Blinds: 10,000-20,000 with a 3,000 ante
Players: 1 of 21

We have a champion at the World Poker Tour Alpha8 $100,000 super high roller event at the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open. The first-ever Alpha8 champion is Steven Silverman, who takes home the top prize worth $891,660 and a custom WPT Alpha8 trophy. The runner-up is November Niner JC Tran who added $526,890 to his career earnings, and Jeff Gross took third at another WPT final table after finishing in third at WPT Montreal a few months ago.

Action played out quick after the final three players returned from their dinner break. Gross was the first to fall when his K-10 ran into the A-K of Silverman on a board reading A-8-2-J-K. That made the chip counts nearly even for the heads-up final, but Silverman held a slight chip lead.

JC Tran soon took back the chip advantage, but Silverman doubled up in the largest pot of the tournament to cripple Tran. Silverman held pocket nines against the A-J of Tran. The board was dealt 7-5-4-4-5 and Silverman doubled to 1.8 million, a nearly insurmountable 6.5-to-1 chip advantage.

The end came a few hands later as Tran shoved all in preflop with Q-8 only to find that he was dominated by the Q-9 of Silverman. The board provided some drama as the flop came 10-8-5 to give Tran the lead with a pair of eights. The turn was a nine and that gave the advantage back to Silverman, who won the tournament after a queen fell on the river.

Congratulation to Steven Silverman, who is the inaugural WPT Alpha8 champion, and one of the biggest winners here at the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open. Stay tuned tomorrow for full final table coverage of the $10 million guaranteed SHRPO Main Event. Cards get into the air at noon ET.

Final Table Results:

1: Steven Silverman – $891,660
2: JC Tran – $526,890
3: Jeff Gross – $364,770
4: Matt Glantz – $243,180