Home / Poker News November 2012 / Daniel Cates is the New All Star Showdown Champion
Daniel Cates is the New All Star Showdown Champion
Posted by: James Carter. - Mon, 2012-11-05 11:19
The All Star Showdown has wound down at
PokerStars and the winner is Daniel Cates. Cates bested Ben Sulsky heads-up in the final which was held yesterday. The final took place at 4 heads-up tables, and Cates provided plenty of proof as to why he’s called one of the best heads-up NL Holdem players in the world. The final heads-up bout was basically a bullying session, as Cates wiped the floor with his opponent at all 4 tables.
While it did end up running for 10 hours, the final showdown was by no means as tightly contested as some of the other match-ups. It did take Cates 3,000 hands to put the match away, but in all honesty, it was all pretty much over after 1,000 hands. By then, Cates was in the driver’s seat and he wasn’t going to cut his opponent any slack.
Lady Luck and variance did give Sulsky an opportunity to claw his way back into the contest, but the constant pressure applied by Cates proved too much to overcome eventually.
The win earned Cates a massive prize of $550k, not to mention the bragging rights which the defeating of seven of the world best players naturally garners. Tony G was the one who backed Cates in the All Star Showdown, so some of the prize-money will obviously end up in his pockets.
Sulsky was rewarded quite handsomely for his runner-up effort too: he picked up $250k.
Sulsky defeated Isaac Haxton to make his way into the final, while Cates disposed of Phil Galdfond. The match Cates had against Galfond appeared to be a much closer affair than the final: at one point, Cates found himself in a $100k hole, but he obviously managed to dig himself out.
