After two days of play in what was a disappointing turnout for the World Poker Tour Alpha8 series, Daniel ‘Jungleman’ Cates emerged as the champion over local favorite Kinesh Pather at the Emperors Palace Hotel Casino in Johannesburg, South Africa, this afternoon.
The WPT Alpha8 tournaments have had decent fields leading up to the Alpha8 Johannesburg event, but the eventual turnout in South Africa has to be a disappointment. Only nine men showed up for action at the event – Cates, Pather, Jason Mercier, Philipp Gruissem, Erik Seidel, Jeff Gross, Phil Ivey, Max Altergott and Antonio Esfandiari – and both Ivey and Altergott were eliminated during Friday’s action. Although he also was sent to the rail, Esfandiari decided to take a second shot at the tournament and was a part of the seven man squad that came back on Saturday to play.
When they came back for action on Saturday, Cates was in the lead as the only man over the 300K mark in chips (317,000, to be exact). Pather was attempting to keep pace with him at 204,500 chips, while Mercier (175K), Gross (114,500), Esfandiari (102K), Gruissem (62K) and Seidel (25,500) were looking to get back in the tournament. Only three men of the seven would walk away with any return on their investment, with third taking $200,000, second $275,000 and the eventual champion $500,000.
Only two hands into the festivities, there would be a change on the leaderboard as to the tournament leader and how many players were left. After Pather made an early position raise, Esfandiari called out of the big blind to see a Q♥ J♦ 7♥ flop. Esfandiari checked his option, then fired a raise over Pather’s 7500 chip bet in making it 22,500 to go. Pather moved all in on the aggressive Esfandiari, who quickly made the call and tabled a K♥ 6♥ for the flush draw. Pather, however, turned up a Q♠ J♥ for top two pair, which was able to survive the 4♣ turn and the 10♦ river. As Esfandiari left in seventh place, Pather moved slightly ahead of Cates for the lead.
Coming into Saturday’s action as the short stack, Seidel would prove to be a formidable opponent. He found a double up through Gruissem (which led to Gruissem’s elimination at the hands of Gross ten hands after Esfandiari’s departure) but the big stacks surrounding him would eventually wear him down. Cates would retake the lead in eliminating Seidel, Cates’ pocket tens outlasting Seidel’s pocket sevens, to bring the final four men to the money bubble.
It would take a stunning 136 hands for the final four men to determine who the unfortunate “bubble boy” would be. Through that lengthy battle, Cates continued to stretch out his lead to a point where he held more than two times the chips of the other three men combined. It would be Cates who was responsible for bringing the players to the money in a clash against Gross.
After Cates min-raised the action to 16K, Gross would move all in against the chip leader. Cates debated his action for a bit before making the call and tabling a leading pocket pair of eights over Gross’ A-8 off suit. The Q-10-5 rainbow flop didn’t help Gross, but the Jack on the turn opened up more outs for him. Looking for an Ace or King to win the pot outright or a nine to split it, a three came on the river to send him home empty-handed in fourth place.
Now holding 783K in chips (over Mercier’s 114K and Pather’s 104K), Cates seemed in firm control of the tournament. After a dinner break, Cates sat back and watched Pather double up through Mercier (with Pather miraculously catching a four-flush against Mercier’s pocket Aces) before Cates would end Mercier’s day in third place. Holding more than five times the chips of Pather, it would only take Cates ten hands to dispatch his opponent and claim the latest crown on the WPT Alpha8 circuit.
1. Daniel Cates, $500,000
2. Kinesh Pather, $275,000
3. Jason Mercier, $200,000
Future dates for the WPT Alpha8 have yet to be announced, but it may behoove WPT officials to hold it when there is a regularly scheduled stop on the WPT tournament circuit. The next stop for the regular WPT tour will be next weekend at the WPT Fallsview Poker Classic. Held from February 22-24 at the Fallsview Casino Resort in Niagara Falls, Canada, the event is expected to draw a strong contingent of players from Canada and the United States vying for a prized WPT championship and – if they wanted to – might be able to draw a bigger field for the WPT Alpha8 circuit.
