The final tournament of the 2011 calendar year for the World Poker Tour, the Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, will move on to Day Three play with Grant Lang atop the leaderboard of the 149 players still alive in the tournament.
Action kicked off in the poker room at the Bellagio – the normal location for the Bellagio tournaments, the Fontana Lounge, is currently under renovation – bright and early on Wednesday with 286 runners who survived the Day One play and Team PokerStars Pro Vanessa Selbst at the helm. Although the tournament clock showed that there were 370 players registered, late registration was still in play through Level Eight of the tournament. Thus, those fortunate souls who were still in the tournament still didn’t know what they were playing for.
With that said, the players got down to business rather quickly. Three players, Jeff Madsen, Tony “Bond_18” Dunst and Eric Buchman, doubled up within minutes of the start of play, while Faraz Jaka decided on a more adventurous route. After getting knocked down to just over 10,000 in chips by doubling up David Baker, Jaka was able to get most of those chips back when he found his own double up through Jeremy Ausmus when Jaka caught trips on an 8-8-5 flop.
Some players, however, found themselves heading for the exits in the early going. In a particularly brutal fashion, David “Doc” Sands Tweeted his departure from the Bellagio, stating, “Guy just 6bet all in pre w K8s against my AK for 55k each. 8 on river.” Amit Makhija had a similar story, Tweeting, “Busto reshoved 44 for 16k at 400-800 button vs sb against Will and he called A8s and won.” Jaka’s final WPT of 2011 also would come to an end as he Tweeted, “Busto AK > AA not much of a chance.”
As Level Eight played out, the clashes between top pros were rampant across the floor of the Bellagio. After seeing a K-9-4 (two club) flop, Annette Obrestad, Mark Newhouse and Selbst all went to battle. After checks from the ladies, Newhouse bet out and saw Obrestad make the call. Selbst, however, put some pressure on by check-raising Newhouse to 17,000. Newhouse wasn’t going anywhere, however, dropping a 40K four-bet in the center of the table.
Obrestad decided to wake up at this time, moving her remaining stack to the center of the table and Selbst dropped her cards into the muck. Newhouse made the call and tabled Big Slick against Obrestad’s Big Chick (A-Q), but Obrestad’s cards were clubs. An Ace on the turn gave two pair to Newhouse, but a third club on the river gave Obrestad the hand with a flush. After the smoke cleared, Obrestad was up to 185,000 in chips, Selbst was left with 100K and Newhouse found himself with only 37K in chips remaining.
Scott Clements and Chris Klodnicki also clashed in one of the most stunning hands of the day. After a 9-9-8 flop, Clements moved all in (after several bets) and Klodnicki made the call, tabling his pocket eights for a full house while Clements only tabled a 10-9 for trip nines. Klodnicki had to feel good when the case eight came on the turn, improving him to quad eights, but the case nine on the river – the only out that would help him – turned the tables and gave Clements the hand with quad nines and 220K in chips.
By the time late registration ended (with players like Doyle Brunson, Eli Elezra, Phil Hellmuth and Ben Lamb squeaking in before the bell), 413 players were officially a part of the tournament. As of this morning, however, the WPT has not released any information on the prize pool nor what the payouts will be for the tournament.
At the end of the evening, 149 players bagged up their chips and prepared for the action today. Several storylines are building, including Obrestad’s run at a WPT title and the attempt by Antonio Esfandiari to defend his championship. As the cards get ready to fly on Thursday, here’s how the Top Ten looks:
1. Grant Lang, 382,000
2. Jeffrey Frerichs, 342,900
3. Scott Clements, 330,100
4. Cuong Nguyen, 329,800
5. Jean Gaspard, 296,200
6. Keith Ferrera, 295,800
7. James Dempsey, 288,300
8. Matthew Glantz, 287,000
9. Rudy Maarek, 271,600
10. Brent Roberts, 262,200
Esfandiari (250,700), Allen Cunningham (240,100), Dwyte Pilgrim (181,000), Selbst (148,000) and Obrestad (142,200) are hovering in the upper reaches of the leaderboard, looking to challenge Wednesday’s leaders.
Day Three kicks off at noon today (Las Vegas time), with the final table set for action on Sunday.
