The Bellagio Cup

Amidst all of the hype generated by the WSOP, it is easy to forget about the other great events going on in the world of poker. This year's Bellagio Cup will be aired as episode 3 in season 6 of The WPT. The event was a $10,000 buy in and featured a field of 535 entrants filled with talent. Many notables finished deep in the money including Steve Dannenmann (33), David Benyamine (26), David Chiu (14), and the young and agressive Nam Le (8). In the end it came down to a heads up battle between Kevin Saul and Mike "The Mouth" Matusow.

With the blinds at 40k/80k and a 10k ante, Matusow had 2.5 million in chips to Saul's 8 million. Saul raised to 220k with QQ and Matusow called with 7c 8c. The flop brought a ten of hearts with a 5 and 6 of clubs, giving Matusow and up and down straight draw with a flush draw. Both players got their money in with Matusow yelling out to let the crowd know that he had gotten his money in as a favorite (in this situation Matusow's hands is a slight favorite over the QQ). The turn and river brought neither a club, 4, or 9, giving Saul his first WPT win. Saul took home $1,342,320 while Matusow collected $671,320 for his efforts. Though young, Saul has been on the tournament circuit for a few years. He took home over $100,000 last November for his 2nd place finish in event 10 of the World Poker Finals. In this event, Saul was chipleader at the end of day 1a and never relinquished his lead. In addition to the prize money and the glory, Saul receives a free $25,000 entry into the WPT final.

-Benjamin Ryan