The World Poker Tour’s Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic is down to its next to last day, with a former November Niner at the helm and the defending champion still in the hunt for a historic repeat.
49 players started the action on Friday and, with the final table playing on Sunday, were looking to get as close as possible to that six handed final table as possible so play would be short on Saturday. Kyle Julius, who captured the lead late on Thursday night, was facing challenges from 2010 World Series of Poker “November Nine” member Soi Nguyen and the defending champion of this event, Antonio Esfandiari. By the end of Friday’s play, these men would change positions but not the pursuit of the latest WPT championship.
Day One chip leader Vanessa Selbst, who has been a constant on the leaderboard during this tournament, got off to an excellent start on Friday afternoon. She cut a big stack of chips from Jason Dewitt, then ended the tournament of Allen Cunningham. After eliminating Cunningham, Selbst would sit on 930K in chips and, although she had a slight misstep against Nguyen, end Friday’s play with roughly that stack.
One of the biggest movers during the action on Friday was the United Kingdom’s James Dempsey. After starting the day with less than 300K in chips, “Flushy” more than doubled his chips in the first hour of play. On an interesting A-8-7-5-3 board, Dempsey was able to make pocket Kings work against Yuri Siniak to push his stack up to nearly 800K. It wouldn’t be the last time that the Englishman would be heard from in this tournament.
Within the first two hours of play, Cunningham, Allen Kessler, Matt Giannetti, Jonathan Little and Madison Bergeron were among the casualties, all receiving $15,922 for their efforts. With the elimination of Peter Jetten (40th, $19,903) and Dwyte Pilgrim (37th, $19,903), among others, the field reached the final four tables within three hours of action on Friday.
Dempsey would continue on his good run of Friday by eliminating Javier Quinones from the tournament in 34th place, pushing Dempsey’s stack to 1.35 million. This wasn’t good enough for the chip lead, however; Nguyen and Julius jousted for that position through the late afternoon action and, joined by Andrew Lichtenberger, this foursome would swap positions in the Top Five through the rest of the evening’s play.
After Dewitt’s elimination in 28th place (preceded by the departures of Dee Dozier and David “The Dragon” Pham), three tables were left. Nguyen and Julius were separated, but each found new combatants to go against. Nguyen picked up Dempsey at his table, while Julius would find Larry Wells at his. Esfandiari, who maintained his Friday starting stack throughout the day, would take up the battle with Lichtenberger.
In one of the more exciting hands of Friday’s play, Julius would end Nicolas Fraioli’s day decisively. After a raise by Julius and a call from Fraioli in the small blind, the duo saw a monochrome 5-3-2 all club flop. After both players checked, another five on the turn brought a 37K chip bet from Fraioli and a flat from Julius. As the dealer prepared to burn a card, Fraioli announced he was all in in the dark and Julius called him in the dark, turning up 6-4 of clubs for the flopped straight flush. A stunned Fraioli turned up his cards, the K-J of clubs for a king high flush, which was crushed. After the inconsequential river, Julius shot to 1.775 million in chips and Fraioli was out in 22nd place ($23,884).
The end of the evening presented another hand noteworthy, as it pushed Lichtenberger into contention. After a bet from Blake Kelso and a reraise from Lichtenberger, Selbst would flat from the button. Once Matt Marafioti moved all in from the big blind, the action heated up. Kelso pushed all in over Marafioti’s bet, Lichtenberger called and Selbst got out of the way.
Lichtenberger held the lead with his pocket Kings, but his outs for improvement were gone as both Kelso and Marafioti held Big Slick. An all spade 10-2-3 flop gave Marafioti a shot at a flush draw, but a ten on the turn and a nine on the river ended the tournament for Marafioti (15th, $39,806) and Kelso (14th). With the double knockout, Lichtenberger pushed his stack over the two million mark and ended the play for the day with thirteen players remaining.
At noon Saturday (Las Vegas time), the final table of the WPT Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic will be determined, with these players in contention:
1. Soi Nguyen, 3.1 million
2. Andrew Lichtenberger, 2.114 million
3. James Dempsey, 1.877 million
4. Larry Wells, 1.327 million
5. Antonio Esfandiari, 1.099 million
6. Kyle Julius, 1.097 million
7. Anthony Yeh, 1.091 million
8. Vitor Coelho, 950,000
9. Braden Hall, 926,000
10. Vanessa Selbst, 869,000
11. David Williams, 748,000
12. Rudy Maarek, 706,000
13. William Reynolds, 565,000
There are two Champions’ Club members (previous WPT champions) still alive, Esfandiari and Williams, with Esfandiari looking to make history by repeating as champion of this tournament. Selbst is the final woman left in the tournament and has been playing excellent poker throughout the event. Nguyen, Dempsey and Lichtenberger are all able to handle the challenges of late tournament poker, however, which will lead to an exciting day of play at the Bellagio today!
