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.
