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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April 25 2011, Elaine Chaivarlis

If you were wondering whether Viktor “Isildur1″ Blom won the latest PokerStars SuperStar Showdown, then you’ve come to the right place to find out whether the Swedish phenom took down online qualifier “Mastermixus.” Also, where the World Poker Tour is headed next, and more, in this edition of the Nightly Turbo.

In Case You Missed It

The Sunday Grind took a little break in light of the developments from Black Friday, but never fear, it’s not gone for good. The latest Video Vault takes a look at some of our favorite episodes of The Sunday Grind.

While numbers may be down, the Sunday Majors continue to award six-figure sums. Find out who padded their bankrolls this week in the Sunday Briefing.

FSN’s coverage of the World Poker Tour headed to the Bellagio this week for the Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic. If you missed it, you should check out the WPT recap for the action.

The second session of the season on High Stakes Poker is over. We could tell you who came out on top, but then you wouldn’t check out the HSP recap – and there’s plenty of interesting information in it.

SuperStar Showdown

On Sunday, Viktor “Isildur1″ Blom took on online qualifier “Mastermixus” in the latest installment of the PokerStars SuperStar Showdown. This was a smaller version of the SuperStar Showdown than what most of you are used to. The two still played 2,500 hands but at $5/$10 blinds. Each player started with $15,000.

The lead changed a couple of times over the 2,500 hands, but in the end, Blom emerged victorious, notching a $1,279 win. According to the PokerStars Blog, through all of his Showdowns, Blom is up $351,486 and has a record of 6-3. While Mastermixus may not have a win against the online phenom under his belt, he did get to keep the remaining $13,721 from his $15,000 starting roll – which is a win in our books.

If you want to check out the action from the SuperStar Showdown, you can head on over to the PokerStars Blog.

Tour in the Sunshine State

The World Poker Tour is descending on Florida this week for the Seminole Hard Rock Showdown. It all kicks off on April 27, and you can look at this as your friendly reminder to get to Florida in the next day or so if you’re looking for a $10,000 buy-in event.

According to some tweets we’ve seen, plenty of pros are already in Hollywood — Florida that is — to soak up some rays before the event. It looks like Scott Montgomery, Matt Affleck, Allen Bari, Joe Tehan, and Jeff Madsen are among the players who will be attending the event. For those of you wondering how big the field will be, Matt Savage has guessed 450. We’ll soon know if he’s right or not.

SeminoleHardRockHollywood.com has the schedule of events.

RSVPs

About a month ago, we told you about the announcement of the PokerStars European Poker Tour Champion of Champions event. We told you how a player got invited to the event, and when it would be played, but there were no confirmations of players who would attend – until now.

According to the PokerStars Blog, more than 40 previous champions have confirmed that they will be attending the event in Madrid. Liv Boeree, Arnaud Mattern, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Roland de Wolfe, and Carter Phillips are among those confirmed. There are still plenty of players who haven’t though, including Jason Mercier, Noah Boeken, and Patrik Antonius.

There is €100,000 worth of EPT season-eight buy-ins awaiting the top four finishers, with first place taking home a €50,000 EPT Season 8 Passport.

You can find out who else is confirmed at the PokerStars Blog.

Derby Poker Championship

If you’re going to be in Louisville next week for the Kentucky Derby, we’d just like you to know, we’re pretty jealous. Not only can’t we be there sipping mint juleps with you, but also we can’t stop by the Derby Poker Championship celebrity poker event — but you can. The event, which takes place on May 5 at the Louisville Palace Theatre, will be hosted by Phil Hellmuth, Robert Williamson III, and former University of Louisville basketball head coach Denny Crum.

The event benefits Kentucky Harvest: Blessings in a Backpack and the Health and Climate Foundation. The buy-in for the event is $550 and there are $200 rebuys and add-ons through the first hour of play. In 2010, the event raised close to $50,000.

DerbyPokerChampionship.com has more.

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