Dario Aloto Wins WSOPE Bracelet at 5,000 Pot Limit Omaha Event
165 players paid 5,000 English pounds for Event #2 of the World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE) held at the Empire Casino in London, England. With all the buy-ins, the prize pool reached a whopping 825,000 pounds, one of the biggest pots ever for an Omaha poker tournament in Europe.
The Event # 2 went on for two days with the first day seeing more than 100 players eliminated. Day Two started with 48 players remaining. Only 18 players would be in the money, and there was stilll a lot of Omaha to be played even before making the final table. Within 20 minutes, 4 players busted out. One of them included Bruno Fitoussi, who had two second-place finishes in prior WSOP events, including the 2007 $50,000 HORSE event.
Other notable eliminations over the next hours included 2005 Player of the Year Allen Cunningham of Full Tilt Poker, 2-time WSOP bracelet winner Chris Bjorin, and WSOP bracelet winner and WPT champion Eli Elezra. Eventually, after three hours of play the bubble burst with Will Hayden being the designated bubble boy.
Eventually, the final table came four hours later with Afghanistan’s Sherkhan Farnood entering the final table with the chip lead. Other final table players included the likes of Hungarian Istvan Novak, Frenchman Antoine Arnault, Tony G of Lithuania, Finland’s Sampo Lopponen, Joe Razaghi,Dave Callaghan and Andy Bloch of Full Tilt Poker.
However, the biggest name to be remembered in the final table would be that of Italian Dario “Ryu” Alioto, who won the tournament and knocked out almost everyone from the final table, save for Andy Bloch who was knocked out by Farnood at 8th place to earn over 22,000 pounds.
Alioto first eliminated Joe Razaghi, who was short-stacked entering the final table. Razaghi busted out in 9th place and earned himself over 16,000 pounds. Alioto’s next victim was Sampo Lopponen (7th), followed by Sherkhan Farnood (6th), then Antoine Arnault (5th), then David Callaghan (4th).
The three-way battle seemed to last a bit longer, but eventually Tony G fell down at third place in the hands of Alioto. The heads up play saw Alioto having a commanding 7-to-1 chip lead over Istvan Novak. And in only 6 hands, Novak busted out, earning himself over 130K in English pounds for his second place finish. And, of course, Dario Alioto was given his first ever WSOPE bracelet by winning the 5,000 Pot Limit Ohama event. Alioto also received over 230K for his victory, prevailing after 15 hours of poker play.
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