Gregory Brooks Wins World Poker Tour L.A. Poker Classic

The 2011 L.A. Poker Classic was once again a major poker destination recently. The lineup of 54 events with generous blinds structures and the mild Southern California winter weather combined to attract tens of thousands of players to the world’s largest poker room at Commerce Casino. Millions of dollars in prize money was awarded, as well, with the winner of the World Poker Tour $10,000 no-limit hold’em main event becoming a millionaire.

The WPT main event is the crown jewel of this tournament series, and it was once again the featured attraction this year. The tournament attracted 681 players, and the final table featured two former WPT titlists in Carlos Mortensen and Vivek Rajkumar. Familiar faces Darryll Fish and 2009 Card Player Online Player of the Year Steve Gross, and lesser-known hopefuls Gregory Brooks and Amir Lehavot, rounded out the final six.

Brooks wasted no time grabbing the chip lead at the final table on the third hand of play, and he would not relinquish it the rest of the way. Fish was the first player to fall, at the hands of Mortensen, 31 hands into play. Fish was unable to overtake the pocket queens of the former world champion, and was eliminated in sixth place, for $235,350.

The professionals continued to trade blows when Gross fell in fifth place ($304,000). He was all in with J-10, and Rajkumar had A-3 on a K-K-9-7-4 board. Rajkumar then took out Lehavot in fourth place ($421,680). Rajkumar held pocket queens in that face-off, and Lehavot was unable to crack them with his K♠ Q♥.

Three-handed play then lasted for some time before the most successful player at the table made his exit. Mortensen got the last of his chips into the pot on a J♣ 5♣ 3♦ flop, and Brooks made the call. Mortensen held the K♠ J♦ against the 6♣ 4♣ of Brooks. The turn and river were the 5♦ and 10♣, giving Brooks a flush and Mortensen $640,680 for his third-place finish.

Mortensen was the most successful player in WPT history even before the cards were in the air on the final day of the tournament. He added to his record with the third-place finish and increased his career WPT earnings to $6,394,988. That finish also took his total career tournament earnings to more than $10 million.

The heads-up battle between Brooks and Rajkumar was a lengthy one, despite the large chip lead for Brooks when heads-up play began. Rajkumar made the final match a spirited one by doubling up and putting some pressure on his opponent before he was eliminated.

The end came on the 96th hand of play for the night, and it started with Brooks raising to 325,000 preflop and Rajkumar making the call. The flop came 7♦ 3♠ 2♥ and Rajkumar checked. Brooks bet 400,000, and Rajkumar went into the tank for a while before he check-raised all in for 3.5 million. Brooks made the call, and they flipped over their cards.

Brooks had the 8♠ 7♣ and Rajkumar turned over the J♥ 10♥. The turn and river brought the 2♦ and A♠, which made Brooks’ tournament victory official. Rajkumar just missed winning his second WPT title, but he increased his career tournament earnings to $4,089,806, thanks to the $908,730 runner-up prize. He put up a strong fight during the heads-up final, which played out over 35 hands.

Brooks was able to top the big-name professionals at the final table with his consistent aggressiveness. He took home $1,654,120, along with his first major title as the WPT L.A. Poker Classic champion, joining previous winners like Phil Ivey, Antonio Esfandiari, Michael Mizrachi, and Gus Hansen. He also was awarded a trophy that’s in the form of the classic Frederic Remington sculpture the Bronco Buster, a WPT bracelet, and a $25,000 seat in the WPT Championship.

L.A. Poker Classic final-table results were as follows:

1. Gregory Brooks — $1,654,120
2. Vivek Rajkumar — $908,730
3. Carlos Mortensen — $640,680
4. Amir Lehavot — $421,680
5. Steve Gross — $304,000
6. Darryll Fish — $235,350

Meet Your Champion:

Gregory Brooks

Gregory Brooks is a 23-year-old New Jersey native, and the World Poker Tour L.A. Poker Classic $10,000 no-limit hold’em main event that he recently won was his first WPT event. In spite of this, he displayed a quiet confidence at the final table that was uncanny. His calmness with that much pressure might have to do with the fact that he is a very experienced poker player, but not in major live tournaments. He has been playing online successfully as “MYNAMEIZGREG” since 2006, and in 2007, he founded the poker-coaching website LeggoPoker with Chris Tickner. In addition to advancing the business interests of his website and poker coaching, Brooks plays in $25-$50 and $50-$100 no-limit hold’em cash games both online and live.

He spoke of his experience level being a major source of his confidence. “There were a few different things that made me feel like I wouldn’t ever be intimidated. The first was that you have to have a competitive drive to be better than everyone else, and if you believe that, it will show. In addition to that, I do have a lot of experience playing live poker, probably second only to Carlos Mortensen, and I felt that a lot of the other players were quite inexperienced at live poker. So, they were giving away information in certain situations that they were not used to when sitting at home in their underwear, celebrating their pocket aces, and I was able to take advantage of that. I also knew that I wasn’t going to be fazed by the stakes, and I knew that would make a difference to some of the people at the final table,” said Brooks.

The first time was a charm for this poker professional who crushed his highest previous live-tournament win of $23,419 with the $1,654,120 that he took home after winning his first major title. “It was incredibly exciting and pretty emotionally overwhelming. I came into the day trying to win, actually, but it’s a lot different when it happens at the end of the day. That was really special, and I’m thankful that my family and all of my buddies were there to support me. It was a great opportunity,” said Brooks after his win. He was surrounded by his friends during post-tournament interviews, and they all wore patriotic Uncle Sam hats to drum up some colorful support for the young American, which will surely bring some energy to the WPT television broadcast in a few months.

Tournament Director Matt Savage noted that throughout the tournament, Brooks always listed America as his hometown when he bagged and tagged his chips at the end of the night. Brooks provided further insight into his patriotic spirit at the tournament. “What happened was that during the first few days of the tournament, I was playing against people from other countries who were pretty proud of their nationalities. So, at the end of each day, I would write AMERICA in big capital letters, circle it, put some stars there, put some flags there, and try to represent the United States,” said Brooks with a grin.

Brooks never looked back after he doubled up through Vivek Rajkumar three hands into the final table with pocket aces against pocket queens. That double-up gave him the chip lead, and he used his chips very well throughout the night with aggressive play. “My strategy throughout the entire tournament was to play aggressively, sort of whether or not my chips allowed me to, but I was lucky enough to have a bunch of chips, and was able to play a lot of hands. I was surprised that no one else really wanted to take the reins, so I decided that I would do so,” said Brooks.

Brooks also related after his win that he had a lot of experience playing against the most successful player in WPT history, Carlos Mortensen, throughout the tournament, and that helped him on the final day. “Carlos and I actually had a lot of interesting history, because we played together at the same table for three days during this tournament. We developed a lot of back-and-forth banter from all of the hands that we played. One of my strategies against him initially was that I didn’t fold to him. He tried to bluff me a lot, and I called in those situations. I thought it was unlikely that he would continue to try to bluff me at the final table, and that gave me a little more leeway with raising and trying to take down blinds and antes,” said Brooks. ♠