It took nearly eight hours for the field of the World Poker Tour (WPT) Championship to be trimmed from ten players to six. At the end of play on Friday night, high-stakes cash game pro David Benyamine led the way with a stack of 4.71 million.
Online poker legend Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy was the first elimination of Friday’s play in the WPT Championship at the Bellagio. In the 11th hand of play, Josephy moved all-in with pocket nines on a flop of 9-8-6 with two clubs for top set. However, Bodog poker pro David Williams held 10-7 of clubs for the nuts and a straight flush redraw. A five on the turn changed nothing, but the six of clubs on the river game Williams a ten-high straight flush, besting Josephy’s full house. Josephy picked up $56,000 for his efforts and landed in tenth place.
Thirty-three hands later, Nikolay Evdakov was eliminated in ninth place, banking $75,000. Evdakov was all-in on a three-way pot against UB.com front man Phil Hellmuth and Day 5 chip leader John O’Shea. The final board read 8-8-3-A-J with three spades and Hellmuth flipped up K-4 of the suit for a flush. Evdakov turned over just Q-2 for queen-high and departed in ninth place. The 2010 Championship event marked Evdakov’s first in the money finish in a WPT tournament.
Five-time World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner Scotty Nguyen landed in eighth place in the WPT Championship, earning $105,000. Nguyen called all-in on a board of J-10-6-8 holding pocket eights for a turned set, but Benyamine showed pocket tens for a higher set. No help came on the river for the 1998 WSOP Main Event champ and he was relegated to the rails. Nguyen held the second largest chip stack to start the day. It took nearly five hours for the field to be shaved from eight players to seven.
Nguyen narrowly missed out on his second straight appearance at the WPT Championship televised final table. Last year, “The Prince of Poker” took sixth for $285,000. He recorded three top eight finishes during the 2009-2010 WPT season and last won a bracelet in the $50,000 HORSE event during the 2008 WSOP for $2 million. In that tournament, Nguyen was belligerent and allegedly inebriated, telling off floor officials and fellow players. It was the last $50,000 HORSE event broadcasted on ESPN.
Hellmuth, a former WSOP Main Event champ, was tight and seemingly erratic down the stretch. On the 157th hand of the day, he made it 600,000 pre-flop on the button after Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin had raised to 200,000. Then, Baldwin shoved all-in for 3.65 million and Hellmuth folded A-K face up. Hellmuth, who has seemingly transformed into a calm player, fell back on his old form. Several hands later, he vented his frustration with the table: “Do you know how frustrated I am right now? I wait three to four hours for one A-K and I have to fold.”
Seven-time bracelet winner Billy Baxter doubled through O’Shea to grow his stack to 11 big blinds and survive to make the final table. Hellmuth finally committed his chips with K-10, but ran into the A-J of Bodog pro David Williams. The board ran out 8-7-6-6-7 and Hellmuth served as the Final Table Bubble Boy. He pocketed $152,000 for his efforts and boosted his career WPT earnings past the $1 million mark.
The six players who will vie for the $1.5 million top prize at the Bellagio on Saturday are:
1. David Benyamine – 4,705,000
2. David Williams – 4,700,000
3. Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin – 4,490,000
4. Billy Baxter – 2,440,000
5. Shawn Buchanan – 1,965,000
6. John O’Shea – 1,200,000
When play picks back up, the blinds will be 50,000-100,000 with an ante of 10,000. Here are the payouts at stake for the members of the WPT Championship final table:
1st Place: $1,530,537
2nd Place: $1,034,715
3rd Place: $587,906
4th Place: $329,228
5th Place: $246,921
6th Place: $199,888
The final table will play out in front of the hot lights of Fox Sports Net cameras beginning at 4:00pm PT on Saturday.
