a brief moment and checked the count on the chips before calling with the KJ. His cards were live against the A9 of Alaei but an ace on the flop gave Alaei a big advantage in the hand. Arieh picked up a gutshot straight draw on the turn but the river missed his 3-outer and Alaei was able to double up to nearly 4 million while Arieh was left with a healthy 10 million chips.
Alaei put his newfound chips to use the very next hand. Shawn Buchanan moved all in for 1.5 million and Alaei put all his chips in as well. Faraz and Arieh folded leaving Buchanan all in with his K8 against the AK of Alaei.  There were a lot of middle cards on the flop that gave a brief scare to Alaei but the 9-7-3 flop didn’t hit Buchanan’s eight and after the board ran out with another nine and a jack Shawn Buchanan (left) was eliminated in 4th place for $333,202.
After eliminating Buchanan the chip stack in front of Alaei had quickly jumped back up to 5.5 million, ahead of the 3.5 million stack of Jaka and trailing the 10.5 million stack of chip leader Josh Arieh.
Arieh continued to add to his lead, taking a chunk out of Alaei’s stack. Danny limped in for 160k from the button in 3-handed play and Arieh raised from the big blind to 560k. Danny called and on the J93 flop both players checked to the 8 turn. Arieh then bet 725k and Danny raised to 1.8 million. Josh made the call and with the 6 river both players checked to showdown. Josh turned up his 87 for a pair of eights and once Danny’s cards went face down into the much Arieh was able to collect another large pot and build his chip leading stack to over 13 million while dropping Alaei to shortstack status with his remaining 2.8 million.
Bottom to Top: Arieh Takes The Lead
by Court on 12.20.09, 1:31 am
After coming into the day as the short stack things started slowly for Josh Arieh. He wasn’t invovled in many pots early on and it looked like Steve “MrTimCaum” O’Dwyer was the short stack that was going to assert himself and make a move. O’Dwyer ended up busting and since then Arieh has went on a tear, going from bottom to top and taking a chip lead with over 7 million chips now in his stack. Danny Alaei is second in chips, but trails Arieh by over 2 million chips.
Arieh (right) got the ball rolling by winning a coinflip to double up against Scotty Nguyen when he was all in preflop with pocket sevens against the AJ of Nguyen. After doubling his shortstack Josh went on to win a handful of pots to build his stack, making an impressive call along the way with ace high.
Faraz “The-Toilet” Jaka (left) had opened for 300k with the blinds at 60k / 120k and a 10k ante and Arieh called from the small blind. On the T74 flop Josh check called a 575k bet from Jaka to see the K turn where both players checked. On the T river Arieh again checked over to Jaka who fired out 700k. After a short pause Arieh made the call with only the A9 for only ace high. Jaka’s hand was never shown and the ace high call sent a pot worth over 3 million chips to Josh Arieh and boosted his stack to almost 6 million while dropping Jaka to around 4 million.
While Arieh continued to chip up, a lot of it came at the expense of Jaka. After falling all the way down to 2 million chips Faraz ended up all in against Danny Alaei. With the blinds up to 80k / 160k and a 15k ante Jaka moved all in for 2.1 million chips from under the gun and the action folded to Alaei in the big blind. Danny took a while but ended up making the call with the A9 but had run into the QQ of Jaka. The board ran out K6437 and with that Faraz doubled back to over 4 million while Danny fell to the bottom of the chip counts after holding the lead not too long ago.
Chip Counts:
Josh Arieh - 8.8 million
Faraz “The-Toilet” Jaka - 4.3 million
Shawn Buchanan - 2.9 million
Scotty Nguyen - 2 million
Danny Alaei - 1.7 million
O’Dwyer Out 6th
by Court on 12.19.09, 10:58 pm
Play at the final table went for a few hours with not a lot changing from where the players started the day. The most notably movement was that of Steve “MrTimCaum” O’Dwyer (right) in the very early going where he went from a million chips up to around 2 million. After that chips moved around a little but the stacks stayed pretty stagnant with nobody making a huge push in either direction and the blinds slowly inching up.
With play in the 50k / 100k 10k ante level the action folded to O’Dwyer in the small blind and with the A6 he moved all in on Scotty Nguyen’s big blind. Scotty made the call with the JJ and on the J76 he had O’Dwyer drawing to runner runner. The turn was the A giving O’Dwyer some hope but not much as he needed one of the two remaining aces to hit on the river. The miracle didn’t happen and with the 4 Steve O’Dwyer was eliminated in 6th place for $202,362.
After the O’Dwyer elimination Scotty pulled even with Faraz “The-Toilet” Jaka for the chip lead. Here is how they stack up:
Faraz “The-Toilet” Jaka - 5.7 million
Scotty Nguyen - 5.7 million
Danny Alaei - 3.2 million
Shawn Buchanan - 3 million
Josh Arieh - 2.2 million
