World Poker Tour: Mike Watson Wins Bellagio Cup IV

Lance Bradley | July 18, 2008 at 6:39 pm

The final table of the World Poker Tour‘’s Bellagio Cup IV was star-studded and included two players, John Phan and David Benyamine, who had recently captured their first World Series of Poker bracelet. But in the end it was Mike “SirWatts” Watson who came out on top and captured the $1.67 million first place prize.

Watson erased Benyamine’s 3.28 million chip lead over 34 hands of heads-up play to eliminate the Frenchman in second place. The online pro was also responsible for the elimination of Luke “IWearGoggles” Staudenmaier in third, Ralph Perry in fourth and Gabe Thaler in sixth place.

On the final hand of the night Watson moved all-in from the button pre-flop holding Qh 9s and was called by the short-stacked Benyamine who held Kh 9h. The Qc on the flop put Watson ahead and when no king came for Benyamine, Watson had the title. On top of the prize money Watson also receives the WPT champions bracelet, the Bellagio Cup bracelet and the $25,000 entry into next April’s WPT Championship.

The event attracted a field of 446 players, each paying $15,000 to create a total prize pool of $6,489,300. This event will be the first to air on Fox Sports Net as part of the WPT’s newly announced broadcast agreement. An air date has not yet been announced.

The win is the first for Watson whose previous best finish in a WPT event was 10th, last February at the LA Poker Classic.

Other notable finishes include David Pham in ninth ($90,495), John Gale in 11th ($64,640), Glen Chorny in 14th ($64,640), Daniel Alaei in 20th ($51,710), Hevad “RAIN” Khan in 25th ($38,785), Ted Forrest in 26th ($38,785) and Barry Greenstein in 30th ($38,785).

The next WPT event is the Legends of Poker at the Bicycle Casino in Los Angeles, August 23 - 28.

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