WPT Five Diamond - Results from Events 9, 10 and 11
Bellagio at night (Credit: Nic Ball Photography )
The World Poker Tour has just wrapped up its Five Diamond Event at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. The event, which featured a total of 12 events, including the Doyle Brunson North American Poker Championship was an incredible success. Joe Hachem, the winner of the 2005 WSOP Main Event, proved that he was no fluke. The man can play. The handsome Australian won the Main Event of this series as well. Justin Bonomo, aka "Zee Justin" to you internet players, made three final tables in the event. David "Devilfish" Ulliott took down a final table. Nam Le and Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi added to their Cardplayer Player of the Year point totals.
We could reminisce all day about the Five Diamond. I know I could, but I'd prefer to get started with the action. Let's discuss Event #9, shall we? The event was pretty exciting at least for me. Two ladies made it quite deep into the event. The first was the lovely Erica Schoenberg. You might know her better as a blackjack player. She can be seen pretty regularly on telecasts of the Ultimate Blackjack Tour .
Apparently the gal plays a mean game of poker too. She made it to fifth place in this event much to the delight of her beau, poker pro and high-stakes cash game player, David Benyamine. The other gal was Joanne "JJ" Liu. She's no stranger to WPT events. For example, JJ won the Ladies Night event this season. (Erica also appeared at that final table for those of y'all keeping track.) JJ made it to fourteenth place and took home $8,825. She also wore her signature - and snazzy - hats all the way through.
Joining Erica at the final table were Jason Lester, Raj Sawant, Daniel Quach, Robert Nehorayan, Charlie Shoten, Pat Madden, Jason Berilgen and Cardplayer's own, Jeff Shulman. Initially, play was conservative at the final table. Quach took down some easy pots by raising pre-flop. Nehorayan called Shoten's all-in bet for 45k. Shoten doubled up with his Ac, Jh and left Nehorayan in a precarious position. This hand was probably a major reason why Nehorayan was the ninth place finisher. He moved all-in from early position with pocket nines and came up against Madden's A, K and a flop that carried two aces. Ouch!
Shulman then doubled up through Berilgen by hitting aces on the flop to crack Berilgen's kings. Schoenberg then went all-in for 96k with three other players in the pot. Sawant and Shulman folded, but Shoten called with his Q, J. Schoenberg turned up an A, J and sent Shoten packing with $17,560 in his pocket.
Berilgen was the next one out when his all-in preflop with pocket sixes didn't work out as he hoped it would. Shulman then moved all-in from late position with his 129k. Lester called Shulman's pocket fives with a K, Q. The flop brought him a queen and Shulman was on life support.
It's not surprising then, that Shulman was then sent to the rails in sixth place. At least he took home $30,885 for his efforts. Erica Schoenberg followed him not too long afterwards. Quach called her all-in with his Ad, Ks. Schoenberg flipped over a solid starting hand of pocket queens. However, the board was not kind to her. The flop was Ac, 7c, 8c. Schoenberg could not complete her club-flush draw because the turn and river brought spades.
By this time, Quach had a pretty sizeable lead. He held about 800k and his nearest competitors had around 450k. This left Sawant as the short stack with 170k left. He did double up, but it wasn't enough. Sawant went all-in with a Qh, 5h. It was no match for Quach's Kh, Jd - especially after the flop gave Quach a pair of hooks. Sawant was ousted in fourth.
It took over an hour for Lester to go home. Three-handed play was very conservative. Lester put in 65k on the button with his As, Kd. Quach moved all-in with a Ks, Jh. Lester called and was in a dominant position until the board brought Qc, Jd, 4s, 6d, Qh. He earned over $90,000 for his impressive finish.
At this point, Quach had 1.4 mil to Madden's 400k. Madden increased his stack to about 600k and doubled up twice during heads-up play. It just wasn't good enough to win. Quach took home the bracelet, the seat in the WPT finals in April 2007 and over $325,000.
Here are the final table results:
1) Daniel Quach - $325,525 2) Patrick Madden - $185,310 3) Jason Lester - $92,655 4) Raj Sawant - $52.925 5) Erica Schoenberg - $39,710 6) Jeff Shulman - $30,885 7) Jason Berilgen - $22,060 8) Charlie Shoten - $17,650 9) Robert Nehorayan - $14,120
Event #10, a $5,000 buy-in No-Limit Holdem spectacular, was the last chance for players to earn some player of the year points. That is before the Main Event of the Five Diamond Classic. A lot of big names entered this event including Rhett Butler, a 2006 WSOP Main Event final table player, Nenad Medic, the winner of the WPT Foxwoods event, Erik Seidel, a multi-bracelet winner in both the WPT and WSOP and Justin Bonomo, aka "Zee Justin".
The final table had ten players. They were: Mike Thurman, Joe Tehan, Steve Sung, Erik Cajelais, Tex Barch, Shannon Shorr, Francois Safieddine, Erik Seidel, Zachary Cherry and Justin Bonomo. Safieddine called Seidel's all-in bet of 67k with a spade-flush draw and bottom-pair. Seidel won the hand with his pocket tens and sent Safieddine to the rail in tenth place.
About half an hour later, Thurman would join Safieddine in the audience. He moved all-in for 130k with an A, 5. It proved to be no match for Sung's pocket fives. Bonomo, the short stack, doubles up through Tehan, the 2006 Mandalay Bay Poker Championship Main Event winner. Tehan would take some hits. However, he recovered nicely in a hand that crippled Erik Seidel. Seidel held pocket kings which were no match for the set of queens Tehan made on the flop.
Seidel would last past Tex Barch however. Barch was the eighth place finisher. Seidel followed him out the door in seventh with $29,795.At this point, Tehan was the chip leader with 700k and Cherry brought up the rear with a mere 90k left. He moved all-in with a Qc, Js against Tehan's pocket sevens. The board brought no help, and Cherry was the sixth place finisher in this event.
Bonomo ended his impressive run in Event 10 next. Tehan made a back-door flush on the river to send him packing. Shorr then came up against Tehan with his pocket queens. The river gave Tehan a miracle king to pair him higher than Shorr, proving that even pros suck out too. Shorr earned $71,520. That'll buy enough therapy to get over this bad beat, right?
Each of the remaining three players - Cajelais, Tehan and Sung - was guaranteed at least a six-figure payday. Sung began three-handed play in the lead but saw his chip stack dwindle as Cajelais and Tehan slowly bled him dry. He went all-in with a straight-draw that never completed and Cajelais won his remaining chips, which gave him a clear advantage over Tehan in heads-up play.
Cajelais seemed to control the action during the heads-up match. Of course, Tehan gave him a run for his money - literally. They played for almost two hours and pulled out all the stops. The final hand saw Cajelais with pocket jacks and Tehan with pocket tens. The board missed both players, giving Cajelais the win.
Here are the final table results:
1) Erik Cajelais - $430,730 2) Joe Tehan - $250,290 3) Steve Sung - $125,145 4) Shannon Shorr - $71,520 5) Justin Bonomo - $53,635 6) Zachary Cherry - $41,715 7) Erik Seidel - $29,795 8) Tex Barch - $23,835 9) Mike Thurman - $19,070 10) Francois Safieddine - $14,300
The final event before the Main Event at the Five Diamond Classic saw the Seniors come out to play. Chris Bjorin from London, England won the event and $152,445 in cash. Bjorin had a great event, making it to the final table in Event #8 as well as winning this one. Other players, who made it deep in the event, included Bob Feduniak, Randall Skaggs and Michael Halford.
For extended coverage of the early events at the 2006 WPT Five Diamond Classic, we encourage you to check out this article HERE at Tourneyblog.