Sunday was a good news, bad news day for the survivors of Day 3 at the 2013 World Poker Tour (WPT) Five Diamond World Poker Classic Main Event. The good news was, well, they made it to Day 4. The bad news was that they were not able to relax when they retired to their rooms at the Bellagio, as nobody had yet made the money. With 59 players still left to vie for 45 cash slots, there very well may have been some tossing and turning in bed Sunday night.
Don Nguyen was probably one of the exceptions, as he ended Day 3 as the chip leader with 774,500 chips, almost 200,000 more than John Holsonback. Nguyen doesn’t have a long history of live tournament cashes, but what he lacks in quantity, he has in quality. Of his eight recorded cashes in live poker tournaments, four have come in the World Series of Poker (WSOP). Two of those four were runner-up finishes: one in this year’s $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em Heads-Up Event ($209,648) and one in this year’s $50,000 Poker Player’s Championship ($1,096,254). Thus, he is more than familiar with the pressure of a deep run in a tourney.
The top of the Five Diamond leaderboard looks like a typical leaderboard of a major event. Mohsin Charania, who recently won the WPT Grand Prix de Paris and just finished 53rd at WPT Montreal, sits in third place with 573,000 chips. Next is Dan O’Brien, who currently sits in 43rd place in the Global Poker Index (GPI). You also have Brian Rast in seventh place with 459,500 chips and David Paredes with 458,500.
Nguyen’s most significant hand of the day came at the expense of the above mentioned Rast. The flop showed A♦-K♦-T♠ and with about 200,000 chips in the pot, Nguyen shoved for 259,100. Rast got a count and then went over the top all-in. Kevin Eyster, who was also in the hand and was one of chip leaders at the time, got out of the way. Rast revealed A♥-A♠ for top set, but Nguyen had flopped huge, turning over Q♠-J♠ for a broadway straight. The turn produced the 6♣ and was followed by the 4♥, allowing Nguyen’s straight to hold up. He doubled-up to 710,000 at the time and took the chip lead. Obviously, Rast recovered from that blow just fine to finish the day in the top ten.
Day 4 will begin at noon Vegas time on Monday as the 59 remaining players both battle to make the money and position themselves for a deeper run.
2013 World Poker Tour (WPT) Five Diamond World Poker Classic Main Event – Day 3 Chip Leaders
1. Don Nguyen – 774,500
2. John Holsonback – 594,000
3. Mohsin Charania – 573,000
4. Dan O’Brien – 504,500
5. Dan Martin – 496,000
6. Barry Hutter – 489,000
7. Brian Rast – 459,500
8. David Paredes – 458,500
9. Antonio Lafosse – 454,500
10. Joe Serock – 430,000
