While their compatriots in Europe slumbered after their Day Two battles, the World Poker Tour’s second leg of its international “two step,” the Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, continued its fight. By the end of Thursday’s play, a familiar name in former champion Antonio Esfandiari was atop the leaderboard.
166 players returned from the 503 original entrants (the result of a controversial unlimited “re-entry” policy during earlier play), looking to take down one of the most prestigious titles on the WPT schedule. Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi was at the helm when play began yesterday, with such notables as David “Chino” Rheem, Vanessa Selbst and WPT “Raw Deal” host Tony “Bond_18” Dunst looking to knock him off his pedestal.
There wasn’t a soft spot anywhere around the Bellagio as the players came to the felt. On one particular table, five former WPT champions – Lee Markholt, Allen Carter, John “World” Hennigan, Gavin Smith and Shawn Buchanan – squared off against each other, while other tables featured just as much talent. Scott Clements was joined by Huck Seed, J. C. Tran and Selbst, while Sorel Mizzi, Will “The Thrill” Failla, Phil Galfond and Carlos Mortensen convened on another table.
Prior to the start of the Day Three festivities, WPT officials released the prize pool numbers, which harkened back to the “glory days” of the mid-2000s. The 503 entries (at $10,000 a pop) created a prize pool of over $5 million. While 54% of the field only took one shot at the prize (272 players), 231 players took multiple shots and seven competitors ponying up four, five or six buy-ins. The result of this flood of cash is that 54 players will walk away with at least the minimum $19,516 payday, while the champion will pick up $1.268 million (six figure payouts are ensured for the top eight finishers).
Tran was one of the early eliminations, but he would have plenty of company on the rail within moments of the opening bell. Defending WPT Grand Prix de Paris champion Matt Salsberg, Matt Stout, Chad Brown, Amnon Filippi, James Mackey, Tom Marchese and David “Bakes” Baker would all depart the Bellagio before the completion of the first level of play on the day.
On the up side of the equation, Seed hit a Royal Flush to help his cause, while Selbst would double up through Rheem, turning and rivering quad fours, to improve her chances. The big move, however, was by Esfandiari as the 2010 champion of this event began an assault on the leaderboard as evening set on the Las Vegas Strip.
After a raise from Esfandiari and a call from two other participants, Shawn Cunix also called from the big blind to head to the flop four-handed. The K-9-2 flop looked innocuous but, after Cunix checked, Esfandiari bet out only to see A. P. Phahurat reraise him. Cunix came out of shadows by moving all in for more than 300,000 in chips, but had to feel less than confident when Esfandiari made the call and Phahurat got out of the way.
Once the cards were on their back, it was one of the more difficult “coolers” you’ll see on the felt. Cunix had hit bottom set with his pocket deuces, but Esfandiari had magically constructed the top set with his pocket Kings. Once Cunix missed his case deuce on the turn and river, he was out in the “set versus set” race and Esfandiari surged to almost 900K in chips and the lead.
Esfandiari would continue to maintain that monster stack as the play wound down for the night. By the time the remaining 60 players bagged up their chips, “The Magician” was nearly 300K ahead of his closest competitor:
1. Antonio Esfandiari, 918,500
2. Freddy Deeb, 622,000
3. Thomas Winters, 586,000
4. Eddy Sabat, 519,000
5. Brian Rast, 508,500
6. Noah Schwartz, 478,000
7. Yevgeniy Timoshenko, 472,500
8. Andrew Lichtenberger, 470,000
9. John Hennigan, 447,500
10. Ty Reiman, 434,000
Bubbling under the Top Ten are Rheem (417,500), Dan Shak (376,500), Dunst (308K) and Clements (252K), all of whom are above the 251,500 chip average. Mizrachi, after starting the day as the leader, would not make the Day Four action, along with Kenna James, Scotty Nguyen, Stout, Selbst and defending WPT Player of the Year Joe Serock, among others.
It seems the Doyle Brunson is Esfandiari’s personal playground. The 2010 champion of the event, “The Magician” saw his run at a repeat title (something that has never occurred in WPT history) fall short last year with his fourth place finish. If he is able to ride the wave of success that he has had to this point, he would become the first player to ever win the same WPT event twice.
By looking at the numbers, there are still some people who will be walking away from this event with a bad taste. Only 54 players will be paid and, with 60 coming back to the tables at noon (Pacific Time), six more unfortunate souls will not earn anything for their stay at the Bellagio. The plan for Friday is to play down to 27 players, although there are adjustments that can be made to that plan if the bustout pace is a rapid one, and the final table is set for action on Sunday.