Gomes comes into the final table tonight fourth in chips after the final table was set by cabby123. In the deciding bubble hand cabby123 would four-bet TexDuke all-in and get a call as both players had considerable stacks to begin with creating a 13.5 million chip pot, the winner would be the final table's chip leader. Sure enough both turned over huge hands, cabby123 had pocket aces [Ac][As], and TexDuke was left with deflated pocket kings [Kh][Kc]. The kings never threatened on a small [6h] [9s] [6c] [5h] [2s] board as TexDuke and the Coach K avatar were sent off the court in 10th place earning $5,300.41 as tonight's bubble boy.

Seat 1: Beto777 (6323501 in chips)
Seat 2: Sn0wb4ll (7680491 in chips)
Seat 3: CoachConrad (2897111 in chips)
Seat 4: krash778 (2557778 in chips)
Seat 5: KenT351 (2175219 in chips)
Seat 6: MVital23 (1734571 in chips)
Seat 7: cabby123 (13874942 in chips)
Seat 8: El ibero (1793338 in chips)
Seat 9: Allingomes (5133049 in chips)

The blinds would start out at 65K/130K ante 13K and KenT351 would make the first big move doubling up on the fourth hand of final table play. KenT351's pocket kings [Kd][Ks] were plenty to overtake the pocket eights [8s][8h] of Beto777 especially with the flopped set [4c] [Kc] [Td] [7h] [3d] for the 4.5 million chip pot. Five hands later it was El ibero's turn to double up, taking some of KenT351's newly acquired chips in a 3.5 million chip pot where El ibero's [Ah][Td] held up to KenT351's [7s][Ac] to stay alive.

As the blinds rose to 80K/160K Beto777 and Sn0wb4ll traded raises preflop to see a [Ac] [2d] [4s] flop. Beto777 checked as Sn0wb4ll kept the foot on the gas with a 1.44 million chip bet, Beto777 would check raise all-in for 2.5 million more creating a 11.2 million chip pot. Beto777 flipped up [Qd][Ad] outkicking Sn0wb4ll's [Tc][As]. The kicker would improve on the [Qs] turn and Sn0wb4ll was drawing dead shoving the huge pot to Beto777 who joined cabby123 in the eight figures club.

At the break before the blinds went up to 100K/200K ante 20K here's how the nine stacked up:

Seat 1: Beto777 (10985674 in chips)
Seat 2: Sn0wb4ll (2063154 in chips)
Seat 3: CoachConrad (2900611 in chips)
Seat 4: krash778 (1908778 in chips)
Seat 5: KenT351 (2821600 in chips)
Seat 6: MVital23 (1447071 in chips)
Seat 7: cabby123 (12693942 in chips)
Seat 8: El ibero (3047676 in chips)
Seat 9: Allingomes (6301494 in chips)

Team PokerStars Pro Tom McEvoy had the MC'ing duties tonight quipped about Gomes' large rooting section which included fellow Brazilian Team PokerStars Pro Andre "aakkari" Akkari and Gualter "stockcar99" Salles.

MVital23 started as a short stack, did manage to double up but with the rising blinds found that stack dwindle down until pushing 1.8 million chips holding [Js][Ac] UTG which looked good for the blinds until KenT351 called from the big blind with [6s][Ad]. Looking for more than the blinds with the big advantage, MVital23's pulse was very healthy until the [Kc] [Ah] [Th] [6c] on the turn gave KenT351 the advantage. The straight, and higher two pair outs missed on the [2c] river sending our ninth place finisher home with $7,067.21

Alexandre Gomes kept his foot on the gas after MVital23's elimination and found himself quickly shortstacked. First, losing doubling up krash778 when the preflop raise, flop, and river bets all were called by krash778 holding [Jd][Ad] who rivered a pair of aces [Kd] [5d] [6s] [8h] [Ah] after flopping the nut flush draw, didn't need the pair as Gomes exposed [9c] [Jh] for the bluff. Five hands later he would double up Sn0wb4ll as both shoved preflop with Gomes covering. Gomes couldn't get [Kc][Th] past the [Ah][Qh] of Sn0wb4ll which turned the nut flush on the [7h] [6s] [6h] [9h] [5h] board and the 3.9 million chip pot went to Sn0wb4ll.

The very next hand Gomes tried again to get past Sn0wb4ll with a preflop raise of one million which represented almost all his chips but Sn0wb4ll held firm with [Ah][9c]. After the rest of Gomes' chips hit the middle after the flop, Gomes would expose [7c][Kc] and neither player connected on the [8s] [5d] [Ts] [2d] [Ac] board and the Team PokerStars Pro would have to wait for another time to conquer a Sunday Major as he was out in eighth ($11,042.51).

Sn0wb4ll kept rolling and gaining chips in the process, this time it was CoachConrad adding to the sphere's chip stack. With the blinds at 150K/300K ante 30K Sn0wb4ll opened for 900K from the button. Holding 2.8 million in chips and [8h][Ah] in the small blind, CoachConrad was going to teach the button raiser a lesson with a three-bet shove all-in. Good lesson, bad timing as Sn0wb4ll snap-called with big slick [As][Kd] and the [3c] [Th] [6d] [2d] [Td] board helped no one as CoachConrad was sent back to the sidelines with seventh place money ($19,876.51).

Eight hands later with the blinds holding at 150K/300K ante 30K former huge stack cabby123 had fallen on hard times and as down to 3.6 million when shoving over the top of an UTG raise of big stacked Beto777. Watch the results of the hand below after Beto777 made the call with pocket jacks [Jh][Jc]:

The [Qh][Ad] of cabby123 couldn't catch Beto777's jacks on the [8c] [7c] [Th] [5d] [9d] board as the 7.7 million chip pot shot Beto777 over the 20 million chip mark and cabby123 fare meter was stopped in sixth place ($28,710.51).

At the start of five handed play there were brief talks of a deal but the mix of language barriers and uneasiness of chopping early stopped the discussions as play resumed with blinds going up to 200K/400K ante 40K.

The next two eliminations came in nearly back-to-back. Beto777 led off the betting in the first hand raising from the cutoff to 1.2 million as krash778 three-bet all-in to 3.8 million from the small blind. Not to be out done, KenT351 in the big blind made the call leaving 1.6 million behind as Beto777 decided to keep the rest of the big stack and folded. [Ts][Kh] for krash778 and a suited big slick for KenT351 [Kc][Ac] and on the all wheel cards board [5s] [2d] [2c] [5c] [3h] krash778 hit the wall and ended the night in fifth place ($37,544.51).

Two hands later while chop talks began again El ibero tried shoving 3.4 million chips and pocket deuces [2h][2d] into the blinds of Beto777 and Sn0wb4ll. El ibero would get by the chip leader, but Sn0wb4ll would make the quick call and covered holding pocket jacks [Jh][Jd]. Sn0wb4ll missed broadway on the [Qc] [Td] [Kh] [5s] [4s] board, but the jacks were plenty to eliminate El ibero in fourth place ($49,912.11).

After El ibero exited the final table the remaining three got their heads together for chopping up the remaining prize pool, but with one slight issue. KenT351 left his Russian-English translator somewhere else and the language barrier stopped play for a bit as Tom McEvoy searched headquarters for a suitable translator to help him dole out the numbers. After the Team PokerStars Pro got a few phrases of Russian into the text box a simple "da" and "I agree" from KenT351 and the other two fell in line reach the deal below:

KenT351: $92,161.56
Sn0wb4ll: $93,378.26
Beto777: $118,844.60

$10,000.00 was left out of the deal for the winner as we resumed 3-handed play that was the blinds move up to 250K/500K ante 50K meaning 900K sat in the middle preflop. The play stepped up accordingly as KenT351 made the first move winning a coin flip on the river with [7s][Ad] against the pocket treys [3s][3h] of Beto777 on the [Jd] [2c] [2h] [4s] [7d] board. Beto777 wouldn't give up the chip lead long, winning six out of the next seven hands.

Despite the resurgence Beto777 would give up a few chips to Sn0wb4ll when facing an all-in raise from Sn0wb4ll on a [9d] [9h] [Jd] [5d] [8d] board Beto777 couldn't come up with a call and shifted the lead over to Sn0wb4ll. But, the three remained with similar chip stacks.

Nine hands later Beto777 and KenT351 would knock heads preflop again. This time KenT351 led off with a 1.5 million chip button raise with the blinds still at 250K/500K ante 50K as Beto777 shoved all-in from the small blind for just under ten million with pocket sixes [6d][6s]. KenT351 took a few seconds but chose to call with [Ad][4s] and got no help from the [7h] [7d] [9s] flop, nor the [Jc] turn. But, the cruel counterfeiting [Js] hit the river giving KenT351 a higher two pair plus ace kicker as Beto777 will have to enjoy taking home the most money tonight in third place ($118,844.60).

Heads-up play lasted exactly two hands as on the decisive hand KenT351 would min-raise from the button and Sn0wb4ll called to see the [Qs] [2s] [Ad] flop. Sn0wb4ll check the option but KenT351 would bet one million, and... well watch the video below for the answer:

They would trade bets until all the chips were in the middle on the flop. Sn0wb4ll holding [Ac][5s] for top pair and KenT351's [Ts][Qc] hit middle pair on the [Qs] [2s] [Ad] flop. But, the [Th] turn gave KenT351 two pair which would avoid Sn0wb4ll's outs on the [7s] river. With the 30.3 million chip pot KenT351 was declared in the winner thus snagging the extra $10,000 to go with the chopped $92,161.56 for a six-figure score as this week's Sunday Warm-up champion!

Sn0wb4ll's surge in latter half of the final table nearly added up to a win, but instead the German will take away a hefty sum of $93,378.26 from the chop agreement.

Congrats to all our winners and be sure to check out PokerStars.TV's wrap up show for all of tonight's highlights with commentary and the hole cards exposed for your pleasure.

$750,000 Guarantee Sunday Warm-up (09-27-09)
* denotes part of three way chop
1. KenT351 (Воронеж) *$102,161.56
2. Sn0wb4ll (Hamburg) *$93,378.26
3. Beto777 (S.Paulo - NO CHAT) *$118,844.60
4. El ibero (Valladolid) $49,912.11
5. krash778 (Ростов-на-Дону) $37,544.51
6. cabby123 (verona) $28,710.51
7. CoachConrad (Stamford) $19,876.51
8. Allingomes (Curitiba - BRASIL) $11,042.51
9. MVital23 (Ufa) $7,067.21

A few days ago, while the rest of us were putting the WSOP to bed, Gomes was working his way through the field of 268 players in the $15,000 buy-in event. Last night, he went into the final table of the tournament in last chip position. Just a couple of hours ago, the Team PokerStars Pro from Brazil walked away with his first WPT title and the $1,187,670 first prize.

Gomes, the smiling man from South America, exploded onto the poker scene in 2008 when he won his first WSOP bracelet. Just a few months later, he nearly grabbed his first EPT title when he took fourth place at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure.

Now, Gomes has erased any doubt he can close. His win on the WPT gives him a chance to be one of the few people in the world who can claim poker's triple crown--a win on the WSOP, WPT, and EPT circuits. Now we just have to work on getting Gomes over to Europe and see if he can get it done.

Congratulations to Alex Gomes for this morning's big win!

by Alexandre Gomes

Hi, everyone. It's a great pleasure to be writing for the PokerStars Blog. The PCA is, without a doubt, one of the most prestigious events in the world, and I was there for the second time. The first was in 2008, and was my first huge international tournament. The event is so special, not only because of the beauty of the place, but especially for being the largest field in all of the PokerStars tournaments.

I started on a very tough table with Dario Minieri and Noah Boeken - a Team PokerStars Pro table! And with this in mind, I played a little tighter than normal, especially because Dario was sitting on my right.

Things went well on the first day as I managed to increase my stack gradually. I had to move tables six times, which I don't normally like, but still finished with 123,000 chips when the average was 60,000. Even better, my friend Felipe 'mojave14' Ramos, finished the day with 360,000 in chips. Wow!

Days 2 and 3 were very similar, with my stack rising slowly and always above the average. I finished Day 2 with 223,000 and Day 3 with 407,000. But Day 4 was a complete roller coaster! I got up to 4 million, then back to 1.2 million, and at the end was chip leader with 8 million.

The Brazilian crowd was amazing in the last two days, with the huge ballroom filled with the sound of the guys singing and snapping their fingers at each hand (especially at the hand with Kevin Saul, when I had A-A). It was really amazing! After that hand I got very confident at final table even though I knew it would be tough and the other players had lots of ability.

But, unfortunately, I got eliminated in fourth place in a very tough hand: I was second in chips, playing four handed, and got A-A under the gun. I raised and was call by Benny Spindler. The flop was J-J-J, and Benny had the last jack. Like I always say, we just have to learn to deal with situations like that. It happens. This time I had the A-A, maybe tomorrow I will be the one with quad jacks.

I'd like to highlight three players at the final table: Kevin Saul, who had an amazing tournament, being chip leader for a long time. His talent is unquestionable. The guy from Germany, Benny, is really good, too. I played with him for hours in the last couple of days and he seems to be an excellent player who is very intelligent and deserved to be in the final three. And last (but not least) the champion, Poorya Nazari. The guy had only six big blinds when we were down to the last 12 players, and he came back and nailed it!

Besides being disappointed at busting so close to the title, I was still very happy with this result, and even happier because of the support and respect that us Brazilians are starting to have worldwide. And this was only the first major tournament of the year.

This year will belong to Brazil!

Alexandre Gomes, a 25-year-old lawyer from Curitiba, Brazil, has been leaving behind his profession in law and slowly but surely gravitating toward poker. Always logged on PokerStars as "Allingomes", Alexandre is no stranger to final tables, having reached many in the 100+Rebuys, 50+Rebuys, 1K Super Tuesdays, and won the Wednesday Nightly Hundred and Fifty Grand for more 65K.

But Alexandre wanted more!

He started chasing after the live circuit - in Brazil and internationally - and this year, at the WSOP, in the very first event he played, Alexandre became the first ever Brazilian to win a bracelet. He took down Event #48, the $2,000 No-Limit Hold'em tournament with a field of 2,317 people, winning a prize of $770,540, the bracelet and all the recognition that comes along with such an extraordinary accomplishment.

PokerStars does not let such talent go unnoticed. Today, PokerStars introduced Alexandre Gomes - or Alê, as his friends call him - as the newest member of Team PokerStars Pro. This new bracelet winner can now count among his peers such world champions as Joe Hachem, Greg Raymer, Chris Moneymaker, Daniel Negreanu, Barry Greenstein, Gavin Griffin, his fellow Brazilian André Akkari, and many more. With a colorful, creative, cheerful and aggressive style of play, Brazilian poker is really taking shape and making noise on the international poker circuit.

Christian Toth, PokerStars' top dog in Brazil said, "Alexandre joins Team PokerStars Pro not only for his recent title and achievement in the World Series, but also because he embodies all the characteristics that PokerStars looks for in its players. Alexandre has integrity, discipline, charisma, and great energy."

Alexandre said, "Ever since I started playing poker, I have literally dreamed of being a part of Team PokerStars Pro and winning a WSOP title and bracelet. Making these two dreams come true at once is more then a dream. Am I awake? Someone pinch me please!"

Welcome to Team PokerStars Pro, Alexandre. May this be the start of a brilliant future.