Alexander Gomes of Brazil wins 2008 WSOP Event 48

Alexandre Gomes from Curitiba, Brazil has won his first ever major tournament in the $2,000 No Limit Hold’em out lasting 2,316 competitors and earned himself a massive first place prize of $770,540 and a shiny World Series of Poker bracelet.

After two grueling days Event #48 was finally down to the final nine players that shaped the final table. Gomes came into the final table with 1,075,000 in chips, which was in the middle of the pack. Marco Johnson had a commanding chip lead over the rest of the field. When the final table started this is what the chip stacks looked like:

Marco Johnson (Walnut Creek, California) - 2,135,000
Gabe Costner (Long Beach, Mississippi) – 1,475,000
Kirill Gerasimov (Moscow, Russia) – 1,145,000
Alexandre Gomes (Curitiba, Brazil) – 1,075,000
Robert Brewer (Sherman Oaks, California) - 1,050,000
Sverre Sundbo (Oslo, Norway) - 685,000
Dan Rome (Millington, Illinois) - 650,000
Alan Cutler (Vernon Hills, Illinois) - 535,000
Ryan D’Angelo (Blacksburg, Virginia) - 520,000

The first victim of the final table was Dan Rome, who put his entire stack in with 5s-4s and ran into Ryan D’Angelo’s Pocket Aces. The board ran Ks-Kh-Qd-4c-2s and Rome found himself on the rail and was $71,687 more rich.

Eighth place went to Gabe Costner who earned $103,315 for his efforts. His final hand came when he called a preflop raise from Robert Brewer with As-9h and Brewer had Costner covered. Brewer showed Ad-10d and Costner was unable to suck out when the board ran 8s-6c-Ks-8d-5s.

A few hands later D’Angelo claimed another victim busting out Sverre Sundbo in seventh place, which was worth $134,942. Preflop D’Angelo made a raise and Sundbo moved all in and received a call. Sundbo showed Qd-6d and was dominated by D’Angelo’s Ac-Qc. The board ran Ah-5d-4h-10c-5h and Sundbo found himself heading home in seventh place.

D’Angelo kept pressing and took out Kirill Gerasimov when bother players put all their chips in preflop with pocket jacks vs ace queen. D’Angelo held the ace queen and he wasn’t to happy with the horse race when the flop and turn ran bricks. Although, he was smiling when the river was an ace, which eliminated Gerasimov and he became the third victim of the D’Angelo fright train. Gerasimov was outed in sixth place and earned $177,111 for his performance.

Alan Cutler took some bad beats and went from being a big stack to finishing in fifth place. On the first hand of back to back bad beats, Alan raised preflop with Ac-Qd and made an all in call from Alexandre Gomes who tabled 7s-6s. The flop came As-Qc-Jd and then the turn and river were both 6’s, giving Gomes trips and beating Cutler’s top two pair. The next dealt hand Cutler raised preflop with pocket queens and was re-raised all in from Marco Johnson. Cutler called immediately and the flop hit 5h-2h-Jh. This game Johnson a set, but Cutler could still win with a heart that doesn’t pair the board. The turn was a 6 of spades and river was a king of clubs. A really bad beat for Cutler, although he did receive $223,497 for his fifth place efforts.

D’Angelo’s forth victim came when he flopped top set and busted Robert Brewer. Brewer had a flush draw and gut shot draw and was against a set of kings. All the chips went in on the turn and the river did not help Brewer’s big draw and he was eliminated in fourth place earning $274,101.

The next victim for D’Angelo saw himself when he finally lost a coin flip against Alexandre Gomes. The players put all their chips in the middle preflop and Gomes turned over pocket nines and D’Angelo flipped up Ace Queen clubs. The board ran 7d-8c-9h-5s-3d and ended D’Angelo’s fright train on the final table. He finished in third and earned himself $326,812. Heads up was now ready to begin with Gomes having a solid chip lead over Johnson.

The final hand of the tournament was when Johnson re-raised all in and Gomes calling. The players held:

Gomes: As-Ks
Johnson: Qs-Js

The board ran 3h-2h-4d-Ac-4c and the pair of aces was more than enough to eliminate Marco Johnson in second place. Johnson earned $491,273 for his stellar performance and Gomes picks up $770,540. Congratulation Alexandre Gomes on your first ever World Series of Poker bracelet.