The traditional tenth anniversary gift is tin or aluminum. We don’t know about you, but when talking about the tenth anniversary of the first World Poker Tour (WPT) event, referring to it as a recyclable doesn’t sound quite right. Good thing there are “modern” anniversary gifts. Therefore, this week’s running of the Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic marks, appropriately, the diamond anniversary of the World Poker Tour.
The WPT started back in May 2002 at the Bellagio in Las Vegas with the Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic (without the Doyle Brunson prefix at the time). Back then, 146 players paid the $10,000 buy-in and a 28-year old Gus Hansen too the half-million dollar first prize, besting an impressive final table of John Juanda, Freddy Deeb, John Hennigan, Chris Bigler, and Scotty Nguyen. The world had yet to be introduced to Chris Moneymaker and online poker, while in existence, had not taken hold yet, so at the time, the final table broadcast was likely only seen by a small niche audience.
Fast forward to 2011 and one of the most prestigious poker tournaments in the world has a list of champions that looks like a who’s who of poker in the last decade: Hansen, Paul Phillips, Daniel Negreanu, Rehne Pedersen, Joe Hachem, Eugene Katchalov, Chino Rheem, Daniel Alaei, and Antonio Esfandiari. And as the popularity of poker has grown, so has the tournament. It’s not nearly as big as it was at its peak in 2007 – 626 players registered when it was the Doyle Brunson Classic Championship and had a $15,000 buy-in – but considering the world economy and the virtual elimination of the United States from the online poker landscape, this year’s 365 entrants is still pretty solid. Registration will actually remain open through level eight, so that number could still climb today.
With 283 players remaining after Day 1, Team PokerStars Pro Vanessa Selbst sits atop the leaderboard with 165,800 chips. The 27-year old is one of the growing number of young internet stars who has made the transition into a force at the live tables. Though her first live cash was for over $100,000 when she made a final table in the $2,000 No-Limit Hold’em event at the World Series of Poker (WSOP) in 2006, she officially caught the attention of the poker world when she final tabled the Ladies Event the next year and then placed 3rd in the $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em Heads-Up event, defeating the likes of Doyle Brunson, Layne Flack, Paul Wasicka, and Shannon Shorr in the process.
In 2010, Selbst really took off. In April of that year, she won the PokerStars North American Poker Tour (NAPT) Mohegan Sun Main Event for $750,000, then won the Partouche Poker Tour Main Event in September for over $1.8 million, and finally placed 4th in the High Roller event at European Poker Tour (EPT) London for $226,910. This year, she won another NAPT event, again at Mohegan Sun, taking home $450,000.
One of Selbst’s biggest hands of the day came during level three with blinds and antes at 100/200/25. The pot was already at about 8,000 chips and the flop was 8-5-4. Adam Geyer and Selbst checked before the player on the button bet 4,000. Geyer called, but Selbst raised it to 11,500. The original bettor folded and then Geyer decided to move all-in for 45,200. Selbest didn’t need to think long with K-K in her hand and made the call. Geyer was in trouble with just Q-8 for top pair, but still had outs. None of those outs showed up and Selbst was able to double-up to 94,000.
The WPT Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic will resume Wednesday at the Bellagio as the players try to inch closer to the money.
