The final table of the World Poker Tour’s Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic is set from Las Vegas. The Bellagio will welcome the final six players back on Friday afternoon. When the smoke cleared on the play down day in the storied casino, Benjamin straate Straate finished in eighth place, pocketing $115,295 in the $15,000 buy-in tournament. Nick TheTakeover Schulman took 13th for $72,060 and Benjamin Bttech86 Tollerene finished 17th for $57,645. All of the action was covered on PocketFivesLive.com, the best source for WPT coverage of online poker players.
With blinds of 30,000-60,000 with a 5,000 chip ante, Benjamin straate Straate (pictured at left) pushed with A-10. Steve Sung, who is the chip leader entering the six-handed televised final table, called with pocket sixes and the two were off to the races. The board ran out 7-7-5-3-9 and the PocketFiver was sent to the rails in eighth place, just barely missing a final table appearance.Court Harrington, who has been following the action at the Bellagio on location for PocketFivesLive.com, commented on Straate’s deep run in this hallmark WPT tournament: "Ben came into the play down day with the chip lead and played patiently at the start, but things just didn't go his way and he ended up being eliminated in a coin flip that could have made the difference between a final table appearance and coming up a few spots short." Straate held about 50% more chips than the second place stack when play began on Thursday.
Nick TheTakeover Schulman (pictured at right) was eliminated from the Bellagio in a similar fashion as Straate, this time holding the pocket pair in the race. Schulman pushed with jacks and was called by Justin Young, who held A-K suited. The flop came A-K-10, giving Young the early lead with top two pair, but leaving the door open for Schulman’s straight draw if a queen fell. Running threes sealed the PocketFiver’s exit. He dropped a big pot against Bill Klein’s ten-high flush earlier in the day, cutting his stack in half.Schulman has been a force to be reckoned with on the WPT circuit. He won the Foxwoods World Poker Finals in 2005 for $2.1 million and followed that up with a second place showing in the event in 2007 for another $864,000. In between, he finished in the money in WPT tournaments at the Commerce Casino and Bellagio for a total of $70,000. He made the final table and finished sixth in a $5,000 buy-in No Limit Hold’em event during the 2007 World Series of Poker for $108,000, a tournament ultimately won by PocketFiver Corwin mig.com Mackey.
Benjamin Bttech86 Tollerene exited in 17th place. His final hand saw him push from the small blind with A-9, but WSOP November Nine member David “Chino” Rheem peeked down at A-K and called. The board came 7-6-2-2-8, giving Rheem enough chips to make it to the final table of this event. Tollerene took third in a World Championship of Online Poker Second Chance event in September for $27,000. He finished eighth in the $530 buy-in $250K Guaranteed on PokerStars for $11,000 in August. In tournaments that are tracked for the PocketFives.com Online Poker Rankings, he banked nearly $18,000 in November.
The final table will be a tough mountain to climb for its winner, who will pocket $1.5 million:
Steve Sung - 5,885,000
Evan McNiff - 4,805,000
Chino Rheem - 4,240,000
Amnon Filippi - 2,750,000
Justin Young - 2,410,000
Hoyt Corkins - 2,295,000
Harrington is looking forward to the televised final table on Friday, which will air as part of the seventh season of the WPT on Fox Sports Net: "With Steve Sung leading the way and an experienced and talented cast of players coming along with him, this final table could be one of the best in WPT history. Chino is just coming off his November Nine appearance and all of the fame that goes with that, Amnon Filippi and Justin Young are solid veteran players with plenty of experience in live tournaments, and Hoyt Corkins has been a regular on the poker circuit for many years."
Check out the final table as it plays out on PocketFivesLive.com. Congratulations to all PocketFivers who cashed in the Five Diamond tournament.
Canada
United Kingdom
Costa Rica
Australia
Mexico
Denmark
Russian Federation
Sweden
Brazil
Germany
