Gomes Locks Up Another Bellagio Cup Victory for the Internet Pros

Season VII of the WPT ended with a tough final table that boasted some of the hottest young online poker pros, including Shannon Shorr, Elky Grospellier, Christian Harder, and the event’s champion 21-year old Yevgeniy Timoshenko. Just a few months later, the latest season of the WPT kicked off in similar fashion with the final table of Bellagio Cup V.

It is not unusual for this event to serve as a site for online poker pros making a name for themselves on the live tournament circuit. In 2006 Shorr took the title of Bellagio Cup II Champion. The next year, Kevin "BeL0WaB0Ve" Saul won it all during the first year of WPT televised coverage of the event. Last year, Mike "SirWatts" Watson continued the tradition with his victory. Now we have a new internet phenom to add to the list of Bellagio Cup winners: Alexandre "allingomes" Gomes of Brazil.

A total of 268 players turned out for this year’s event. The bulk of those players showed up for the second of the two starting days while only 79 people opted to play on Day 1A. The first day’s field was small but tough with each table featuring five or six name pros. Twenty-two year old Alec "traheho" Torelli was able to navigate through the stiff competition to end Day 1A with the chip lead. He would stay towards the top of the leader board for the rest of the tournament en route to his first WPT final table.

Another young pro, Faraz "The-Toliet" Jaka took center stage during the middle stages of event. Jaka started running white hot on the end of Day 3, making quads on consecutive hands to eliminate players and take an overwhelming chip lead which he would retain until the final table.

Season VI Foxwoods Poker Classic Champion Erik Seidel and internet pro Justin "BoostedJ" Smith picked up steam on Day 4. Seidel stayed very active, knocking out players and then doubling up himself while Smith was able to win a chunk of Seidel’s chips when he picked off a big bluff off him late in the day. While Seidel and Smith came on strong in the final days leading up to the televised table, Gomes and Scandinavian pro Christoffer Sonesson grinded through five days of play to slowly work their way up the chip counts and make their first WPT final table as well.

In an interview with WPT Live Updates Hostess Amanda Leatherman, Seidel said he thought this was possibly the toughest WPT final table ever.  If Seidel’s opinion is any indication, respect for internet pros in the live poker world just keeps growing, as four of the six finalists made names for themselves via online poker.  In addition to being heavy on online pros, the table was also one of the younger final tables in WPT history. Seidel was the oldest player at 49 while the next oldest was Gomes at 26.

The final table got off to a slow start as players exchanged chips for five hours and 108 before losing a player—a new WPT record. Seidel started the day 4^th in chips and climbed as high as second over the course of the first 100 hands at the final table. Seidel’s chips began to dwindle and he eventually got it all-in with a flush draw against Smith’s overpair of nines. The nines held and Seidel was eliminated in 6^th place. Sonesson was the next to fall when his pocket fours failed to hold against the A-Q of Gomes and he busted out in 5^th place.

Shortly after the elimination of the two pros from the live poker world, the four internet whiz kids kicked up the aggression and the action picked up. Gomes doubled through Jaka to take away his chip lead for the first time in three days. Jaka would have his revenge though as he doubled up through Gomes when his pocket kings held against Gomes’ K-J. Then Torelli and Gomes got it all-in for Torelli’s tournament life in a race situation that saw Gomes’ pocket tens prevail over Torelli’s A-Q to eliminate Torelli in 4^th place.

Smith spent the early goings of the final table quietly plugging along on the short stack, but he rocketed to the chip lead at the start of three-handed play thanks to two fortunate double ups in which he caught miracle cards on the river to stay alive. Smith was so enthused after his second double up that he injured his knee celebrating with his rail. Smith gave the crowd a scare as he doubled over in pain, but he insisted on returning to the table and trying to win his first WPT title.

Smith made a valiant effort in the face of his injury but a massive all-in preflop showdown in which Smith held A-Q to Gomes’ A-K left Smith with less than 2 million chips. It didn’t take long before he got the remainder of his stack in holding A-4 to Jaka’s pocket kings.  Another double up was not to be as the kings held to eliminate Smith in 3rd place.

Gomes held a slight chip advantage over Jaka at the start of heads-up play and the two battled back and forth for a while before Gomes began to pull ahead. On the final hand of play the two players got it all-in preflop with Jaka holding A-7 to Gomes’ A-J. The jack kicker held and Gomes boisterous rail of supporters including fellow pro Andre Akkari burst into cheers and song as he eliminated his third opponent of the day and secured his first WPT title.   

Here are the complete results from the Bellagio Cup V final table:
1^st: Alexandre Gomes – $1,187,670
2^nd: Faraz Jaka – $774,780
3^rd: Justin Smith – $464,870
4^th: Alec Torelli – $271,165
5^th: Christoffer Sonesson – $203,385
6^th: Erik Seidel – $164,640