Wednesday night marked a big change in Randal Flowers’ life as he became the winner of the WPT Festa al Lago held at the famous Bellagio in Las Vegas. He managed to win a whopping $831,000 and the shiny new WPT title in one of the shortest final table plays in WPT history.

The Road to Heads Up

Six players went back for the final table at the WPT Festa Al Lago, namely Jason Koon, Noah Schwartz, Skip Wilson, Andy Frankenberger, Michael Benvenuti, and Randal Flowers. Anette Obrestad’s absence was particularly conspicuous, especially since a lot of people were speculating whether she would finally get her WPT title this time, having earned the chip lead at a focal point in the game. The honor of felling Obrestad went to Skip Wilson, but he was also the first one to be eliminated from the final table after just 25 hands. Eliminations rarely come as early as this, with most final table plays going on for hours before the first elimination is made.

However, this was not to be the fate of the 2010 Festa al Lago tournament, as Andy Frankenberger soon followed, exiting at fifth place. Jason Koon was the next one to go, exiting at fourth place. Noah Schwartz was the next one to go, courtesy of Flowers.

Heads up between Flowers and Benvenuti

Schwartz’ elimination was very pivotal for Flowers’ game as it gave him a huge lead over Benvenutti. Flowers, at the start of heads up, had a 9.7 million chip stack while Benvenuti only had 3.7 million. At that point, he had a 5:2 chip lead over Benvenuti. After that, it was only a matter of time before the final hand came, which indeed happened when Benvenuti moved all-in with his Q-7. Flowers had 9-3, and the flop came out as 9-6-5, giving Flowers a pair. The crowd was practically going wild at that point, with everyone shouting Randall Flowers’ name to cheer him on. Then, the river was revealed to be an ace, which did not help Benvenuti’s cause. Flowers walked away with first place prize as well as the WPT title.

His victory was made even more splendid because he became the youngest WPT winner ever to win two titles. Indeed, Flowers seems to have a bright future in this industry laid out for him. We’ll be watching out for this one for sure.