There was certainly a lot of excitement at Saturday’s fast-paced final table of the World Poker Tour’s (WPT) Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, but there were plenty of interesting stories taking place on the rail as well. The stacked table of six had their respective cheering sections in attendance and big-name pros including Daniel Negreanu, Full Tilt Pro Greg “FBT” Mueller, Bodog’s Justin Bonomo, and the tournament’s namesake, Doyle Brunson, were all in attendance.
Steve “MrTimCaum” O’Dwyer may not have been the most recognizable face to the casual poker fan, but the longtime online pro had one of the largest cheering sections with Darryll “df1986” Fish, Isaac Haxton, Bonomo, UB.com’s Adam “Roothlus” Levy, Bryan “badbeatninja” Devonshire, Scott “gunning4you” Seiver, and Vivek “Psyduck” Rajkumar all rooting him on. This was O’Dwyer’s first career televised final table, so his peers came out in full force to cheer him on.
“Even those he’s had trouble with these big tournaments for the past year, he’s been sticking with it and it’s finally paying off for him. He’s very driven to do well,” Fish explained to Poker News Daily. O’Dwyer informed us that this was only his second World Poker Tour (WPT) cash, with the first one coming in the Bahamas in 2007.
Levy delayed his return home to Los Angeles to stick around and cheer on O’Dwyer. While Levy liked O’Dwyer’s chances, especially if he could get down to shorter-handed play, he predicted early in the final table that Faraz “The-Toilet” Jaka and Daniel Alaei would pose the most trouble to everyone else. “Faraz is obviously good. Alaei is good too. Shawn Buchanan doesn’t have a huge stack, but he’s still in the mix.”
Jaka also had several friends in attendance who showed their support for their notoriously stylish friend by each donning one of his signature hats. For those who may not be familiar with the online poker pro known as “The-Toliet,” Jaka has worn everything from a fedora to a toboggan at the poker table and, last night, sported a dapper vest and newsboy hat combo. One player cheering Jaka on was Brent “Astrolux85” Roberts, who was also in attendance when Jaka made his first WPT final table appearance at the Bellagio Cup back in July.
Poker News Daily asked Roberts if he thought this final table would be more or less interesting than the Bellagio Cup’s. “That last final table was so long,” he said. “There were a lot of exciting components, but hopefully this one will be more interesting; there are a lot of good players at the table.” Roberts also had nothing but kind words about his friend: “[He’s] one of the friendliest people I’ve met in the poker world. He’s a sicko.”
Nguyen was one of the fan favorites at the table and the room cleared out quite a bit after his elimination in fifth place. Buchanan’s rail, which included longtime friend and fellow Canadian Mueller, also made their exit following Buchanan’s elimination. Negreanu arrived to the final table a little later in the action, as did Haralabos Voulgaris and Jeff Madsen. They stuck around for the heads-up match between Alaei and Josh Arieh, as did Alaei’s father, Eddie.
The elder Alaei stuck around for the duration of the final table watching his son in action, but stepped out for a minute during heads-up play. While he was away, Arieh and Alaei got it all-in with the title on the line and he almost missed his son’s moment in the sun. Thankfully, Negreanu apparently tipped him off that a big hand was brewing and Eddie ran back just in time to catch the last of the action.
As Alaei was posing for photos with the winning hand and prize money, Eddie repeatedly thanked Negreanu and told the pro he owed him one. Then, in one of the more heartwarming moments of the evening, father and son posed together for photos and headed out of the ballroom to celebrate Alaei’s first WPT victory.
