Photo Credit: World Poker Tour
Dan Colman defeats Max Altergott in heads-up action to capture his fourth major title of the year, and continue a run of results that has never before been seen in the history of the game.
Can Anyone Stop Colman?
That was the banner splayed across the World Poker Tour (WPT) website as we entered the final stages of the WPT Alpha8 Season II stop at the Palm Beach Casino in London’s upmarket Mayfair.
Everyone knew the answer.
A heater is not just about skill. Nor is it all about confidence. It’s also about a period of luck produced from a mind and body over flowing with belief. I don’t believe luck is dished out in equal servings. I believe it’s doled out on a most deserved basis, and right now Dan Colman is more deserving that most.
Hedge Fund Manager, and Philanthropist, Talal Shakerchi, is also a man who has more stores of luck than most. The owner of Meditor Capital used a sprinkling of that luck to oust Stephen Chidwick, in ninth place, to set up the final table. A wired pair of nines, finding a second nine on the flop to send Chidwick out of the contest in his first Apha8 event, despite holding the vastly stronger pocket tens.
“This is the point where we are usually all excited because we have all locked up a huge sum of money.” Said Trickett as the final table photo was taken.
The Everest Ambassador was alluding to the fact that despite the final table of eight alpha males, only four were going to get paid. Trickett wasn’t one of them. Neither was the schoolteacher looking Christoph Vogelsang, the quiet Russian Vladimir Troyanovskiy, and the eventual bubble boy Sorel Mizzi.
By the time Mizzi had left proceedings in fifth place, Dan Colman had taken the chip lead from Shakerchi, and the WPT back room staff was placing the new banners on the site. Colman is one smart cookie. Shakerchi will be the first to admit that he is a dog against Isaac Haxton, Max Altergott, and Dan Colman, and his propensity to play so many hands, when chipped up, was fully exploited by Colman.
He was also a breath of fresh air. He was pulling tricks out of his bag that made me a k the players seated at the table if I was imagining things. The boy was bold, brave and brash.
Stoic and sullen in front of the camera, he was anything but as he chirped away incessantly at the table, so much so that Max Altergott seemed to be getting a little irked by it during the three way action.
Shakerchi would eventually fall in third. Another great display by a businessman, who is turning his ‘hobby’ into something much more than that. His third place finish coming just weeks after a second and third in the recent World Championships of Poker (WCOOP) on PokerStars.
The heads-up battle was between Altergott and Colman. Two players who took advantage of the re-entry clause to buy-in for two bullets apiece. Colman had done his research. He told the German that he had one of the most impressive ROI’s on The Hendon Mob. Four cashes, over $2.5m in earnings, and three victories from four.
It should have been such a treat. The might of Germany taking on the proud poker nation of the USA, but I would be lying if I reported that. Instead, we got two extremely tired young men who were so desperate to get to the finishing line that they decided to skip five levels and move straight into the 50,000/100,000 level.
An all-in shove fest ensued and it was Colman who reminded everyone, that it really doesn’t matter how good you are, everyone needs that little bit of luck, and it seems for the duration of 2014 – it’s all heading the way of Daniel Colman.
WPT Alpha8 London Results
1st. Daniel Colman – £600,000
2nd. Max Altergott – £350,000
3rd. Talal Shakerchi – £224,000
4th. Isaac Haxton – £160,000
