Home / Poker News December 2009 / PokerStars WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic – Final table set
PokerStars WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic – Final table set
Posted by: James Carter. - Mon, 2009-12-21 10:22
Day 5 of the
PokerStars WPT’s Five Diamond World Poker Classic featured some controversy amid which Day 4 top finisher Curt Kohlberg faded away to chip Faraz Jaka up, propelling him into the chip lead. Scotty Nguyen, who’d nursed a short-stack for most of the day, managed to amass a big enough stack to clinch second place at the finish line.
Only six players were left in the poker tournament at the end of the day, as Faraz Jaka’s 5,300,000 stack became the mark to beat. All six players are “name” pros, a clear reflection of the outstanding overall quality of the initial starting field.
Curt Kohlberg started the day with the chip lead, and it was only fitting that Jaka would climb to the top on his shoulders. The two players locked horns over a massive pot that represented the beginning of Jaka’s ascent. Faraz Jakka was under the gun holding 7,8h in his pocket. He tried to take the initiative preflop, by firing out a 160,000 chip bet.
Kohlberg was quick to make the cal,l given that he had a pair of Ks in his pocket. The flop fell 8,7,2, giving Jaka a two pair and leaving Kohlberg with a board that had him suspecting nothing.
Jaka checked the flop and Kohlberg fired a 200k bet into him. The two were all-in in no time and the turn and the river bricked out to give the pot to Jaka and to leave Kohlberg on a 1.6 million chip life-support.
Another extremely interesting, not to mention controversial hand in the
poker tournament was the one between Scotty Nguyen, John Juanda and Chad Batista. Juanda had the button and as the action came around to him, he declared that he was all-in. Batista had his head-phones on and didn’t hear Juanda’s declaration though.
Thinking he was the first one in, he pushed all-in too. Scotty Nguyen, who had pocket rockets found all this pretty amusing obviously. He made the call and found himself faced with Juanda’s A,6o and Batista’s pocket deuces. The board changed nothing and much to Batista’s ire, the Prince of Poker tripled up. The floor staff was called over but eventually decided that Juanda’s all-in had in fact been correct and that the hand would not be turned around.
Daniel Alaei, Josh Arieh, Steve O’Dwyer and Shawn Buchannan are the other four final table participants.
