Steven Silverman Wins $891k At World Poker Tour Alpha8

Steven Silverman has won the inaugural World Poker Tour Alpha8, after defeating a small field of 21 players over two days on his way to capturing the title, and collecting the $891,660 first place prize.
With his win at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Florida, Steven Silverman now takes his live tournament earnings to $3,044,725, to go with the $1,145,546 he has won online playing under the screen name ‘Zugwat’. Commenting after his remarkable victory over the small, but highly talented field, stated:
“I don’t think the turnout was terrible by any means, I think a lot of the people were still in the main event (Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open) that were going to play. We would have had liked to see about 30 or more, but it wasn’t terrible with 21 entries.”
Amongsts those players entering the $100,000 buy-in event, but falling short of one of the four paid spots, was the likes of Jason Mercier, Joesph Cheong, Issac Haxton, Daniel Alaei and Bill Perkins.
At the final table, Jeff Gross (A-6) proceeded to eliminate Matt Glantz (10-8) in 4th ($243,180), before being dealt K-10 and being dispatched to the rail himself in 3rd ($364,770) by Silverman with A-K.
Steven Silverman and JC Tran then started heads-up fairly even in chips, but JC Tran would soon find himself reduced to a short-stack when his A-J faltered against Silverman’s pocket nines, after which the final hand was played with JC Tran’s Q-8 up against his opponent’s Q-9. The board then rolled out 8-10-5-9-Q to relegate Tran to a runner-up finish worth $526,890, while Steven Silverman was crowned the World Poker Tour Alpha8 champion.
The final table payouts were as follows:
1st Steven Silverman  $891,660
2nd Justin Cuong Tran $526,890
3rd Jeff Gross           $364,770
4th Matthew Glantz    $243,180