Last season it was WPT commentator Mike Sexton who made a World Poker Tour final table, forcing “Raw Deal” host Tony Dunst into the commentator’s booth with Vince Van Patten, and now at the WPT Bestbet Jacksonville Open its Dunst looking to one-up Sexton (who finished in 6th place), as the online poker pro turned WPT host has made the final table.

Dunst will be joined at the final table by the red-hot Will Failla as well as seasoned tournament pro Darren Elias. All three men are looking up at the chip-leader Shawn Cunix, who is sitting on over 2.7 million in chips heading into Wednesday’s final table. Here is a look at the final table chip-counts for the six remaining players:

1. Shawn Cunix — 2,770,000

2. James Calderaro — 2,110,000

3. Will Failla — 1,535,000

4. Tony Dunst — 1,315,000

5. Darren Elias– 1,280,000

6. Daniel Buzgon — 570,000

Dunst is best-known for his online exploits playing under the screen-name “Bond18”, and even before he became a part of the WPT team he gained some infamy for his propensity to wear suits –a trait that obviously allowed for an easy transition to television hosting duties! Dunst has had some decent live tournament results, including a 50th place finish in the 2010 WSOP Main Event. Dunst has also won a Bellagio Cup event in 2008, cashed in the WSOP Main Event in 2006, and finished runner-up in the ANZPT Adelaide Main Event in 2009.

Failla, started his monster run by winning the 2011 WPT Legends of Poker last August, and this will mark his third cash in WPT Championships since his historic win: Failla finished 11th at the 2011 Borgata Poker Open and 93rd at the 2011 Doyle Brunson Five Diamonds Poker Classic in December. His run at the WPT Jacksonville will also see him leapfrog Joe Serock for the WPT Player of the Year lead with just the $25k Bellagio Championship left to play this season.

Elias has been a staple on the tournament trail over the past few years, racking-up over $1 million in tournament winnings in that time. This will be his second WPT Final Table (Elias finished 5th at the 2011 Borgata Poker Open in September) where the tournament grinder is still in search of his first major victory.

With final table payouts ranging from just over $50,000 all the way up to over $400,000 there is a lot for the remaining players to play for, not to mention the honor of winning a World Poker Tour title. The tournament will be available on the WorldPoekrTour.com website where fans can watch the action on a 30-minute delay.

Tags: bellagio, Borgata, Commentator, Dunst, Elias, Failla, Infamy, Legends Of Poker, Mike Sexton, Milli, Online Poker, Poker Pro, Propensity, Raw Deal, Serock, Staple, Vince Van Patten, World Poker Tour, WPT, WSOP Main Event

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 2nd, 2012 at 7:56 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.