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 27 2012, Lee Davy

Day 2 of the PokerStars.com and Monte-Carlo® Casino European Poker Tour Grand Final has come to an end with Team PokerStars Pro Max Martinez sitting atop the chip count with a stack of 456,300. Martinez began Day 2 quickly growing his stack to join the plethora of players fighting for the higher ground. Then in the penultimate level of the day, disaster struck.

Martinez and Fabrice Soulier were involved in a 210,000-chip pot where Martinez was holding and Soulier held . The pot would have pushed Martinez right into contention, but a foul queen on the flop handed the pot to Soulier and left Martinez lamenting his luck with only 65,000 chips.

In the last level of the night, Martinez went on what can only be described as an almighty tear in which he grew his 65,000-chip stack to a sumptuous 456,300, climaxing in the elimination of Ivan Kudriavtcev after Kudriavtcev ran his pocket sevens into Martinez’ pocket tens.

But long before Martinez popped up on our radar, Day 2 began with a number of high-profile eliminations. Team PokerStars Pros Vanessa Selbst, Ville Wahlbeck and Victor Ramdin joined Kevin MacPhee, David Vamplew and Samuel Chartier out of the door. PokerStars qualifier Malte Moenning began the day ninth in chips and was the first player to eclipse Nick Yunis at the top with 220,000 chips.

Team PokerStars Pro Pius Heinz started to gather some momentum as did his teammate Angel Guillen, while at the other end of things Joe Cada and Daniel Negreanu exited stage left. Sam Trickett left the field after a series of unfortunate coolers, and as Level 11 began, the newly crowned “100,000 Super High Roller winner, Justin Bonomo took the chip lead after eliminating two players in a three-way all-in to take him to 242,000 in chips. Hanging onto the coat tails of the “1,600,000 man were the likes of David Sands, John Eames, Nick Yunis and Malte Moenning.

In Level 12, David “Doc” Sands was the first player to pass the summit of 300,000 chips. Also in Level 12, Eames was eliminated, as was former EPT champion Vladimir Geshkenbein. Then there was a clash involving Mohsin Charania and Nick Yunis that thrust Charania into the EPT Grand Final spotlight for the first time.

With the blinds at 800/1,600 and an ante of 200, both Nick Yunis and Mohsin Charania had a 143 big blind stack and 131 big blind stack respectively. You would have thought that the pair would have sailed into Day 3 without breaking sweat, but Yunis had other ideas. Ben Vinson raised to 3,500 in first position, Mohsin Charania three-bet to 8,000, also in early position, before Yunis cold-four bet for 18,000 in middle position. Vinson stepped aside, Charania five-bet, Yunis six-bet for everything, and Charania was wondering if somebody was going to wake him up and tell him that it was all a dream. Charania had the preflop nuts – – and Yunis had the dominated . Five community cards later and Charania was the new chip leader with 380,000 chips and Yunis was down, and a few hands later, out!

When you have a man with an aura like Phil Ivey, then you need to get him on your TV table. It’s just a shame that the man was eliminated in the very first hand that he played after the crew announced lights, camera and action!

Team PokerStars Pros Barry Greenstein and Humberto Brenes left the party and Brits Chris Brammer and Ben Vinson started to grow their chip stacks. Brammer doubled through Team PokerStars Pro Dario Minieri and Vinson just ground away on a table with Annette Obrestad and Mohsin Charania.

In the depths of the last level Dario Minieri, Liv Boeree, and Fabrice Soulier were eliminated and when the final count came in 130 players left to play poker on Day 3.

End of Day 2 Top 10 Chip Counts

Day 3 action begins at 1200 CET (0300 PDT) and the PokerNews Live Reporting Team will be there to bring you all the action as the field heads toward the money bubble.

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