VAMOS! Martin Alcaide Claims First Bracelet and $501,250 in The Colossus
$400. Three days. 19,337 entries. $5,940,883 prize pool. 772,120,000 chips, and one gold bracelet.
This is what embodied Event #70: The Colossus here at the 2024 WSOP at Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas. Sitting atop it all is Martin Alcaide, clutching his first gold bracelet and largest live-career cash of $501,250. He waded through one of the largest WSOP fields ever recorded, put on a stellar performance during the final day, and ended it by defeating Singapore’s Yujian Eugen Zhou heads-up.
Event #70: $400 Colossus Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Payout |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Martin Alcaide | Bulgaria | $501,250 |
| 2 | Yujian Eugen Zhou | Singapore | $325,640 |
| 3 | Brooks Floyd | United States | $247,030 |
| 4 | Joel Vanetten | United States | $188,510 |
| 5 | Ricky Andino | United States | $144,700 |
| 6 | Bohdan Slyvinskyi | Bulgaria | $111,740 |
| 7 | Caleb Powell | United States | $86,800 |
| 8 | Trevor Brown | United States | $67,840 |
| 9 | Nicholas Richards | United States | $53,354 |
| 10 | Joshua Welch | United States | $42,200 |
Winner's Reaction
“I feel so relieved mostly.” Alcaide said in his post-win interview, “I was mostly just scared of losing, which is not a good mindset, so I was just trying to concentrate on the hands, so I relieved more to be rid of the tension than the happiness right now, but I'm sure that will change.”
The Spanish-born Bulgarian might not have a very active Hendon Mob, but that does not mean he is new to poker by any means. He explained that he and Sergio Aido (who was on his rail) started playing together early in their careers.
"We started playing at the lowest of the low stakes, and obviously, he kept playing and became one of the best in the world, but I took a break from playing for almost ten years. I had some problems with Spanish online poker laws and regulations, and then I actually turned to making content. I played competitively for E-Sports and was a manager for G3 playing Clash Royale.”
Alcaide also said that he mostly plays online which is why he thinks he has an edge when it comes to massive fields such as this one, as he has done so before in the GGPoker streets, which do not appear on his Hendon Mob.
“I actually owe this win to GG, as I would not be here if I had not won a seat into the Main Event,” he said with as much heart-filled gratitude as one could have for an online website.
Day 3 Action
As was to be expected, Day 3 began hot and heavy as many of the 92 returning players rapidly fell to the wayside. Two of these players were Ari Engel (68th - $8,100), Day 1a chipleader Dohang Na (66th - $8,100), and Greg Raymer (56th - $9,740).
The players were then whittled down to the final three tables right before the second break of the day. The first to go then was controversial player Men Nguyen, who was sent out by Lisa Tan and was met by a roaring applause from the remaining players. The last big name to fall was that of Matt Glantz, who made it all the way to 19th place before he got it in with pocket kings against none other than Alcaide who held eights. Unfortunately for Glantz, an eight appeared on the turn for Alcaide, and he was sent to the rail for a payout of $21,680. This moment propelled Alcaide into the chip lead and allowed him to take over the tournament.
“I opened, two people called that obviously were going to fold, and he pushed 16 blinds. He is a great player, so he knows he has to squeeze there with a big range and is not scared to lose, so I called, and he just had kings, but I hit the eight. With that, I accomplished two things: I eliminated the best player left in the field, and I was chip leader.”
With the elimination of Glantz, the players were redrawn into the final two tables. Still, it wasn't long before Henrik Juncker was eliminated in 11th place ($42,200) by Brooks Floyd to send the surviving ten players to the final table.
Final Table
Coming into the final table, Alcaide and Floyd were neck and neck while Trevor Brown and Ricky Andino were tied for third. Twenty-three-year-old Brown easily became a fan favorite with his feel-good story of coming to Vegas with $1,000 in his pocket. Here, he was playing for half a million dollars that he would use to pay off his dad’s house. Things were looking up for Brown when he scored a huge double with ace-king against the ace-queen of Bohdan Slyvinskyi but unfortunately tangled with pocket tens against the jacks of Joel Vanetten that left him short. He secured a pay jump when Vanetten knocked out Nicholas Richards in ninth but met his fate when he shoved five-seven suited into the ace-jack of Alcaide and exited in eighth for $67,840- far from empty-handed.
Meanwhile, Slyvinskyi, who was very short after doubling up Brown, had managed to double up several times and made two pay jumps as Brown and Caleb Powell were eliminated before he met his fate at the hands of Vanetten. Slyvinskyi got it all in preflop with queens against the ace-king of Vanetten, but an ace appeared on the flop to send him out in sixth place.
Right after that, it became the Zhou show when he managed to triple up into the chip lead when his jack-ten offsuit bested the ace-king of Brooks Floyd. Ricky Andino had called Zhou’s jam preflop but was forced to fold when Floyd shoved over the top, leading to the triple-up for Zhou.
Zhou then got it all in with his infamous jack-ten once again, this time against Alcaide's pocket aces. By some miracle, Zhou hit a gutshot straight on the turn to score a massive double, which left Alcaide on life support with just a few big blinds. That did not stop Alcaide, however, because he managed to claw his way back, found a big double through Andino, and then later eliminated him in fifth place to surge back into the chip lead. Alcaide then took down several other pots while Zhou scored the knockouts by busting Vanetten in fourth place when his ace-king was cracked by Zhou’s queen-ten, and then shortly after, Floyd exited with ace-nine against the pocket kings of Zhou.
Going into the heads-up battle, Alcaide and Zhou had rather even stacks, but Alcaide quickly pulled into the lead when he three-bet jammed on the river, forcing a fold from Zhou in a big pot. From there, it was just a matter of chipping away at Zhou’s stack until he eventually held a 3:1 chip advantage. Alcaide then open-jammed once more with pocket sevens, and Zhou decided to call off his tournament life with pocket fives. No miracles appeared this time for Zhou, and he was eliminated as the runner-up, while Alcaide celebrated emphatically with his rail as a bracelet winner.
Well, that wraps up the coverage of Event #70 at the 2024 WSOP here at the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas, but be sure to keep PokerNews open, especially as the Main Event kicks off tomorrow!