Meet the New Zynga Billionaires Aaron Alanen takes down Pokercon Event #1

$\"\"$

Big congrats to Aaron Alanen … who won what may well have been the fastest 490+ player tournament in history this weekend in Las Vegas at the Palms … by taking down the inaugural Zynga Pokercon bracelet. He\’s a software consultant from Phoenix, and a real player who enjoys two different poker games — No-Limit Hold\’em and PLO. (Nice!)

Before the end, the final six would chop it up, each player taking $10,000, and the winner getting a bracelet and an additional $5,200.

Alanen, 43, seems a humble dude who won\’t deny that luck certainly played a big factor in his win. Extra lucky for Zynga, probably, that their first ever real-life champion happens to have the initials AA. Alanen says he plans to give a portion of his winnings to the Red Cross for Japan relief efforts.

Mincast: Aaron Alanen, 2011 Zynga Pokercon Champion
[audio:http://old.pokerati.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Aaron-Alanen.mp3]

(Though not confirmed: @Sandau on Twitter plausibly seems like he could be Sandau on Full Tilt/Sharkscope. Both appear to be members of the PPA.)

UPDATE: Confirmed. He is both. Plays microstakes NLH and PLO on FTP.

$15k may not seem like much to grizzled poker veterans capable of blowing that on a bad day without a Kleenex, but it\’s by far the biggest prize ever paid out in Zynga history … the only one actually. And should Aaron or any of the other final six decide to put their winnings back into the Zynga economy … at the current rate of exchange (handled with ease by American credit card or PayPal) they\’d become instant multibillionaires.

$7.3 billion to be more exact … $4.8 billion for 2nd through 6th.

(US$1 = Z$480,000)

Damn, that would be enough to bowl over the Zynga big game, which from what I understand features the most monster-stacked ballers on Zynga playing $1mm/$2mm NLH. They\’d also have the option of redeeming their real American brick-and-mortar casino cash in Zynga Casino Gold if they think precious virtual metals are gonna continue to rise in value.

Meanwhile, a simple $10k in real money went to: