After a week-long event that saw 8 of games best heads-up players each putting up $100k, Dan Cates has been crowned PokerStars’ All-Star Showdown champion after he defeated Ben “Sauce123” Sulsky in impressive fashion to claim the inaugural title along with the $550k first prize.
The event, which started last Monday also served as welcoming party for Isaac Haxton, the latest addition to Team PokerStars. The remaining players who handed over the juicy buy-in included Alex Roumeliotis, Tobias Kuder, Phil Galfond, Alex Millar and Ben Tollerene.
The format was simple, play over four tables and don’t stop until one player goes bust. The first round of match-ups saw Benjamin ‘Sauce123’ Sulsky defeat Tobias ‘KTPOKP’ Kuder, Isaac ‘IkeHaxton’ Haxton sneak past Alex ‘Kanu7’ Millar in the tie of the round, Dan ‘w00ki3z’ Cates beat Alexander ‘Sussie Smith’ Roumeliotis and Phil ‘mrsweets28’ Galfond overpowered Ben ‘ben86’ Tollerene.
In the semi-finals Ben Sulsky toppled Isaac Haxton in a 19-hour epic, while Dan Cates proved too strong for Phil Galfond.
With two such evenly matched players left to battle it out for the title, luck was always going to play its part and it was on Cates’ side early on. ‘W00ki3z’ got off to a flying start, taking a $200k lead early on with a 3:1 chip lead after a little over 2 hours and it was already his to lose.
Sauce123 fought back, but Cates proved too strong and after 3,179 hands and just less than eleven hours, Cates had all $800k chips in front of him and was crowned All-Star Showdown champion. Sulsky didn’t go home empty handed though, taking home $250k for his efforts.
