After a grueling week of play in snow-covered Las Vegas, the final table of the World Poker Tour’s (WPT) Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic is set. Leading the way is Steve Sung, who is the chip leader at a highly-talented final table that also includes World Series of Poker (WSOP) November Nine member David “Chino” Rheem as well as poker legend Hoyt Corkins. The tournament will air as part of the seventh season of the WPT on cable station Fox Sports Net.
Eighteen players began the day at the Bellagio, which is also the site of the WPT Championship held every April. Heading into the final table of the Five Diamond is a fierce field of six accomplished poker players:
First in Chips: Steve Sung – 5,885,000
Second in Chips: Evan McNiff – 4,805,000
Third in Chips: Chino Rheem – 4,240,000
Fourth in Chips: Amnon Filippi – 2,750,000
Fifth in Chips: Justin Young – 2,410,000
Sixth in Chips: Hoyt Corkins – 2,295,000
Sung went on a tear during the sixth season of the World Poker Tour. He came in fourth place in the Spanish Championship, held in Barcelona, for $166,000. He was the runner up in the Bay 101 Shooting Star tournament, the only bounty event to air as part of WPT programming, cashing for $585,000. In the prestigious $10,000 buy-in World Championship of Seven Card Stud High-Low Split Eight or Better tournament at the WSOP, he finished seventh for $46,000, proving that his poker skills extend well beyond just Hold’em. In fact, he has four WSOP cashes to his name; all four are in different genres of poker.
Rheem was one of the only established poker pros to make the final table of the 2008 WSOP Main Event. His fearlessness and calculated style of play led him to the final table of the Five Diamond one month after the Main Event of the WSOP played out. Rheem pocketed $1.7 million for his seventh place finish in poker’s biggest annual event and became a household name in the process. He was the runner up in a $1,000 rebuy event at the WSOP in 2006 for $327,000. Rheem is third in chips entering the televised final table, which kicks off on Friday afternoon.
Filippi is one of the top all-around players in the game. He finished fourth in the $50,000 buy-in HORSE Championship during the 2007 WSOP for $586,000. That event was ultimately won by Freddy Deeb and tests players’ skills in Hold’em, Omaha, Razz, Stud, and Stud Eight or Better. Filippi finished 16th in the $10,000 Mixed event during this year’s festivities for $18,000. He finished fourth in the Borgata Poker Classic on the WPT felts during Season IV for $184,000 and finished sixth at the Mirage Poker Showdown during Season VI for $100,000.
Corkins is the proud owner of two WSOP bracelets. The first came back in 1992 after he took down a $5,000 buy-in Pot Limit Omaha tournament. Fifteen years later, he was back in the spotlight, winning a $2,500 buy-in No Limit Hold’em Six-Handed event for $515,000 and his second piece of hardware. Corkins won the WPT Foxwoods World Poker Finals during Season II for $1.1 million. He finished second in the World Poker Open during Season VI for $458,000. He’s a familiar face on online poker site Doyle’s Room and looks for his second WPT title on Friday.
Notable players who were eliminated on Thursday, along with the amount they cashed for, included:
Mike Matusow – 9th place for $100,880
Clonie Gowen – 10th place for $86,470
Robert Mizrachi – 11th place for $72,060
Nick Schulman – 13th place for $72,060
Martin de Knijff – 15th place for $72,060
The final table will pay out as follows:
1st Place: $1,538,730
2nd Place: $936,760
3rd Place: $540,440
4th Place: $396,205
5th Place: $288,235
6th Place: $216,175
We’ll have a full recap of the final table right here on Poker News Daily.