Poker news

Daniel Alaei won event No. 18 ($10,000 Omaha eight-or-better world championship) at the World Series of Poker on Tuesday, June 9.

Alaei took home the first-place prize of $445,898 and his second gold bracelet for defeating a tough field of 179 players. Alaei won his first gold bracelet at the 2006 WSOP in a $5,000 no-limit deuce-to-seven lowball event.

The final heads-up match came down to a face-off between two of the most well-rounded younger poker players in the world when Alaei took a chip lead into battle against Scott Clements. The final battle lasted just two hands though, with Alaei securing the victory.

Alaei faced a tough final table stacked with pros such as Clements, Daniel Negreanu, Annie Duke, and John Monnette, but he prevailed in impressive style. The final day began with 17 players, and other notable contenders who just missed the final table included Toto Leonidas (17th place), Alex Kravchenko (16th place), Ted Lawson (14th place), and Jacobo Fernandez (11th place).


Here are the final results:

1. Daniel Alaei – $445,898
2. Scott Clements – $275,946
3. Ben Boyd – $182,730
4. Daniel Negreanu – $130,401
5. John Monnette – $97,422
6. Greg Jamison – $77,736
7. Tom Koral – $65,453
8. Annie Duke – $58,049
9. Yueqi Zhu – $54,179