Alex Kanaher Wins Largest WPT Tournament in History

Call him the Comeback Kid. Call him Mr. King (you’ll see why later). Call him anything you want, as long as you call Alex Kanaher the champion of the World Poker Tour (WPT) Legends of Poker tournament, which concluded Wednesday night at the Bicycle Casino. The field of 839 players was the largest in WPT history and contributed to a prize pool that gave Kanaher $1,125,000 for his efforts.

Kanaher started the television table in second place out of the six remaining players, almost in a dead heat with the chip leader, movie director, Todd Phillips. The only player who was way behind was Kevin O’Donnell, who only had $500,000 in chips; everyone else was over $1 million. O’Donnell soon doubled up, however, and jumped right back up into the pack.

O’Donnell actually made it above $2 million when he ran into a cold streak. First, he got knocked down to $1.3 million when his river straight lost to Tim Phan’s river flush. Then, nine hands later, Kenna James took all but one of his chips when his A-9 out-kicked O’Donnell’s A-6.

The next hand, O’Donnell was eliminated when he was forced to play his 2-7 because his $5,000 chip was only half the required ante. James made a strong move on this hand, taking advantage of the other players’ desire to simply move up in the money. Tim Phan and Kanaher limped into the pot, hoping to increase the odds of O’Donnell’s demise, but because there was now so much money in the middle of the table, James raised six times the minimum bet, forcing the other two out. He immediately collected over $300,000 and was only risking $5,000 against O’Donnell, whom he dispatched.

At this point, James took a nice chip lead and Kanaher was the short stack. Kanaher soon moved all-in with virtual junk, 6-4 suited, and James called with K-Q suited. Unfortunately for James, Kanaher nailed the 6 on the flop to double-up to move into second place behind James.

James then proceeded to knock out both Phillips and Phan, giving him almost two and a half times the chip stack that Kanaher, in second place, had, and a million more than his two other competitors combined.

So, Kenna James is about to cruise to victory, right? As ESPN’s college football analyst, Lee Corso, likes to say, “Not so fast, my friend.”

Ten hands after Phan’s elimination, Kanaher took over a million chips from James without even showing his cards. Kanaher raised to $300,000, James re-raised to $1 million, and Kanaher moved over the top, all-in. Nobody knows what either had, but James obviously didn’t have the confidence that his hand was strong enough to challenge for that big of a pot, so he folded. The two were now almost tied.

Many hands later, however, Kanaher was back at the bottom of the pile, with barely $1 million in chips, half that of Jake Minter, and one-fifth that of James. He doubled up through Minter with Q-Q versus A-5, and then shortly thereafter eliminated him when his A-9 out-kicked Minter’s repeat A-5 hand.

Going into heads-up play, James had the chip lead, $4,600,000 to $3,780,000. Considering the blinds were at $100,000/$200,000 at the ante was $20,000, less than million chips does not amount to much of a gap.

Heads-up started rather uneventfully, but a little over a half hour into the proceedings, the players’ fates were determined.

Behind by approximately $1.2 million, Kahaner re-raised James’ initial $600,000 raise to $1.5 million. James then put Kanaher all-in, and Kanaher called, showing a measly J-10 (measly for an all-in). James was taken aback, almost offended that Kanaher would call with that with so much money on the line, but Kanaher said he wanted the title, not the money, and it was time to gamble. James was still ahead, however, with A-4. When a King came on the turn to give Kanaher a king-high straight, James was drawing dead on the river. Kanaher was now in control, about $7 million to $1.4 million.

Three hands later, it was over. Kanaher moved all-in with K-J and James called with 6-6. Once again, the King was magic for Kanaher, showing up on the river to give him the WPT Legends of Poker crown. James, who played one great tournament, went home with $588,210.

Complete Final Table Standings

(Place/Player/Prize Money)

1. Alex Kahaner - $1,150,900
2. Kenna James - $588,210
3. Jake Minter - $333,600
4. Tim Phan - $291,900
5. Todd Phillips - $250,200
6. Kevin O'Donnell - $208,500
7. Dao Bac - $166,800
8. Eriberto Soto - $125,100
9. Mark Bryan - $83,400
10. Adam Richardson - $45,8700