‘Will the Thrill’ Finally Wins a WPT Title After 45 Tries

East Coast grinder Will “The Thrill” Failla bested a field of 757 to capture World Poker Tour’s Legends of Poker event at The Bicycle Casino, the first domestic Tour stop of Season X. Poker fans watched on WPT Live Streaming as Failla raked in $758,085, earned a place in history, a Tiffany & Co. Champions Award and will have his name engraved on the new Champions Cup.

The buy-in was a very affordable $3,500+$200.

The top nine finishers were mostly unknowns from the U.S. Canadians Matt Kay, Shawn Buchanan, Owen Crowe and Greg Mueller finished tenth, 13^th, 77^th and 78^th respectively.

Tournament Announcer Ali Nejad called the final table from the new interactive set as VIPs, former WPT champs and selected audience members mingled with the Royal Flush Girls and watched the action from the new Royal Flush Girls Social Bar.

Failla had a breakthrough tournament, making his first TV final table. The New York poker pro has been playing for more than 20 years, including an incredible 45 WPT events, and entered the final day as chip leader. After getting low on chips early, Failla rallied and took the WPT title in a finale worthy of his nickname.

Ken Aldridge, a retired teacher and amateur player from North Carolina, came into the final table fourth in chips. By the time action was down to three players, he had built a sizeable chip lead, more than double the stack of his next closest competitor. However, in the end, Aldridge fell short to Failla and finished second for $365,800.

Failla needed a lot of things to go just right to win this one.

First, while three-handed, The Thrill took a chunk out of Aldridge’s stack when his 6-6 held up against Aldridge’s 9-10 after an all-in preflop confrontation, and Failla doubled again when his A-5 got lucky against Jeff Vertes’ A-9. When the flop paired his five, his rail began to cheer, “You can’t stop destiny.”

After a long stretch of three-handed play, Vertes and Failla would clash again, this time with Vertes getting it all-in for his tournament life holding a dominating A-Q to Failla’s A-J. Again, destiny seemed to be on Failla’s side as the A-J-10 board gave him two pair, which held up to send Vertes home in a disappointing third-place exit.

Busting Vertes gave Failla a slight chip advantage over Aldridge going into heads-up and Aldridge willingly admitted that he was just an amateur compared to his opponent. The affable teacher assured the cameras that they both had already won, and both players played with smiles on.

Aldridge drew first blood heads-up, raking in a nearly 10 million pot to take the lead, but not for long. After a raise from Aldridge preflop, the two saw a flop of J-5-2. Failla checked, Aldridge bet 500,000, and Failla called. Once the turn brought a 9, Failla checked a second time. Aldridge bet 2 million and, again, Failla called. After a 7 came on the river, Failla bet out 4 million and Aldridge quickly moved all-in. Failla called in a flash, tabling 6-8 suited for a flush that bested Aldridge’s overpair, A-A.

Left with just six big blinds after the hand, it took just minutes for Aldridge to call all-in for the last of his chips. Unforunately for him, his 4-6 was dominated by Failla’s J-6. The board ran out clean for Failla, who threw his hands skyward, elated to be the latest WPT Champion.

For the first time, poker aficionados were able to see every hand of the final table live, as WPT Live Streaming debuted shortly after championship action kicked off. Hosted by Tony Dunst, alongside a team of guest analysts, WPT Live Streaming offers play-by-play commentary, analysis and instant chip counts. Every U.S. and European Tour stop in Season X can be seen at www.worldpokertour.com.

The Tiffany & Co. Champions award is a sterling silver, WPT-engraved card protector and one of the new innovations added for Season X as part of a WPT initiative to honor player achievements. With his victory, Failla gets his name on the Champions Cup – a towering, perpetual trophy engraved with the name of every WPT champion – and will take home a smaller replica version of the trophy. Failla also earned membership in the new WPT Champions Club, offering exclusive benefits, a WPT personal concierge and VIP treatment at WPT events.

The WPT event was the climax of the annual Legends series at the Bike in Bell Gardens, California. This year’s Legends kicked off with the $1,000,000 Guaranteed NL hold’em re-entry event. Many may have thought it was sheer madness to guarantee a million-dollar prize pool for the ridiculously low buy-in of $125; however, not only did the event draw over 7,239 players, the optional $100 add-on/rebuy catapulted the prize pool to a mind-blowing $1,453,811.

Tournament Director Mo Fathipour reasoned that if thousands of bankrolled poker pros were willing to journey to Vegas to pay tens of thousands of dollars to play a ten-day event during July for a shot of winning millions of dollars, the average poker aficionado would appreciate having the same opportunity for what amounts to be the expense of a couple of tanks of gas. Turns out he was right.

On August 9, thousands watched the Mega Millions final table via live webcast on liveatthebike.com as Fausto Saucedo won $340,191.

New for 2011 was a special event, “Legends of Legends.” The pre-championship event was a semi-invitational $500 NLH tournament that offered ten guaranteed seats into the main event, nice prize money and the chance to play with “Legends” from years past.

In attendance were last year’s Legends Champion Andrew Frankenberger, first Legends of Poker WPT Champion Chris Karagulleyan, and several other past Legends of Poker event winners including Mark Seif, Allen Cunningham, Jeff Madsen, Scott Clements and Jennifer Tilly. In the end, Jason Koon beat out friend and roommate Nicholas Rampone for the top cash prize of $16,800.

While the WPT’s Legends of Poker Championship was among the most affordable buy-ins on the tour, the Bicycle Casino took the risky approach of offering two starting days with the option for players to re-enter on the final start day. The gamble paid off. The Event Center was filled on each start day with some of poker’s most notable personalities and enthusiastic players from all over the world.

The prize pool for the six-day event overshadowed last year’s event by over a quarter million dollars. A total of 757 entrants competed for $2,570,015, and each day leading up to the final table of the main event was webcast live on the Bicycle Casino’s LiveattheBike.com.

The Payouts

1. Will Failla $758,085
2. Ken Aldridge $365,800
3. Jeff Vertes $186,400
4. Joshua Pollock $128,500
5. Adam Aronson $102,800
6. Owais Ahmed $77,100