A hotel businessman playing only his third live tournament ever has scooped the latest WPT for almost $1.3 million dollars. Raj Patel took the first prize along with the $25,000 entry to the WPT grand final at the Bellagio later this month. Despite many Americans heading over to Monte Carlo for the €10,000 event, the tournament still managed 415 players in the last of an eleven tournament series. Even still, few of the big names managed to take down a big score, Chau Giang and Paul Darden populating a field of mostly unknowns by finishing 24th and 30th respectively.
Although Patel could be described as a tournament novice, he started the final table with over a third of the chips in play, the count being as follows:
Raj Patel: $3,347,000
Seth Berger: $1,505,000
Antonio Cavezza: $1,391,000
Fred Goldberg $1,044,000
Paul Matteo: $570,000
Allen Kessler: $444,000
After Kessler finished in 6th and Seth Berger took 5th, it was Goldberg who fell next in what became a crucial three-way for Raj Patel. Patel raised with A-8 from the button to 200k (blinds were 40k/80k at this point), Cavezza made it 600k from the big blind with Aces, Patel then made it 1.5 million and Cavezza pushed all-in and was called by Patel.
Although Patel could be described as a tournament novice, he started the final table with over a third of the chips in play, the count being as follows:
Raj Patel: $3,347,000
Seth Berger: $1,505,000
Antonio Cavezza: $1,391,000
Fred Goldberg $1,044,000
Paul Matteo: $570,000
Allen Kessler: $444,000
After Kessler finished in 6th and Seth Berger took 5th, it was Goldberg who fell next in what became a crucial three-way for Raj Patel. Patel raised with A-8 from the button to 200k (blinds were 40k/80k at this point), Cavezza made it 600k from the big blind with Aces, Patel then made it 1.5 million and Cavezza pushed all-in and was called by Patel.
The flop came a heart-breaking 8-8-7 and the case Ace was nowhere to be found. This gave Patel a 2:1 chip lead against Paul Matteo, who had laddered up from 2nd bottom in chips at the start of the final table to find himself heads-up.
However, he failed to move up that final rung and eventually succumbed to Patel's dominating stack when the latter pushed all in on a K-3-5-K-7 board, Matteo calling with K-2 only to find himself rivered by the nut straight.
So, congratulations to Raj and the other finalists, and let's see how he manages at the WPT Main event at the Bellagio in two weeks' time. Be sure to follow his and many others' progress on the blondepoker live updates.