Sixteen players remain in the World Poker Tour (WPT) Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic. The $15,000 buy-in end-of-year event enters its play down day this afternoon and sitting in second on the leaderboard when the cards hit the air will be Faraz The-Toilet Jaka (pictured at right). The San Jose, California native owns a stack of 2.7 million, trailing only the 2.8 million chips of Curt Kohlberg. Up for grabs is a $1.4 million grand prize plus entry into the $25,000 buy-in WPT Championship in April. You can check out complete WPT coverage of online poker players by visiting PocketFivesLive.com.

Among those sent to the rails on Thursday was Jeremy Brown, who was shown the door courtesy of Jaka. Joe pokerjoe9 Elpayaa (pictured at left) raised from the button and Brown made the call from the small blind. Jaka, in the big blind, came along and the flop came K-J-4. Elpayaa bet 110,000 and Brown shoved all-in over the top. Jaka also pushed, causing Elpayaa to fold pocket aces face up in frustrating fashion. Brown flipped up K-Q for top pair, but Jaka showed K-J for kings-up, sending Brown home in 19th place. In addition, Jaka doubled through Scotty Nguyen after flopping a set of tens to push his stack to 2.2 million.
PocketFivesLive.com Tournament Reporter Court Harrington commented on Jaka’s chances of making his second WPT final table: "The aggressive style Faraz brings to the table can accumulate a ton of chips in a short period of time, especially in the late stages of a tournament. Faraz has plenty of ammunition with his nearly three million chip stack and could easily be the chip leader going into the final table." In July, Jaka finished as the runner-up to Team PokerStars Pro’s Alexandre Allingomes Gomes in the fifth running of the Bellagio Cup.

Also sitting pretty is Chad M8kingmoves Batista (pictured at right), who boasts the fifth largest stack at 1.5 million. His arsenal took a hit early on after dropping a pot against Matt Waxman. Batista raised to 55,000 pre-flop and Waxman made the call to see a flop of A-Q-8. The action went check-check to a ten on the turn and Batista led out for 60,000. Waxman once again called. The river was a nine and Batista fired another bullet, this time 100,000. Waxman obliged and Batista mucked, with Waxman ultimately showing J-7 for a straight.

On Batista’s game, PocketFivesLive.com Tournament Reporter Jessica Welman explained, "Chad told me that prior to Festa Al Lago in October that he had never cashed in a major event without making it to the final table. It seems like here at the Five Diamond, he is going to return to his final tabling ways. He's been making great reads, plays, and laydowns and seems very focused on making it to the final six." Batista won the World Series of Poker Circuit Championship at Caesars Indiana in 2006 for $262,000 and took third in a $5,000 buy-in event during the Bellagio Cup last year for $122,000.

Here are the chip stacks of the 16 players remaining in the WPT Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic:

1. Curt Kohlberg - 2,856,000
2. Faraz The-Toilet Jaka - 2,768,000
3. Daniel Alaei - 2,422,000
4. John Juanda - 1,851,000
5. Chad M8kingmoves Batista - 1,550,000
6. Joe Cassidy - 1,445,000
7. Josh Arieh - 1,067,000
8. Shawn Buchanan - 1,007,000
9. Stephen MrTimCaum O’Dwyer - 826,000
10. Carter ckingusc King - 805,000
11. Eric Hershler - 796,000
12. Mike SowersUNCC Sowers - 661,000
13. Matthew Waxman - 641,000
14. Joseph pokerjoe9 Elpayaa - 446,000
15. Scotty Nguyen - 339,000
16. Lee Salem - 275,000

Visit PocketFivesLive.com to track your favorite online poker players as the Five Diamond determines its final six players today. When play wrapped up on Thursday, the blinds were at 12,000-24,000 with a 3,000-chip ante. The action kicks off at Noon PT from the Bellagio in Las Vegas.