David Rheem has a WPT title(credit: Poker Stars Blog)
497 of the world’s best and brightest poker players headed to the Bellagio this past week to take part in the Five Diamond World Classic. Each wanted to win one of the most prestigious prizes in poker, the Doyle Brunson Classic Championship. The World Poker Tour main event attracted the likes of Liz Lieu, Barry Greenstein, David Benyamine and many others.
The final table was a star-studded event with 2008 WSOP November Nine member Chino Rheem, former WPT champ Hoyt Corkins, Amnon Filippi and Steve Sung all sitting down to play. Sung, who had earned more than a million in tournaments prior to this final table, had the chip lead going in with 5.885 million of the clay pieces in his stack.
However, Sung wouldn’t reach heads-up play. The man who wants to be respected as an all-around poker player (and we don’t think there will be any problem with his reaching that goal) hit the rail in fourth place, adding nearly $400k to his bankroll for his impressive efforts.
Chino Rheem, who was a heavy favorite to win the World Series of Poker Main Event in ’08 but hit the rail early (in seventh place) after Peter Eastgate caught a lucky queen on the flop to bust his A,K right out of the tourney. Rheem wanted the WSOP title badly and perhaps this was added incentive for him to play well here.
In the end, Rheem, who already has five WSOP cashes to his credit at the tender age of 28, emerged victorious this time, defeating Justin Young after a lengthy heads-up battle.
These are the final results:
1) David “Chino” Rheem - $1,538,730
2) Justin Young - $936,760
3) Evan McNiff - $540,440
4) Steve Sung - $396,205
5) Amnon Filippi - $288,235
6) Hoyt Corkins - $216,175
Rheem plays online at Poker Stars. Sign up today and get up to $50 cash back on your first deposit!