Randal Flowers, who can be found in online circles under the handle “RandALLin,” came out on top of the field in the World Poker Tour’s (WPT) Festa al Lago on Wednesday night. Following extended play on Tuesday, the six-handed final table took fewer than 100 hands to complete and Flowers walked away with $831,000.
Flowers entered the televised finale with the chip lead and it took 25 hands for an elimination to occur. Skip Wilson, whose dual double ups at the expense of Full Tilt Poker pro Annette Obrestad on the tournament’s play down day derailed her chances at her first WPT final table, shoved all-in with Q-10 on a 10-high flop. Michael “benvo123” Benvenuti made the call with pocket queens and Wilson picked up a flush draw on the turn to leave him drawing to 11 outs on the river. However, the final card was an offsuit deuce, which sent Wilson to the rail with $112,000 to show for his efforts.
WPT Legends of Poker winner Andy Frankenberger, seeking his second title of the season, 3bet all-in before the flop with pocket fives. Flowers, who was the initial raiser in the hand, called with pocket 10s and was a 4:1 favorite to eliminate Frankenberger. Neither player improved when the board ran out A-J-8-4-K and Frankenberger fell in fifth place. His six-day run in the Festa al Lago was worth $161,000.
As a result of Frankenberger’s elimination, WPT host Vince Van Patten’s hair won’t be lopped off… for now. Van Patten and WPT Executive Tour Director Matt Savage have a bet over whether there will be a dual WPT winner this season. If there is no dual winner, Savage owes Van Patten $100. If a player captures two titles during Season 9 of the WPT, Van Patten must shave his locks.
Jason “jakoon1985” Koon busted in fourth place from the Festa al Lago Main Event. Koon called all-in on a board of K-8-8-9-7 and tabled 6-5 for a nine-high straight. However, it turned out to be the sucker end, as Flowers showed J-10. Flowers’ stack ballooned to over 7.8 million as a result, or more than the other two players combined.
On the 82nd hand of final table play, Noah Schwartz 3bet all-in pre-flop with K-Q and Flowers looked him up with A-Q. The board gave Schwartz a gutshot straight draw to a 10 on the turn, but he whiffed on the river to exit in third place for $344,000. The hand gave Flowers a 5:2 chip lead heads-up over Benvenuti, 9.7 million to 3.7 million.
Benvenuti ultimately moved all-in with Q-7 of spades on a flop of 9-6-5 with two of the suit for a flush draw and a gutshot straight draw. Flowers called with 9-3 for top pair and the turn was the four of clubs. With chants of “Rand-all! Rand-all! Rand-all!” permeating the Fontana Lounge at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, Flowers and Benvenuti watched as the final card was a red ace, giving Flowers his second WPT title. In June 2009, he took down the WPT Spanish Championship in Barcelona to the tune of $414,000 and became the youngest WPT champ ever at age 20. Now, he’s the youngest player ever to win two WPT titles.
Here were the final results from the WPT Festa al Lago:
1. Randal Flowers – $831,500
2. Michael Benvenuti – $564,200
3. Noah Schwartz – $344,968
4. Jason Koon – $225,680
5. Andy Frankenberger – $161,200
6. Skip Wilson – $112,840
If you’re a rabid WPT fan, don’t worry. Next Friday, the Foxwoods World Poker Finals will kick off from the forests of Connecticut. The $10,000 buy-in event will crown a champion on November 2nd, one week before a winner of the 2010 World Series of Poker Main Event is determined in Las Vegas. The World Poker Finals offers one starting day.