Daniel Alaei in Full Tilt gear
Daniel Alaei tasted victory at the WPT Doyle Brunson 5 Diamond Classic for a handsome $1,428,430 pay day, eliminating Full Tilt pro Josh Arieh at the final table.
Expekt ambassador Scotty Nguyen’s fine fifth placed finish was marred by his abusive antics earlier on the in tournament. Nguyen reprimanded the dealer for a mistake, and then launched a foul-mouthed tirade at fellow player Dan O’Brien. Nguyen was eliminated when his pocket nines found themselves dominated by Faraz Jaka’s kings, and the board ran out A
J 8
2
8
to send Scotty to the side.
Pocket kings would then be the scourge of Faraz Jaka, as the Ultimate Bet representative shoved on the button with A 6. Daniel Alaei made the easy call, and Jaka was effectively drawing dead after the K 10 4 flop.
The heads-up match was decided when Arieh moved all in on a 10 5 2 board holding pocket sevens. Alaei made the call with 10 8, and the 6, 8 bricked on the turn and river to gift him the coveted title. Arieh had held a 2-1 chip lead going into heads-up, but was undone when his big slick ran into Alaei’s pocket queens.
The reserved Alaei is well known for his cash game exploits, having appeared on Season Two of GSN’s High Stakes Poker donning full khaki. Moreover, he didn’t even compete in Day 1 of the tournament, electing to be blinded off so he could square off against fishy Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberte in Bobby’s Room. On his victory, Alaei announced, ‘This is great. I’ve been wanting one of these for a while. I was basically the only one of my friends that didn’t have one, now I’ve got one and it feels great’.