Martin Alcaide Shows Up Big In WSOP Colossus

Martin Alcaide primarily plays poker online. The Spanish-born Bulgarian told World Series of Poker reporters he likely would not have event been at this year’s WSOP if it weren’t for winning a main event seat online at partner site GGPoker. With that seat locked up, Alcaide made his way to Las Vegas and decided to enter into the $400 buy-in no-limit hold’em ‘Colossus’ event. He ended up overcoming the massive field of 19,303 entries to earn $501,240 and his first gold bracelet.

Prior to this win, Alcaide had just shy of $12,500 in prior live cashes to his name. Now, he is a WSOP champion.

In addition to the title and the money, Alcaide also earned 576 Card Player Player of the Year points. This was his first-ever POY qualified score.

The seas of players that turned out for this event built a prize pool of $5,940,883. The top 2,296 finishes secured a piece of the pot. Notables that ran deep included 2004 WSOP main event winner and Card Player columnist Greg Raymer (56th), seven-time bracelet winner Men Nguyen (27th), and Matt Glantz (19th).

The event featured three starting flights and then three more days of combined-field play. The final day began with 92 players still in contention, with Alcaide inside the top 20 when cards got in the air. By the time the field combined onto a single table, he had overtaken the lead.

Joshua Welch (10th – $42,200), Nicholas Richards (9th – $53,354), and Trevor Brown (8th – $67,840) hit the rail in the early going, with Alcaide being the one to send Brown packing.

Caleb Powell’s A-7 was unable to hold against the J-8 suited of Ricky Andino. Powell earned $86,800 as the seventh-place finisher. A few minutes later, Bohdan Slyvinskyi lost a classic race with pocket queens against the A-K of Joel Vanetten. An ace-high runout saw Slyvinskyi eliminated in sixth place ($111,740).

Yujian Eugen Zhou was almost elimianted in fifth place, but was able to crack Alcaide’s pocket aces with J-10 to double up and stay alive. Alcaide fared much better in his next key clash, with A-Q suited holding against the K-Q of Andino (5th – $144,700) to narrow the field to four.

Joel Vanetten’s A-K did not work out quite as well in the next preflop all-in. Zhou’s Q-10 suited flopped two pair and improved to queens full of tens on the river to end Vanetten’s run in fourth place ($188,510).

Zhou’s surge continued when he picked up pocket kings against the A-9 suited of Brooks Floyd (3rd – $247,030). Floyd made top pair on the flop, but Zhou had hit a set. Floyd was unable to improve any further and headed to the payout desk to collect his quarter-million-dollar payday.

Heads-up play began with Zhou holding 395,000,000 to Alcaide’s 377,000,000. Alcaide took down a chunky pot right away to jump out to a sizable lead. In the final hand he moved all-in from the button with 77 and Zhou called with 55. The board came down QJ96J and Alcaide’s higher pair held to earn him the pot and the title. Zhou was awarded $325,640 as the runner-up finisher.

Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded at the final table:

Visit the Card Player 2024 World Series of Poker page for schedules, news, interviews, and the latest event results. WSOP coverage sponsored by Global Poker.

Winner photo credit: WSOP / Hayley Hochstetler.

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