There are few tournaments left in the poker world that offers a $1 million first-place prize, but thanks to some creative structural ideas, the Season XI running of the World Poker Tour Doyle Brunson Five Diamonds World Poker Classic will be one of the few events that will turn the winner of the event into an instant millionaire.

The official prize-pool of the WPT Five Diamonds had to wait until Day 3 of the tournament to be revealed, thanks to the numerous reentries and late registration that was offered through the end of Level 8. In the end the tournament attracted 503 entries, pushing the total prize-pool to over $5 million, with a first-place prize of $1,268,571. Fortunately for the players who survived long enough to consider the prize-money, by surpassing the 500-entry mark the tournament will pay an additional nine spots; with 54 players making the money instead of 45.

Here is a look at the full payout schedule for the tournament:

* 1st place: $1,268,571

* 2nd place: $746,502

* 3rd place: $483,031

* 4th place: $329,339

* 5th place: $234,197

* 6th place: $187,845

* 7th place: $143,933

* 8th place: $102,461

* 9th place: $73,187

* 10th – 12th place: $56,110

* 13th – 15th place: $43,912

* 16th – 18th place: $36,593

* 19th – 27th place: $31,714

* 28th – 36th place: $26,835

* 37th – 45th place: $21,956

* 46th – 54th place: $19,516

By the end of Day 3 there were only 60 players remaining in the hunt for the title, but there are plenty of big names among the remaining players including, Brian Rast, Andrew Lichtenberger, Dan Shak, Jason Somerville, Andrew Robl, Tony Dunst, David Sands, Phil Galfond, Jon Augiar, Andy Bloch, and Steve Gross, as well as 10 former WPT winners: Antonio Esfandiari, Freddy Deeb, Noah Schwartz, Yevgeniy Timoshenko, John Hennigan, Shawn Buchanan, Chino Rheem, Scott Clements, Will Failla, Lee and Markholt.

Here is a look at the Top 10 chip counts heading into Friday’s action:

1. Antonio Esfandiari – 918,500

2. Freddy Deeb – 622,000

3. Thomas Winters – 586,000

4. Edward Sabat – 519,000

5. Brian Rast – 508,500

6. Noah Schwartz – 478,000

7. Yevgeniy Timoshenko – 472,500

8. Andrew Lichtenberger – 470,000

9. John Hennigan – 447,500

10. Ty Reiman – 434,000

One of the big stories developing is the amazing 2012 Antonio Esfandiari has had, and his chance to take his 2012 success outside of the WSOP with a big score at the WPT Five Diamonds. Antonio Esfandiari won this tournament back in 2010, and finished in 6th place at last year’s event; is it possible that the Magician could work some magic and make a third consecutive final table in this event?

 

Tags: Andy Bloch, Antonio Esfandiari, Dan Shak, David Sands, Dunst, Freddy Deeb, Instant Millionaire, John Hennigan, Late Registration, Level 8, Phil Galfond, Poker World, prize money, Prize Pool, Rheem, Scott Clements, Steve Gross, Timoshenko, World Poker Tour, Yevgeniy

This entry was posted on Friday, December 7th, 2012 at 9:46 am and is filed under Poker News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.