Home / Poker News March 2011 / WSOP-C Caesar’s Atlantic City Main Event – Brian Ali wins
WSOP-C Caesar’s Atlantic City Main Event – Brian Ali wins
Posted by: James Carter. - Tue, 2011-03-15 08:00
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WSOP-C’s Caesar’s Atlantic City Main Event saw a starting field of 442 players belly up to the tables when the action kicked off on day 1. At the end of 3 days of ferocious poker action, only one remained to claim the top prize of $139k: Brian Ali. At the final table, Ali proved that he did indeed deserve the top spot: he knocked out players left and right, his path to the top littered with other players’ broken dreams and lost tournament lives.
From the get-go, Ali was involved in just about every significant final table tussle. The first one of these came on only the second hand of the day, when he locked horns with Patrick Houchins. The money went all-in after the river card fell and Houchins showed down three Js with a K kicker on the side. Ali had made a flush on the river though, and Houchins took a huge hit, thrusting Ali into the chip lead.
Houchins didn’t give up and he doubled up a couple of times, surviving Joe Caffrey who became the first victim of the day.
Ali then swung into action and eliminated no fewer than 5 players during the 28th level.
Houchins, who had found new swagger in the wake of his spectacular bounce-back, contributed to the carnage as well, chipping in where he could. The elimination of short-stacked Ellis Jeff Frazier (also by Ali) meant though that the two of them would not be able to avoid each other anymore. They collided again over a flop of 2,7,8 rainbow, and Houchins shoved all-in holding 7,4o. Ali made the call with Kh,7h and his superior kicker held up through the turn and the river.
The heads-up stage between Ali and John Andress began with Ali holding a 2-1 chip advantage. Andress did fight back, and he drew pretty even by the time the final hand came about. In a rather dramatic fashion, the turn card which filled a two pair for Andress, gave Ali a straight and the tournament was over.
