Esfandiari seeks repeat win at WPT Five Diamonds

Posted by Steve Ruddock on Dec 10, 2011 Posted in Poker News | No Comments »

With just 13 players remaining in the World Poker Tour Doyle Brunson Five Diamond Poker Championship –the 10th Anniversary of the tournament—some of poker’s biggest names are looking to win the historic tournament, including 2010 WT Five Diamond champion Antonio Esfandiari, looking to pull off the rare “repeat win”.

There were six former champions in the field of 49 players who began the day on Friday, but only two of them, Esfandiari and David Williams, managed to survive yesterday’s action. Falling by the wayside were two-time Champion Jonathan Little, Dwyte Pilgrim, Scott Clements and Matt Giannetti. Joining the former champions on the rail were Allen Cunningham, David Pham, Matt Glantz, and “Chainsaw” Allen Kessler.

Another player still in the hunt, Vanessa Selbst, is no stranger to repeat victories herself; you may recall that Selbst won the first two PokerStars NAPT Mohegan Sun Main Events in 2010 and 2011. Selbst, who can also boast a WSOP bracelet and Partouche Poker Tour Championship, will begin the day in 10th place with around 860k chips.

Overall this is one of the strongest final 13 I have ever seen in a major poker tournament, considering online superstars William Reynolds and Andrew “luckychewy” Lichtenberger are still in the mix, as well as UK superstar and WSOP bracelet winner James Dempsey (a beast at the online poker tables in his own right), and 2010 WPT Champion and 2004 WSOP runner-up David Williams!

The field is trying to chase down the chip-leader, 2010 November Niner and FTOPS winner Soi Nguyen –I told you it was a stacked lineup! Nguyen is nearly a million chips ahead of his nearest competitor, Lichtenberger, and has been among the chip-leaders throughout the entire tournament.

On Saturday the 13 remaining players will play down to the televised final table of six, and what a final six this tournament has the potential to see! Here is a look at the chip counts for the remaining 13 players in the WPT Five Diamonds:

1. Soi Nguyen – 3,100,000

2. Andrew Lichtenberger – 2,114,000

3. James Dempsey – 1,877,000

4. Larry Wells – 1,327,000

5. Antonio Esfandiari – 1,099,000

6. Kyle Julius – 1,097,000

7. Anthony Yeh – 1,091,000

8. Vitor Coelho – 950,000

9. Braden Hall – 926,000

10. Vanessa Selbst – 869,000

11. David Williams – 748,000

12. Rudy Maarek – 706,000

13. William Reynolds – 565,000

The winner of the tournament will be looking at a very nice Christmas bonus, as first-place in the tournament is worth over $820k. Here is a look at the payouts for the remaining players:

* 1st — $821,612

* 2nd — $517,478

* 3rd — $338,351

* 4th — $218,933

* 5th — $159,224

* 6th — $119,418

* 7th — $91,554

* 8th — $63,690

* 9th — $55,728

* 10th — $47,767

* 11 – 15th — $39,806

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