Day 2 of the largest-ever World Poker Tour Five Diamond World Poker Classic Main Event closed shop on Tuesday evening, still quite some distance from the money but with a notable young pro and a “blast from the past” taking up residence atop the standings.
The WPT Five Diamond has already etched its name in the annals of the tour’s history. By the time that late registration closed on Tuesday afternoon, 791 entries had stepped to the tables for action at the Bellagio. For a $10,000 event in this day and age, that is a stunning number of participants (there were unlimited rebuys for this tournament until the start of Level 9). In fact, the total field for the 2016 WPT Five Diamond equals the previous record field for a $10,000 WPT event (tied with the 2007 WPT L. A. Poker Classic, which also drew 791 entries).
The massive field that turned out for the WPT Five Diamond also generated a very healthy prize pool. After the deductions for rake and other amenities (approximately 7% of the total $10,400 buy in), the $7,672,700 prize pool became the largest ever $10,000 buy in tournament in the history of the WPT, besting the 2007 LAPC by almost $80,000. Particularly interested in these stats will be the 72 players who will take home a piece of the kitty, with a min-cash good for a $22,251 bump to the bankroll. The eventual champion of the tournament will take home $1,938,118, and second place will also become a new millionaire in picking up $1,124,051.
The reason we’re bringing up these numbers a bit early is that, as with most Day Twos, there isn’t much to talk about until they start getting close to the money. Of the original 519 players who came to the felt Monday, 368 of them came back on Tuesday to continue the festivities. If you’re quick with math, that means that there were 423 entries on Tuesday alone in the late registration process, with those latecomers having varied degrees of success by the end of five levels of action.
One player in particular had a rather quick stay at the tables. Noted poker professional/curmudgeon Allen Kessler ponied up his $10,000 and, within a half hour, had burned through his 30K in starting chips. Wearing a shirt parodying the motto of the website The Chive (Kessler’s shirt said “Keep Calm and Wait for Aces”), Kessler didn’t heed his own words in getting his chips to the center with a set of nines on the flop. The problem was his opponent held pocket Kings and had also flopped a set, leaving Kessler looking for the case nine. When that didn’t come, the normally cranky Kessler could only silently walk away after burning $10K in rapid fashion.
Kessler had plenty of company on the sidelines as the day’s action wore on. Newlywed Natasha Mercier (husband Jason waited until the very last minute to get in the game), Mohsin Charania, former NFL pro Richard Seymour (twice, both times his pocket Kings coolered by pocket Aces), Michael Mizrachi, Erik Seidel, and Justin Zaki all would be eliminated over the course of the day. As the action ended on Tuesday night, 270 players remained with quite a bit of work ahead of them.
Two players have been able to separate themselves from the pack. Using a late-night knockout, Ryan Hughes surged to the lead in the tournament; he will be sitting with a chip stack of 364,500 when the cards fly on Wednesday. Along with Hughes, 2005 World Series of Poker Ladies’ Champion Jennifer Tilly has enjoyed a good ride to this point, racking up 279,100 in chips for second place in the event. It’s come with a cost, however, as Tilly chirped over Twitter last night, “Long day of poker. I don’t know what hurts more, my back or my brain.”
1. Ryan Hughes, 364,500
2. Jennifer Tilly, 279,100
3. Samuel Bernabeu, 279,000
4. A. J. Gambino, 277,300
5. Kristina Holst, 267,000
6. Lucas Blanco Oliver, 263,000
7. Corey Hochman, 260,400
8. Anthony Spinella, 226,700
9. David Pham, 224,300
10. Justin Bonomo, 219,800
In a change to the schedule due to the large field in this tournament, Bellagio officials have determined that Wednesday’s Day 3 action will be seven 90-minute levels instead of the previously scheduled five. It will be tough to cut the 270-player field to the final 72 on Wednesday (the money bubble), but they’re going to have to pick up the pace if the official six handed WPT final table is to be played out on Saturday night.