22-year-old becomes WPT’s youngest two-time champ
Randal Flowers has won the WPT Festa al Lago for $831,500, defeating 355 runners for his biggest career cash.
The win cements Flowers as one of poker’s rising stars and the youngest ever double WPT bracelet winner, following his WPT Spanish Championship victory last year, but not without a little help from Lady Luck.
With just 7 players remaining and his tournament life on the line, Flowers’ K-10 rivered a straight against Michael Benvenuti’s pocket Kings to grab the chip lead. Benvenuti almost had his revenge heads-up but had to settle for second place and $564,200 when his flush draw lost to Flowers’ top pair 14 hands into their battle.
“Awesome, I get to hold up nine-three off-suit,” Flowers, whose win guaranteed entry to the $25,000 WPT World Championship next May, joked as he posed for the winner’s photo.
While the Festa al Lago field was smaller than last month’s $3,300 WPT Borgata, with buy-ins returning to $10,000, there was no shortage of big name pros, with prodigy Annette Obrestad narrowly missing out on her first WPT final table despite holding the chip lead with 13 players remaining.
The final table payouts were as follows:
1. Randal Flowers, $831,500
2. Michael Benvenuti, $564,200
3. Noah Schwartz, $344,968
4. Jason Koon, $225,680
5. Andy Frankenberger, $161,200
6. Skip Wilson, $112,840
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