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In a wild finish at the 2011 World Poker Tour (WPT) L.A. Poker Classic, Gregory Brooks came away with the title and a $1.6 million payday. Brooks, who was appearing in his very first WPT event, trumped a talented final table that also included Full Tilt Poker pro Carlos Mortensen. The Spaniard was gunning for a record-setting fourth WPT title and is the Tour’s all-time money leader.

Brooks, a 23 year old internet marketing entrepreneur, told WPT officials how he managed to find success despite such staunch opponents: "My strategy throughout the entire tournament was really to play aggressively in spite of whether or not my chips allowed me to. But, I was lucky enough to have a lot of chips and was able to play a lot of hands. I was a little surprised. No one else seemed like they wanted to take the reins. So, I decided that I would do so."

Brooks started the final table fourth in chips, but doubled up on the third hand to take the lead. Brooks’ pocket aces held against the pocket queens of Season VII WPT Borgata Poker Open champion Vivek “Psyduck” Rajkumar to pace the table. After the lead change, Brooks was a runaway freight train.

On the 31st hand of final table play, Darryll “DFish” Fish was eliminated in sixth place. Fish moved all-in before the flop with Q-10 suited, but ran smack dab into the pocket queens belonging to Mortensen. Fish flopped a 10 to give “El Matador” a sweat, but no upset was in store and the online poker pro earned $235,000.

Nineteen hands later, DoylesRoom Brunson 10 member Steve Gross, who goes by the screen name “gboro780” online, was sent packing in fifth place. Gross ran J-10 of spades into Rajkumar’s A-3 on his final hand. He whiffed on flush and straight draws by the river and pocketed $304,000 in his first WPT in the money finish. Gross is a former #1 player in the PocketFives.com Online Poker Rankings.

Four hands after Gross’ departure, Amir Levahot followed him out the door in fourth place. Levahot called all-in with just K-Q on a flop of J-9-6 for a gutshot straight draw and two overcards only to see Rajkumar flip up pocket queens. The board filled out 4-3 and Lehavot banked $421,000. Brooks continued to pace the field with 9.5 million in chips, but Rajkumar was hot on his heels with 6.8 million.

Brooks then won a pot worth 2.3 million against Mortensen and, on the very next hand, sent the WPT’s all-time money leader to the rail in third place. Mortensen was all-in with K-J on a J-5-3 two-club flop only to see Brooks table 6-4 of the suit for flush and straight draws. The turn was a red five, which didn’t change the status quo, but the 10 of clubs on the river gave Brooks the pot with a flush and sealed Mortensen’s exit. Mortensen cashed for $640,000 and extended his WPT money lead. He now owns $6.4 million in career WPT earnings.

Rajkumar doubled up early on, but Brooks stole the show in the end. In the L.A. Poker Classic’s final hand, Rajkumar shoved all-in with J-10 on a flop of 7-3-2 for two overcards and the possibility of a backdoor flush or straight. Brooks showed 8-7 for top pair and blanks on the turn and river sealed the win for the WPT newbie. Brooks pulled down $1.6 million and will head to the WPT Championship in April at the Bellagio.

Here were the results from the 2011 WPT L.A. Poker Classic:

1. Gregory Brooks – $1,654,120
2. Vivek “Psyduck” Rajkumar – $908,730
3. Carlos Mortensen – $640,680
4. Amir Lehavot – $421,680
5. Steve “gboro780” Gross – $304,000
6. Darryll “DFish” Fish – $235,350

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