Jake Schindler, John Hennigan, and Nick Petrangelo
Jake Schindler, John Hennigan, and Nick Petrangelo were among this year's winners in Bellagio High Roller events during December's WPT Five Diamond festival. (Photos courtesy of World Poker Tour)

The record-setting WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic wrapped up at Bellagio in Las Vegas, with the $10,400 Main Event attracting a huge field of 1,001 entries and featuring some of poker’s biggest names. In addition to the Main Event, the WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic schedule featured several events with five-figure buy-ins and one with a six-figure price of entry. Here are the winners from a tremendous week of poker in Sin City. 

The biggest winners overall from these high buy-in events, excluding the $10,400 Main Event, were Jake Schindler, Jason Koon, Seth Davies, Chris Hunichen, and Dominik Nitsche. Although he didn’t earn the most money, it’s certainly worth noting that Sam Soverel cashed in four of these events for a total of $314,500. No one else cashed in more than two.

Ladines Wins First $10,000 PLO Event

The first two high roller events on the schedule were both $10,000 buy-in pot-limit Omaha tournaments. The first one attracted 35 entries for a $350,000 prize pool and saw the top five places make the money. Joshua Ladines took the event’s title and $128,090 top prize, with both Brian Rast and Sam Soverel finishing in the money.

  1. Joshua Ladines – $128,090
  2. John Riordan – $102,910
  3. Jonathan Abdellatif – $56,000
  4. Brian Rast – $35,000
  5. Sam Soverel – $28,000

Soverel Takes Second $10,000 PLO Event

In the second $10,000 PLO event, a group of familiar faces was back in the money. Soverel topped the field of 29 entries to win the title and $116,000, Ladines finished third for $46,400, and WPT Five Diamond wonder boy Ryan Tosoc scored fifth for $23,200. Tosoc notably finished second in the Season XV WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic for $1.134 million before going on to win the event in Season XVI for $1.958 million.

  1. Sam Soverel – $116,000
  2. Jonathan Depa – $75,400
  3. Joshua Ladines- $46,400
  4. Michael Song – $29,000
  5. Ryan Tosoc – $23,200

Hennigan Captures $10,000 8-Game Mixed Title

If you know Bellagio, you know it’s home to the most iconic high-stakes poker room in the world, Bobby’s Room. It’s where the game’s elite compete for astronomical cash-game stakes, but during WPT Five Diamond some of those players shifted their focus to tournament play, specifically in the $10,000 buy-in 8-Game Mixed High Roller.

The tournament generated 24 entries, and it was none other than five-time World Series of Poker gold bracelet winner and WPT Champions Club member John Hennigan taking home the top prize of $110,400.

  1. John Hennigan – $110,400
  2. Ben Yu – $67,200
  3. Randy Ohel – $38,400
  4. John Racener – $24,000

Loeser and Fox Chop First $25,000 High Roller

In the first of three $25,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em tournaments on this year’s WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic slate, 42 entries were generated to create a prize pool of $1.05 million. The top six places paid, and the top two spots went to Manig Loeser and Elio Fox in a chop that earned each player more than $300,000. Loeser scored first place for $321,300, and Fox took second for $308,700.

  1. Manig Loeser- $321,300
  2. Elio Fox – $308,700
  3. Jake Schindler – $168,000
  4. Dan Smith – $105,000
  5. Cary Katz – $84,000
  6. Nick Petrangelo – $63,000

Petrangelo Wins Second $25,000 High Roller

The second $25,000 buy-in tournament attracted 47 entries and generated a $1.175 million prize pool. The top seven places reached the money, with several notables cashing. None earned more than Nick Petrangelo, though, who chopped the event heads up with Sergio Aido to take home the winning prize of $289,944. Aido scored $287,634 for second. Petrangelo was coming off a sixth-place result for $63,000 in the first $25,000 event of this series.

Soverel, who finished in the money of the first two high rollers on the schedule, including winning one for $116,000, finished sixth in this event for $70,500.

  1. Nick Petrangelo – $289,944
  2. Sergio Aido – $287,634
  3. Seth Davies – $256,672
  4. Ben Yu – $117,500
  5. Kazuhiko Yotsushika – $94,000
  6. Sam Soverel – $70,500
  7. Rainer Kempe – $58,750

Davies Victorious in Third $25,000 High Roller

The third and final $25,000 high roller tournament on the WPT Five Diamond schedule drew 50 entries for a $1.25 million prize pool. The top eight places reached the money, and it was Seth Davies taking the title and $341,920 in first-place prize money. The win came just days after Davies took third in the previous $25,000 high roller event during the series of $256,672, as you can see above. Davies did a deal with Isaac Haxton in second place, who earned $320,580.

The money was filled with notable high rollers, including Alex Foxen taking third for $175,000. Foxen has had himself quite a 2018 and is closing it strong both on the live felt and the virtual felt. In the online world, Foxen recently achieved a new all-time high in the top 100 of the PocketFives Online Poker Rankings.

You’ll also notice Soverel’s name appearing in the in-the-money places once again, this time for fifth place, worth $100,000.

  1. Seth Davies – $341,920
  2. Isaac Haxton – $320,580
  3. Alex Foxen – $175,000
  4. David Peters – $125,000
  5. Sam Soverel – $100,000
  6. Christoph Vogelsang – $75,000
  7. Rainer Kempe – $62,500
  8. Elio Fox: $50,000

Schindler Defeats Koon for $100,000 Super High Roller Victory

The final big buy-in event from the WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic schedule this year was the $100,000 Super High Roller. The event drew 37 entries to Bellagio for a $3.7 million prize pool and the top six spots reached the money. Earning the $1.332 million first-place prize was Jake Schindler. Adding that score to the $168,000 he won earlier in the series for taking third place in one of the $25,000 high rollers, Schindler scored $1.5 million in prize money at Bellagio this December.

Schindler beat out Jason Koon for the win, and Koon took home $888,000 for his second-place finish.

  1. Jake Schindler – $1,332,000
  2. Jason Koon – $888,000
  3. Chris Hunichen – $592,000
  4. Dominik Nitsche – $370,000
  5. Ben Tollerene – $296,000
  6. Talal Shakerchi – $222,000