The $15,400 buy-in Doyle Brunson Five Diamond
World Poker Classic, the last official WPT event of the 00’s, began
December 14th at the famous Bellagio Casino in Las Vegas with about 292
high stakes players signing up to play.
Registration for the event remained open throughout
the entire day (as it did during the previous WPT Festa al Lago event),
which often meant for each player knocked out, a new one would join in -
taking advantage of the flexibility affordable with deep 60,000 chip
starting stacks and blinds beginning at only 50/100.
Thanks perhaps to getting so many starting chips, by
the first day’s conclusion only about 55 players had been eliminated,
however, many of them were big name tournament pros including Joe
Hachem, David “Chino” Rheem, Chad Brown, Jonathan Little, Jeff Madsen,
Barry Shulman and Daniel Negreanu.
Some of the players who fared
significantly better and ended the day with above average chips included
Antonio Esfandiari, David Benyamine, Carlos Mortensen, Jimmy Fricke,
Gavin Smith and Bryan “Devo” Devonshire.
Day Two of the Classic saw the end of
registration, giving players a first look at the size of the total prize
pool, as well as what was awaiting them in terms of booty, if able to
make it to the final table.
In total 329 players signed up during
the first eight levels of the Classic, nearly 170 less than last year,
but still enough to create a total prize pool worth $4,761,450. First
prize for the event would claim $1,428,430 from that pool, with the rest
spread out to the other 26 players who were fortunate enough to make
the money.
Day 3 began with less than a third of
those 329 players still in the fight (130 to be exact) and it turned out
to be the pivotal day for the tournament.
Some of the beloved players left on
the rail by the end of Day 3 included the tournament’s namesake Doyle
Brunson, Kristy Gazes, Mike Matusow, Gavin Smith, Howard Lederer,
Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Erik Seidel, “the Bear” Barry Greenstein
and PokerRoad Radio “B Team” member Bryan “Devo” Devonshire, who lost
nearly all of his chips to Daniel Alaei with Ace-Queen, in one of the
biggest pots of the tournament, when both players flopped trip Aces but
Alaei held the higher kicker. That hand effectively threw Alaei to the
top of the leader board by the end of the day, while basically throwing
poor Devo out the door.
Alaei in turn became the Blue Diamond
Almonds Bold Player of Day 3, and during his interview with PokerRoad’s
Amanda Leatherman, he discussed that hand with Devo. Leatherman ended
the segment by asking Alaei what he thought his chances were of winning
the event, with so many chips and only 36 players left in the field, and
Alaei, despite being a multiple World Series of Poker bracelet winner
with over $2 million in career tournament earnings, still seemed
hesitant to possibly jinx himself by venturing a guess.
Perhaps he was wise to play it safe
and humble in front of the finicky poker gods, because in the end it was
Alaei who took the event down - his first WPT title - after defeating a
very tough final table that held four players that had made it to a WPT
final table before, and two that had actually won one, including the
always popular Scotty Nguyen.
For the victory, Alaei claimed a top
prize worth $1,428,430, a Rolex watch, a WPT gold bracelet and a $25,500
entry into the 2010 WPT World Championship - which will also be held at
the Bellagio.
The final table finish positions for
the Bellagio’s WPT Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic were
as follows:
1. |
Daniel Alaei |
$$1,428,430 |
|
2. |
Josh Arieh |
$$952,290 |
|
3. |
Faraz Jaka |
$$571,374 |
|
4. |
Shawn Buchanan |
$$333,302 |
|
5. |
Scotty Nguyen |
$$249,976 |
|
6. |
Steve O’Dwyer |
$$202,360 |