The final table has been determined for the 2016 World Poker Tour Five Diamond World Poker Classic Main Event and it is shaping up to be an impressive battle. While James Romero has been able to pull away from the pack a bit, players such as Ryan Tosoc and Justin Bonomo (just to name a couple) are poised to try to take him down.
Starting the action on Friday, the 19 players remaining were looking to capture one of the sextet of seats that would be in action later today. Tosoc was at the helm of the pack with Bonomo in pursuit, but it was three-time Super Bowl champion Richard Seymour who was drawing the attention down the leaderboard. Unfortunately for Seymour, his deep run in this WPT event ended earlier than he wanted on Friday afternoon.
About two hours into the Day 5 play, Tosoc pushed out a bet and Seymour put him to the test by moving all in. Tosoc debated his situation for a couple of minutes before making the call, finding his K-Q off suit live against Seymour’s off suit A-10. The J-9-8 flop kept Seymour in the lead, but the 10 on the turn wasn’t something he was looking for as it gave Tosoc a King-high straight. To add insult to injury, the Ace on the river improved Seymour to a worthless two pair against Tosoc’s Broadway, sending the former NFL star to the rail in 18th place. In earning his fifth ever WPT cash, Seymour also earned his best cash ever ($52,174) and continues to strive for that landmark poker title that he’s working towards.
As Tosoc was ending Seymour’s day, however, he was losing the chip lead. On the other table, Romero was clashing with Rob Wazwaz on a 10-2-2-6-J board that saw Wazwaz push the final chips of his stack to the center on the river. Romero called with no concerns and, after the cards were up, it was obvious why. Romero’s A-2 had flopped the world while Wazwaz’s K-10 held a losing two pair. Romero rocketed to six million chips following the hand as Wazwaz reviewed the play of the hand in his head as he headed to the cage in 17th place.
Romero kept up the pressure on his opponents but was also the beneficiary of some fortune on Friday. He would eliminate Stephen Graner in 15th place after his A-Q flopped Aces up against Graner’s pocket Jacks, then would move on to the unofficial final table of 10 with a massive chip stack of 6.395 million. That stack only got bigger when he took down J. C. Tran in tenth place, once again holding A-Q against Tran’s pocket tens and seeing a board of Q-4-3-Q-A.
Now sitting on about a third of the chips in play, Romero didn’t exactly sit back and let everyone else decide the future final table. In fact, Romero would be the player who would end the action for the evening in what started as a three-way pot. Jake Schindler would open the betting out of the cutoff and both Romero (button) and Chris Klodnicki (big blind) came along. After a K-9-7 flop, Klodnicki fired a bet of 220K. Schindler thought it over for a bit before making the call and, after a five-minute tank of his own that brought a calling of the clock, Romero popped the action up to 510K. Warily Klodnicki made the call, as did Schindler, building the largest pot of the tournament to this point.
A turn four didn’t seem to help anyone but it would bring the final action on the hand. Both Klodnicki and Schindler checked to Romero, who put out another bet of 510K for consideration. Klodnicki didn’t believe the story that Romero was telling, moving all in over Romero’s bet, but Schindler decided that Romero had the goods. It turned out Schindler was correct as Romero showed pocket sevens for the set against Klodnicki’s K-9 (Kings up). Needing a King or a nine to top Romero, Klodnicki instead saw a five to end his tournament on the television bubble and stack Romero massively for Saturday’s action.
1. James Romero, 9.86 million
2. Ryan Tosoc, 4.465 million
3. Justin Bonomo, 3.36 million
4. Igor Yaroshevskyy, 2.57 million
5. Alex Condon, 2.265 million
6. Jake Schindler, 1.21 million
This shapes up as one of the tougher final tables in recent memory on the WPT. Schindler, even on the short stack, knows what is necessary to win as a former champion of the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure $25,000 High Roller (2014). With his finish in this tournament, Condon will crack the $1 million mark in career earnings and, should he win, would rocket close to $3 million in earnings. Yaroshevskyy is close to $2 million in earnings (mostly on the European circuit) but is looking for his breakthrough championship, while Bonomo, Tosoc and Romero are known commodities.
It promises to be an entertaining battle this afternoon/evening as these six men contend for this WPT title. The winner will join such names as Gus Hansen, Daniel Negreanu, Joe Hachem, Antonio Esfandiari, Eugene Katchalov, David ‘Chino’ Rheem and Mohsin Charania as champions of this event. While that is definitely some rarefied air, the $1,938,118 first place check might be more of what the players are looking at.
