The Season Nine World Poker Tour Five Diamond World Poker Classic, begins tomorrow at the famous Bellagio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas; a $10,000 buy-in event expected to once again attract the best of the best.
The Bellagio’s Five Diamond World Poker Classic, in slightly different forms and incarnations, has been a part of the World Poker Tour since its inception, and its eight previous champions have become legends at least partially as a result.
Players like Gus Hansen (2002), Daniel Negreanu (2004), Eugene Katchalov (2007) and David “Chino” Rheem (2008), either first received notoriety, or cemented their reputations as world class players, by winning the Five Diamond, making this event a highly desirable score for nearly any pro on the Circuit, regardless of the money involved- though historically that has been world class as well.
Last year’s Five Diamond main event, then a $15,000 buy-in, was able to continue the trend of crowning a respected player as champion when it was taken down by Daniel Alaei for $1,428,430.
Alaei earned what ended up being the largest score of his impressive career so far, by outlasting a total field of 329 players, including a stacked final table which held Josh Arieh (2nd), Faraz Jaka (3rd), Shawn Buchanan and Scotty Nguyen (5th).
This year’s WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic’s only Day One will begin at noon Pacific time on Friday, December 3rd, however players will still have plenty of time to register, as this event continues a trend at recent major Bellagio tournaments of allowing players to enter the event well into Day 2 (till the end of Level 8).
The poker media world has already begun ascending upon the Bellagio to cover this season’s historic WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic, and PokerRoad is at the front of that pack, with all new episodes of PokerRoad Radio (at least one rumored to include Gavin Smith) as well as news, blogs, and tweets from the PokerRoad family, as they compete and hopefully triumphant against some of the top competition in the game.