Home / Poker News December 2011 / WPT Five Diamonds World Poker Classic – Esfandiari Makes Final Table
WPT Five Diamonds World Poker Classic – Esfandiari Makes Final Table
Posted by: James Carter. - Tue, 2011-12-13 13:05
The 6-handed final table of the Doyle Brunson Five Diamonds World Poker Classic has been reached on Day 5 of the event. Antonio Esfandiari, the reigning champion of the
poker tournament is among the final 6 too, which means there’s still a possibility that he will retain his title.
The final table will kick off on Sunday and it will be televised, offering everyone at the final table the chance to make a name for themselves. Frankly however, most players in the final 6 do not need such an opportunity as they’re already well-known, high-profile poker professionals.
Andrew Lichtenberger, James Dempsey, Soi Nguyen, Vanessa Selbst and Vitor Coelho are the other final table participants.
A possible win from Esfandiari on Sunday would tie him for 3 WPT wins with Carlos Mortensen and Gus Hansen and it would go down as quite an achievement indeed.
Esfandiari has a stack of 1.2 million chips heading into the final stretch of action, which almost makes him the short-stack. Fortunately for him, Vitor Coelho beat him to that spot with 560k chips.
The chip leader is Soi Nguyen, who has 4.99 million chips, so Esfandiari will have to do quite a bit of catching-up if he intends to make a serious bid for the win indeed.
Nguyen, who had started day 4 on a substantial stack, played well all through the day. He was the one responsible for the bursting of the final table bubble too. Nguyen was under the gun in the last hand of the day, and he fired out a massive bet which Larry Wells called. The flop fell A,7,6 and Nguyen kept up the pressure. Wells called again to see the 5h fall on the turn. Nguyen bet again and Wells called again as the As fell on the river. Nguyen shoved all-in and Wells made the call with A,J for the Ace trips. Nguyen then tabled 8,9 for the straight and the final table was set.
