In coverage of the World Poker Tour (WPT) Bellagio Cup V, it was revealed that Alec “traheho” Torelli has signed with Doyle’s Room, a USA-friendly site on the Cake Poker Network. Torelli holds the sixth largest chip stack entering Day 4 at the Bellagio.
In an interview with WPT Live Updates Hostess Amanda Leatherman, Torelli recapped the process that went into signing with Doyle’s Room: “My agent knew the guy who is the Marketing Director, Will. He’s a really cool guy. We went to lunch together and talked about the prospects of it and things went really well. They looked at me for a little while and it all worked out… I’m really excited. I like him, the crew, Doyle, and everyone.” In May, Torelli took sixth in the $40,000 buy-in No Limit Hold’em tournament commemorating the 40th running of the World Series of Poker (WSOP). He banked $329,000 for his efforts in the event, which was ultimately won by Vitaly Lunkin. The tournament will air as part of ESPN’s coverage of the 2009 WSOP.
Now, Torelli is making waves at the WPT Bellagio Cup V. He has been at or near the top of the chip counts for virtually the entire $15,000 buy-in tournament. Heading into Day 4 on Friday, Torelli holds a stack of 703,000, good for sixth place overall. The entire field is looking up at online poker star Faraz “The-Toilet” Jaka, who holds 20% of the chips in play after three days, or 3.2 million. Torelli commented that a deep run in the Bellagio Cup V would come at the right time: “I got deep in the $40K and will hopefully get deep in this as well to make a run right when I sign.”
Torelli may be a part of the weekly Bounty tournament on Doyle’s Room. The $27 buy-in contest features $500 celebrity and pro bounties and over $25,000 in prizes are up for grabs. The site’s namesake and his family also compete in the Beat the Brunsons $100,000 Bounty Challenge, in which the site notes that you can “take on the first family of poker in the tournament where everyone’s a bounty for only $10+1.” Both tournaments, which are run weekly, are currently on hiatus for the 2009 WSOP.
Torelli finished as the runner-up to Kenny Tran in the $10,000 buy-in World Championship of Heads-Up No Limit Hold’em during the 2008 WSOP. The second place effort earned him $336,000. All told, he has well over $716,000 to his name from WSOP tournaments. In October, Torelli won a $5,000 buy-in preliminary event held during the Festa al Lago for $120,000. He defeated Jonathan “FieryJustice” Little heads-up in a final table that also featured Scott “BigRiskky” Clements, Ultimate Bet Star Player Michael Binger, Amnon Filippi, and Toto Leonidas. In 2006, Torelli took eighth place in the Ultimate Bet Aruba Poker Classic for $39,000.
According to PokerScout.com, which keeps tabs on online poker room traffic, the Cake Poker Network is the 10th largest worldwide with a seven day running average of 1,480 real money ring game players. Besides Doyle’s Room and the Network’s namesake, other sites in the Cake Poker family include Lock Poker, Players Only, Poker Host, and Red Star Poker. Doyle’s Room jumped to the Cake Poker Network from Microgaming earlier this year and now proudly accepts players from the United States.
Torelli will be in prestigious company on Doyle’s Room, where he’ll join personalities like Doyle, his son Todd Brunson, and the “Mad Genius of Poker” Mike Caro. Brunson owns 10 WSOP bracelets, good for the second most all-time to Phil Hellmuth’s 11. Brunson is arguably the most recognizable face in the industry and won the WSOP Main Event in 1976 and 1977. His most recent piece of hardware came by virtue of winning a $5,000 buy-in No Limit Hold’em Short-Handed event during the 2005 WSOP for $367,000, defeating Minh Ly heads-up.
