2008 WSOP Event #48, $2,000 No-Limit Hold'em: Alexandre Gomes Wins Bracelet
It took two days to thin the field of 2,317 entrants into Event #48 down to the final nine, but it took just a few scant hours for Alexandre Gomes to blow through the final table en route to his first World Series of Poker bracelet and the $770,540 first prize.
Gomes started the final table in the middle of the pack, as Marco Johnson held the chip lead when the final table began. The seating assignments and chip stacks looked like this when the final nine competitors took the field for the final table:
Seat 1: Dan Rome (Millington, Illinois) — 650,000
Seat 2: Ryan D'Angelo (Blacksburg, Virginia) — 520,000
Seat 3: Marco Johnson (Walnut Creek, California) — 2,135,000
Seat 4: Kirill Gerasimov (Moscow, Russia) — 1,145,000
Seat 5: Robert Brewer (Sherman Oaks, California) — 1,050,000
Seat 6: Gabe Costner (Long Beach, Mississippi) — 1,475,000
Seat 7: Alan Cutler (Vernon Hills, Illinois) — 535,000
Seat 8: Alexandre Gomes (Curitiba, Brazil) — 1,075,000
Seat 9: Sverre Sundbo (Oslo, Norway) — 685,000
Early on, Dan Rome moved all his chips in the middle preflop with 5♠4♠, but ran into Ryan D'Angelo's A♠A♦. Nothing out of the ordinary happened as the board ran out K♠K♥Q♦4♣2♠, and Rome was eliminated early from the final table in ninth place ($71,687).
Gabe Costner then headed to the rail in eighth place ($103,315), when he called Robert Brewer's preflop raise with A♠9♥; Brewer tabled A♦10♦, and sent Costner off when the board ran out 8♠6♣K♠8♦5♠. Brewer's ten played, and Costner was done.
Ryan D'Angelo claimed another scalp when he busted Sverre Sundbo in seventh place ($134,942). Sundbo moved all in over the top of D'Angelo, who quickly called with A♣Q♣. Sundbo tabled a dominated Q♦6♦, and he fell further behind on the 5♦A♥4♥ flop. The 10♣ on the turn left Sundbo drawing dead, and the meaningless 5♥ fell on the river to send him home in seventh place.
Kirill Gerasimov became the third victim of the early Ryan D'Angelo bulldozer when he lost a coin flip to finish the tournament in sixth place ($177,111). Gerasimov moved all in over the top of D'Angelo's preflop raise with J♦J♠, and D'Angelo called with A♠Q♦. Gerasimov held the lead on the 5♠5♦6♦ flop, and the 7♥ turn helped neither player. The A♦ river, however, gave the pot to D'Angelo and sent Gerasimov to the payout line.
Alan Cutler went from big stack to fifth-place finisher in back-to-back hands, despite being a dominant favorite when the money went in on both occasions. In the first hand, Cutler raised preflop with A♣Q♠ and called an all-in raise from Alexandre Gomes, who showed 7♠6♠. Cutler caught a great flop – A♠Q♣J♦ – but the turn and river came running sixes to give Gomes a key double-up. In the very next hand, Marco Johnson moved all in over the top of Cutler's preflop raise with 5♠5♦, and Cutler quickly called with Q♥Q♠. Johnson found his needed five in the window as the flop came down 5♥2♥J♥. The turn and river came down 6♠ and K♣, and Cutler headed to the rail in fifth place ($223,497).
Ryan D'Angelo claimed another victim when he flopped top set on a board of K♥5♥8♠ and busted Robert Brewer in fourth place ($274,101). All the money went in on the turn, with the board reading K♥5♥8♠4♦. D'Angelo tabled K♦K♠ for a set, and Brewer showed 10♥7♥ for the flush and straight draws. The 7♠ on the river was no help for Brewer and D'Angelo had another scalp.
After eliminating most of the final table, Ryan D'Angelo's luck ran out when he lost a coin flip against Alexandre Gomes and busted in third place ($326,812). Gomes moved all in over the top of D'Angelo preflop, and tabled 9♦9♣ to D'Angelo's A♣Q♣. The flop came down 7♦8♣9♥, and Gomes made a set. The 5♠ turn gave D'Angelo outs for a chop, but the 3♦ river ended his tournament.
Gomes took a commanding lead into heads-up play against start-of-day chip leader Marco Johnson, but Johnson was determined to make a match of it, doubling through Gomes several times before the final hand. In the final hand, Johnson moved all in over the top of Gomes' preflop raise with J♠Q♠. Gomes tabled A♠K♠, and the board ran out 3♥2♥4♦A♣4♣ to eliminate Johnson in second place ($491,273). Alexandre Gomes picked up $770,540 to go with his first WSOP bracelet.
