Day 5 of the WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic ended in a painful beat for WPT Champions Club member Jared Jaffee, who watched as his flopped straight lost to a runner-runner full house. Jaffee was eliminated on the TV bubble, and misses the chance to add a second WPT title to his resume.
At the start of the day, there were 33 players remaining from a huge field of 586 entries. Six of them were members of the WPT Champions Club, and with nine players remaining, there were still four of them still in contention to join the elite club of players with two WPT titles.
But the poker gods weren’t kind to former WPT winners, as Will Failla (ninth place), Keven Stammen (eighth place), and Jared Jaffee (seventh place) all fell short of the televised WPT Final Table.
The other two WPT Champions Club members who started the day but couldn’t finish were Anthony Zinno (23rd place), and Daniel Negreanu (25th). Negreanu won this event 10 years ago on his way to winning the Season IV WPT Player of the Year.
At the start of this tournament, there were 13 DraftKings qualifiers, and one of them — Brandon Adams — made a strong run to reach the final three tables, finishing 22nd to earn $36,947. As for the Skrill Last-Longer Contest, Chane Kampanatsanyakorn made it all the way to 11th place ($65,368), outlasting 71 other players wearing a Skrill patch. Kampanatsanyakorn’s Skrill patch earned him his buy-in back — $10,400.
Here are the official chip counts for tomorrow afternoon’s televised WPT Final Table, scheduled to begin at 4:00 pm PT:
Seat 1. Tobias Reinkemeier – 3,625,000 (60 bb)
Seat 2. Ryan Julius – 940,000 (15 bb)
Seat 3. Ryan Fee – 3,055,000 (50 bb)
Seat 4. Garrett Greer – 3,260,000 (54 bb)
Seat 5. Mohsin Charania – 2,415,000 (40 bb)
Seat 6. Brett Shaffer – 4,290,000 (71 bb)
And here’s the remaining prizepool that they’re playing for:
1st: $1,477,890*
2nd: $869,683
3rd: $562,736
4th: $383,684
5th: $272,842
6th: $218,842
* First prize amount includes a $15,400 seat into the season-ending WPT World Championship.
The BLUFF.com WPT Ones to Watch were announced earlier this week — seven players that have been selected as potential breakthrough players. Garrett Greer is one of those players, and he has already proven himself by making this final table. Greer hopes to become the first Ones to Watch to win a WPT title.
The televised WPT Final Table is scheduled to begin at 4:00 pm tomorrow (Saturday). There will be no live stream, but you’ll find complete hand-for-hand coverage right here, along with updated chip counts after each hand.
Day 2 has come to a close at WPT Alpha8 Las Vegas with the final table of eight players set at Bellagio. There were 30 players that returned today and there were a few more that joined the field before the close of registration two levels into play. The field grew to an overall size of 55 players, and that created a total prize pool worth $2,104,245.
Here is a look at that prize pool that will be up for grabs tomorrow:
1: $2,104,245
2: $1,240,965
3: $755,370
4: $539,550
5: $431,640
6: $323,730
A lot of big names were lost along the way today, including WPT Season XIII back-to-back champion Darren Elias, former WPT Alpha8 champion Daniel Colman, and WPT Champions Club members Erik Seidel, Dan Smith, Scott Seiver, Antonio Esfandiari, and JC Tran. The final table bubble boy tonight was Jason Mercier, who fell short of winning back-to-back WPT Alpha8 titles after taking down his first in St. Kitts earlier this month.
Although we lost some notables today, there are still a lot of interesting storylines in play in a field packed with so much poker talent. The chip leader at the final table will be Brian Rast with a massive stack of 4,551,000. He holds a sizeable lead over even his closest competitor Andrew Lichtenberger (2,904,000).
The other contenders include WPT Champions Club member Noah Schwartz, Bryn Kenney, Tom Marchese, Brandon Steven, Phil Laak, and Jason Les. If you recall yesterday’s coverage, Les is the player who decided to drive to Vegas from a coffee shop in Costa Mesa, California after he saw the strong turnout for this tournament. No matter who wins tomorrow they are going to be a worthy champion after running the poker gauntlet assembled in this Super High Roller event.
Here is how the final table will be laid out when cards get into the air tomorrow:
Seat 1: Phil Laak – 441,000 (14 bb)
Seat 2: Bryn Kenney – 2,384,000 (79 bb)
Seat 3: Noah Schwartz – 774,000 (25 bb)
Seat 4: Brandon Steven – 1,190,000 (39 bb)
Seat 5: Jason Les – 2,384,000 (79 bb)
Seat 6: Brian Rast – 4,551,000 (151 bb)
Seat 7: Tom Marchese – 1,861,000 (62 bb)
Seat 8: Andrew Lichtenberger – 2,904,000 (96 bb)
Tune back in Saturday at 12:00 PM PST to follow along with live coverage of the final table from the WPT Live Updates team. There will be hand-for-hand live updates and real-time chip counts, as well as photos from the television set inside the Tower Ballroom at Bellagio.