Dave Alfa wins second gold ring during Choctaw series, secures a Global Casino Championship seat.
January 14, 2019 (Choctaw) - Dave Alfa is the latest ring winner of the World Series of Poker Circuit, taking down the Choctaw Main Event for a staggering $320,998. This is Alfa's second ring, both coming from this series. He locked up a seat into the Global Casino Championship with this main event win, as well as recorded his biggest cash to date.
There were a total of 1,161 registration slips sold for this main event, by the start of the third and final day the field had dwindled down to just 14, with Alfa sitting near the bottom of the pack. It was early when Alfa started climbing, finding a double with queen ten against Dapo Ajayi's queen eight during the first round of the day.
When Alfa was asked about his play throughout the day he replied, "I just think my sheep are giving me some good luck and run good, ya know!". Which seemed to be true as he was running over the tournament for most of the day. He would bust Srinivasa Vadlamudi out in tenth place with a rivered nut straight, and the final table was then set, with all players getting a pay jump to $31,836.
The biggest turning point during the final table for Alfa was during a hand where Austin Lewis would end up moving all in with big slick against Alfa's pocket aces. Directly after that double up happened, Alfa seemed to just keep his foot on the gas peddle. He would then secure another massive pot against Kevin Rand with ace queen to his ace ten, taking the tournament lead during the hand with just six players remaining.
After almost two hours of six-handed play, the tournament would have another casualty in Amir Kaikhah, who would fall to Kevin Rand in a classic race, he would be followed shortly by Austin Lewis, who would run into the pocket jacks of Dapo Ajayi just hands after.
Once the tournament had just four remaining it really started to heat up. It seemed as a player was dropping every other hand, each of which were falling victim to the hands of Alfa. Gamini would take a leave first to, failing to connect with his eight high against Alfa's king jack.
Kevin Rand would exit just two hands after when he moved all in six high into Alfa's king high, failing to hit anything and exiting the tournament in third. Heads-up play lasted just two hands before Ajayi would move all in with pocket ducks against Alfa's ace four. A four would come on the flop and the rest is history, as Alfa would take down the tournament, eliminating the final three and earning a Main Event victory in the process.
The tournament started on Friday, attracting 441 players on Day 1A. Dapo Ajayi was the chip leader of the first 65 that bagged during the first flight. Day 1B compiled a total of 720 slips, with Michael Wood emerging as the chip leader of the 105 that moved on from that flight. The remaining 170 players came back on Day 2, playing 10, 60-minute levels before bagging up and moving on to the final day where it would be Kevin Rand leading to start the day. It took just one and a half hours to reach the official final table, with the whole tournament concluding just six hours into the day.
Alfa needed to finish top seven to surpass Andrew Robinson and take down the Choctaw Casino Champion title, obtaining an automatic seat into the Global Casino Championship. He succeeded in cracking the top seven, passing Robinson in the race, however he would go on to take down the Main Event which earns an individual zero points, as they are already given a seat for taking down the title. Meaning Robinson is the Choctaw Casino Champion and will be given a seat into the GCC.
1st - Dave Alfa - $320,998
2nd - Dapo Ajayi - $198,265
3rd - Kevin Rand - $147,327
4th - Arshin Gamini - $110,812
5th - Austin Lewis - $84,375
6th - Amir Kaikhah - $65,009
7th - Mohammed Arani - $50,674
8th - Brendon O'Neal - $39,945
9th - Will Berry - $31,836
FULL RESULTS
Live updates from the event.