May 21 2012, Chad Holloway

On Sunday, the World Poker Tour Season X on Fox Sports Network continued with Part II of the Five Diamond World Poker Classic. The $10,000 Main Event, which originally took place at the Bellagio from Dec. 6 through 11, 2011, attracted 413 players and created a prize pool of $4,006,100, with $821,612 reserved for first place.

In Part I, the early stages of the tournament were highlighted as well as the first two eliminations from the stacked final table. The first to go was actually last year’s champion, Antonio Esfandiari. On Hand #10 of the final table, action folded to James Dempsey on the button and he put in a big raise. Esfandiari called off from the small blind and was in great shape to double.

Showdown

Unfortunately for him, the board would run out to give Dempsey a pair of fours and the win. With that, Esfandiari’s title defense came to an end in sixth place for $119,418.

Just two hands later, Soi Nguyen opened for 120,000 with and Vitor Coelho committed his last 260,000 with . Vanessa Selbst then came along with and both active players checked down every street as the board ran out . Coelho, who had made the final table of the WPT stop before the Five Diamond, finished in fifth place for $159,224.

Here’s how things stacked up at the top of the broadcast:

WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic Final Table

Nguyen Gets Value on Nut Flush: Nguyen was under the gun and opened for 120,000 with , and Selbst opted to defend from the big blind with the . The flop gave Selbst a pair of queens, but she checked to Nguyen, who bet 175,000 with the nut-flush draw. Selbst made the call and then checked the turn. Nguyen set the trap by checking the , leading to the river. Selbst checked her straight and Nguyen came to life with a bet of 325,000. Selbst thought about it, glanced at her opponent, and then made the call. With that, Nguyen collected the 1,310,000 pot while Selbst released a long sigh.

Nguyen-ing: “We all learned together as kids, myself, Nam Le and Nam’s brothers,” Nguyen explained in a feature after the hand on how he learned to play the game. “We actually had to buy a book in the beginning because none of us knew the exact rules to it, and then I went on got married and had a kid, and decided to take the career path, and Nam just went down the poker road and blew up in 2006. I always thought to myself, ‘Wow, I’ve played with him before and taken a couple pots down from him. So hopefully someday, when the time is right financially, that I’m gonna take my stab at it.’ Lo and behold I made the final table.”

Five Questions: In the latest edition of Five Questions, Kimberly Lansing sat down with Daniel Negreanu and talked about a variety of topics including tournaments and his favorite WPT moment. In regards to the latter, Negreanu stated his favorite moment was when he won the Borgata “because it was such a tough field. Very compeititve, and because [he] thought everyone wanted it so bad.” It was also his first $1-million win.

When asked what he would be doing if he wasn’t playing poker, Negreanu responded: “If I quit playing poker, I would probably do some writing, because I’ve always enjoyed it. Do some Bikram yoga, and on the weekends be drinking at the club. You know, not much different than I’m doing right now. I’m kind of living the life I wanted for the most part.”

One for Lucky Chewy: With the blinds at 30,000/60,000 and a 10,000 ante, Nguyen opened for 120,000 with and was met with a three-bet to 400,000 by Andrew Lichtenberger, who held in the big blind. Nguyen made the call and it was heads up to the flop. Lichtenberger was first to act and led out for 525,000, which was enough to win as Nguyen released his hand.

Interestingly, Lichtenberger had taken eighth in the Five Diamond the year before for $67,570.

Double for Selbst: Action folded to Dempsey on the button and he opened for 125,000 with . Lichtenberger was in the small blind and three-bet to 425,000 with , prompting Selbst to move all-in for her last 1,135,000 from the big with . Lichtenberger unenthusiastically made the call and it was off to the races.

As the cards laid, Selbst had a 48 percent chance of winning the hand, but that fell to 40 percent on the flop. “An eight would work as well,” Selbst pointed out. While that was true, it was the on the turn that made her a 78 percent favorite. Lichtenberger was looking for either a three or club on the river to eliminate his tough competitor, but it was not meant to be as the peeled off.

Andrew Lichtenberger Eliminated in Fourth Place: After squeezing out on the button, Nguyen came in with a raise to 160,000 and was immediately met with a three-bet to 450,000 by Dempsey, who held , in the small blind. Lichtenberger was next to act in the big and proceeded to move all-in for 2.75 million with .

Nguyen shot back in his chair and seemed frustrated by the predicament; nonetheless, he made the call while Dempsey quickly got out of the way. Nguyen, who was an 89 percent favorite to win the hand, went to his rail for a celebratory high five while Lichtenberger and Dempsey discussed the situation as well as Russel Brand’s biography. “What can I do,” Lichtenberger said. “Might as well lighten the mood.”

It did seem like a quiet and laid-back atmosphere as the board ran out . Lichtenberger gave Selbst a hug, shook Nguyen’s hand and then made his exit in fourth place for $218,933.

“It’s definitely a learning experience, always,” Lichtenberger told sideline reported Matt Savage in his post-elimination interview when asked about making the transition from online play to live. “There’s so many things different about it like, you know, sitting across from someone and being able to look them in the eye. It’s just a whole different game really. Yeah, I feel I adapted pretty well to it.”

Tune in Next Week: Part III of the Five Diamond World Poker Classic is set to air on Sunday, May 27, on FSN, so be sure to check your local listings. If by chance you miss it, check back next week for the latest recap of all the action right here on PokerNews.

Past Foxwoods World Poker Finals Champions

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*Picture courtesy of World Poker Tour.

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March 07 2012, Brett Collson

Day 1b of the World Poker Tour Bay 101 Shooting Star Main Event saw 222 players hit the felts, creating a combined field of 364 between the two Day 1 starting flights. The number was notably smaller than last year’s field of 415 but still created a hefty prize pool of nearly $3.5 million, of which $960,900 will go to the winner.

Part of the draw of the $10,000 buy-in Bay 101 Shooting Star event is its bounty-focused format. Every starting table on Day 1 begins with a designated “Shooting Star,” and anyone who eliminates that player will receive a $5,000 bounty, as well as an autographed t-shirt.

After only five of the 19 Shooting Stars survived Day 1a, the bounties had much more success on Day 1b. The second flight had 28 Shooting Stars, and half advanced to Day 2 after 10 levels of play. Two-time WPT champ Michael Mizrachi had the best day out of the 28 Shooting Stars. “The Grinder” doubled his stack early on by eliminating Dan Kelly to take the chip lead and finished among the leaders with 129,900 chips when the day concluded.

Other Shooting Stars moving on to Day 2 are Allen Cunningham (122,200), JC Tran (114,300), Marvin Rettenmaier (87,200), Men Nguyen (80,600), Fabrice Soulier (78,300), Linda Johnson (76,000), David Williams (61,200), Scott Seiver (56,500), Nam Le (54,800), Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier (46,100), Chau Giang (41,000), Antonio Esfandiari (35,300) and Jason Mercier (20,300).

While half the Shooting Stars pressed forward, the other half handed over their autographed tee along with a $5,000 check to their bounty hunter. Eugene Katchalov, Erick Lindgren, Chris Moorman, Jennifer Harman, Todd Brunson, Ben Lamb, Barry Greenstein, Scotty Nguyen and defending champ Alan Sternberg were all sent to the rail on Day 1a. According to the WPT Live Updates team, Katchalov and Brunson were both eliminated by Michael Wywrot, who was the only player to eliminate two Shooting Stars during the day.

Of the 95 players who survived Day 1b, Chris Summers finished on top with a stack of 188,000 to earn the $10,000 bonus given to the chip leader at the end of each day. He’s followed closely by former WPT champ Taylor von Kriegenberg, who lost the last hand of the night to fall short of claiming the bonus. He’ll take 181,300 chips into Day 2, while Max Silver (155,000), Scott Baumstein (133,600) and Kent Washington (131,000) rounded out the top five on the Day 1b leaderboard.

When the field merges on Wednesday, everyone will be chasing Day 1a chip leader Bryce Yockey, who takes 245,300 chips into Day 2. Play will begin at 1045 PST (1845 GMT) on Tuesday, and the 149 remaining players will attempt to play through the money bubble (36 players will cash) and down to the final 18.

Here’s a look at the top 10 stacks heading into Day 2:

Check back in to PokerNews.com for daily recaps from Bay 101.

*Photo courtesy of the World Poker Tour.

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