The 2010 World Poker Tour Championship has finished up just two days ago at the Bellagio. One hundred and ninety five players showed up to compete in the $25,000 buy-in tournament. Several poker pros were on hand to compete in the event and in the end it was David Williams who would earn the first place prize.
Final table play of the event saw David Benyamine as the chip leader though David Williams was close behind with just 5,000 less in chips. At the bottom of the six player field was John O’Shea who was going to try and double up quickly. However his plan did not work as he was put out by Billy Baxter when he called with A-10 against O’Shea’s 6-3. O’Shea was the first to go from the final table.
Baxter wouldn’t be far behind and he would go out in fifth after going up against Williams. It would be a few hours before the next player would be eliminated. Eventually David Benyamine would move all in to try and gain more chips and Shan Buchanan would call. Benyamine held Q-J suited while Buchanan held A-5. The board would run 9-7-2-5-7 and Buchanan would win the hand with two pair.
Buchanan may have knocked out Benyamine in fourth place but that would be as far as he would go. Williams would raise 500,000 from the button preflop and Buchanan would raise to 2.2 million from the small blind. Williams then decided to move all in and Buchanan would call.
When the cards were shown, Williams held pocket nines and Buchanan held pocket queens. The board ran J-9-2-4-6 and Williams would win the hand with trip nines. Williams winning the hand would help grow his chip stack considerably. The pro would hold 15,105,000 in chips and then work to win the title of the event.
Williams would now have a three to one chip lead and the first major hand of heads up play would be the last hand of the tournament. Williams would raise 500,000 preflop and Eric Baldwin would move all in with 4,765,000. Williams would eventually make the call and everyone at the event was quiet as the players flipped over their cards.
Williams held pocket twos while Baldwin held A-5. The board came A-7-6-2-4 and again Williams would win the hand with a set of cards. This would eliminate Baldwin from the competition and give Williams the win. Even though he lost, Baldwin was still happy as the second place finish was his first ever million cash prize as a runner up in an event.
With the win, Williams won his first World Poker Tour title. This was the fourth time Williams had made a WPT final table but the first time he actually won an event. Williams was photographed with two big bricks of cash and he stated: ‘I had a vision of this, right here’.
Final Results:
1: David Williams — $1,530,537
2: Eric Baldwin — $1,034,715
3: Shawn Buchanan — $587,906
4: David Benyamine — $329,228
5: Billy Baxter — $246,921
6: John O’Shea — $199,888