WPT Bellagio Cup IV Final Table Recap!

It was all smiles at Bellagio on Thursday as the World Poker Tour kicked off Season 7 with another new millionaire and some welcome good news.

While the World Series of Poker began its 117-day hiatus on Monday, the WPT was in the middle of its first event of the season as the Bellagio Cup IV continued its own mid-July tradition with a $15,000 main event.

The tournament attracted 446 runners vying for a total prize pool worth $6,489,300, and true to Bellagio tradition fully 94 of them had been paid in full before the six-handed final table convened in the stately hotel's Grand Ballroom on Thursday evening.

The unusual suspects?

It was a stacked final table that included the likes of 2008 WSOP bracelet winners David Benyamine and John Phan, as well as Ralph Perry, Gabe Thaler and online pros Luke "IWearGoggles" Staudenmeier and Mike "SirWatts" Watson.

While the final six were clearly deserving of attention, however, WPT head honcho Steve Lipscomb stole the show in the pre-game, announcing to a packed house that his oft-beleaguered organization had reached a broadcast deal with Fox Sports that will see the Tour beamed into American households after all.

Eat it, haters!

It was like Christmas in July, and even though Lipscomb remained mum on the topic of the future WPT hostess (whose duties were filled quite capably by the Poker Road's Amanda Leatherman for the evening) the announcement of a broadcasting deal pretty much guaranteed a successful evening even before Jack McClelland could spur his dealer on to commence with the pokering.

The pokering did commence in due time, of course, with Watson and Benyamine the big stacks and Thaler and Perry the shorties. Thaler would be the first to go after seemingly spending most of his final-table time shoving his stack into the middle and then clawing it back.

Was not expecting a call.

Eventually something had to give, and it did when Watson called Thaler's all-in holding A J to the short stack's pocket tens on a 7 5 4 board. The turn was a brick but the river brought the 8 and gave Watson his flush, thus eliminating Thaler in sixth place for a $129,275 payday.

John "Razor" Phan won two bracelets at the 2008 World Series of Poker and came into the day looking to add a World Poker Tour title to his resume, but after a string of sick beats he'd leave with a whole lot of money but no WPT bling.

Icy!

The Razor was dulled after doubling up Ralph Perry with A-T to the cyclist's A-9 when the flop brought a nine. He then got all-in a few hands later in a hand with David Benyamine and again saw his dominating hand destroyed.

In the climax, Phan held A 9 to Benyamine's A 6. The flop came K J 7 and the turn was the Q, giving Benyamine bocoo outs to avoid doubling up his dangerous rival. The river was the 3, one of the aforementioned outs, and Phan was history, out in fifth and earning $193,915 for his time.

Phan's bad luck had earned Perry a reprieve from the gallows, but it would be a brief one. Shortly after Phan's elimination Perry shipped it all-in from the big blind over the top of Watson's raise in the small blind, only to find himself behind in the hand as SirWatts tabled A Q to his own K J.

Continues to be unimpressed by Tony G references.

The board came 5 4 2 9 A and Perry couldn't engineer another suck-out, instead climbing back on his bike and heading for the exits as the fourth-place finisher, an accomplishment worth $290,900.

Three-handed play thus began and continued as such until one player was eliminated. That player was Luke Staudenmeier, who if you believe the hype wears goggles. The man with the funny eyewear was crippled after running A-T into Watson's A-Q and then shipped the dregs of his stack into the middle with K-4.

Can feel the Star Wars reference coming ...

Both Benyamine and Watson called, with Watson betting out his rival on a queen-high flop and subsequently showing Q-8. The board ran out with a five and then a six and thus Staudenmeier was rendered bustificato, the third-place finisher and officially the recipient of a $452,465 payday, although the eagle eyes at PokerListings.com suspect a deal was brokered during one of the interminable tape-change delays.

Now then, heads-up play. Benyamine came in holding $11.7 million and Watson $8.42 million and with blinds at $80k/$160k it would take some grinding or a very big cooler to bring an end to the action.

Quel dommage!

The two online fiends seemed to start out aiming for option A, but then Benyamine found a pocket pair of queens on the exact same hand that Watson had been dealt an offsuit ace-king. Neither player seemed particularly averse to deciding the tournament on a coin flip and that's exactly what happened.

Watson got all-in and after the flop and turn brought beautiful blanks, the river was the A, giving SirWatts the massive pot and crippling Mr. Erica Schoenberg in the most fiendish of fashions.

How ya like me now, Phan?

A few hands later the game was over. Benyamine shipped it with K 9 and Watson called with Q 9. It was domination for the Full Tilt pro but it spelled nothing but doom as Watson immediately proceeded to flop a queen and take the lead. The board finished out 9 7 and Watson was the first WPT champ of Season 7!

For the win, SirWatts takes $1,673,770 in prize money, as well as the usual dazzling array of WPT accoutrements (including two bracelets) and an exclusive PokerListings.com interview.

Meanwhile, Benyamine earns $840,295 for his efforts and will likely spend the weekend trying his darnedest to extract the rest of the prize money from Watson at the nosebleed tables on Full Tilt, to which we say, good luck to you both!

Congrats to all finalists and to the WPT for securing that deal. Now let us inside the ropes again!