125 players stepped up on Day 1A, putting up their $3500 buy in for this non-televised event and, although the field was a bit smaller, there were still challenges around the room. Season Ten Player of the Year leader Will “The Thrill” Failla, reigning POY Andy Frankenberger, Jonathan Little, “The Raw Deal” host Tony “Bond_18” Dunst, Shaun Deeb and Matt Waxman were just a few of the familiar faces at the start of the day, but they would be joined by other challengers who decided to take a late registration option.

One of those tables was particularly challenging. Noah Schwartz, Christian Harder and Matt Stout all ended up on the same felt due to late registration for the tournament, while other players went about their day of work with different results. Christopher Tryba was an early casualty when his pocket Jacks failed to catch against an opponent’s pocket Aces, but former WPT champion Rhynie Campbell was able to drop Steve Levy when his Aces stood up against Levy’s K-Q.

As the players worked their way to the dinner break, the field was dramatically reduced in comparison to the time played and the low blinds. From the 125 starters, only 96 players made their way to dinner in a somewhat happy mood. Campbell was one of these eliminations at the hands of Deeb.

It was thought that this pace couldn’t be maintained but the players actually increased the rate of eliminations as the night wore on. Deeb continued to accumulate chips as, against then-chip leader Matthew O’Donnell, he was able to get O’Donnell to lay his hand down on a 6-5-5-8-9 board to move up to 95K in chips. Dunst was not as fortunate, losing with pocket tens to his opponent’s pocket eights.

The Day 1A chip leader would not be determined until the second to last hand of the night. After a short stack moved all in, Uri Kadosh (who had avoided the limelight for much of the day) made the call and tabled Big Slick against his opponent’s suited 4-2. A four came on the flop but, unfortunately for the short stack, a King was there as well. Once the turn and river didn’t bring another four or a deuce, Kadosh had eliminated his opponent to end the night over the 275K mark and reduce the field to fifty players:

1. Uri Kadosh, 275,500
2. Ely Levy, 218,550
3. Jason Mercier, 176,400
4. Omar Sider, 170,600
5. Nick Avera, 133,200
6. Michael Michnik, 121,100
7. David Tiffenberg, 112,900
8. Shaun Deeb, 112,700
9. Victor Heffesse, 111,900
10. Mike Corbett, 111,300

Other notable names that are above the average chip count (44,347) include Shannon Shorr, Matt Giannetti, Schwartz and Waxman, while Allen Kessler and Failla will have some work to do on Sunday.

Perhaps the reason for the high knockout rate on Friday was the “second chance” option the Lucky Hearts tournament provided. For those players who were eliminated on Day 1A, they could buy in again on Day 1B and take a second shot. Several players, including Todd Terry, Kathy Liebert (who commented over Twitter, “I’m on Level 3 today, I think that’s better than Level 1!”), Dunst, Little and Lichtenberger have decided to step up for that second barrel.

By the end of action on Saturday, the total field size as well as the payouts will be known for this latest WPT event. Befitting the tournament’s name, the final table will be played out on Tuesday (Valentine’s Day) and will definitely award the champion with an excellent six figure score.

When the final six men came to the table on Friday afternoon, Italy’s very own Andrea Dato held the lead with his 1.591 million chip stack. This provided him with a good lead over two other contenders, Day Three chip leader Simon Ravnsbaek (922K) and Bogdanov (905K), while the other three members of the final table – Alessandro Longobardi (558K), Andrea Carini (347K) and Gianluca Trebbi (343K) – had their work cut out for them if they were to make a run at the championship.

From the start, Ravnsbaek and Dato were the major players on the felt, pushing their shorter stacked opponents around and adding to their chip stacks. The duo would even clash with each other, with Ravnsbaek coming out on the worse end of a couple of exchanges to chop his stack from second place to fifth within the first hour of action.

After another hour of play, the first elimination would occur. After Dato raised the pot to 50K, Carini pushed his remaining chips to the center of the felt. After Dato made the call and tabled pocket eights, Carini saw that his chances were slim with an off suit A-3. By the turn, he had a gutshot straight draw to go with his Ace, but couldn’t find either on the river, eliminating Andrea Carini in sixth place.

Following Carini’s elimination, Ravnsbaek began to mount a comeback. He doubled up through Longobardi when his pocket Aces were the cooler to Longobardi’s pocket tens, then would take over the lead when he doubled again with A-Q versus Dato’s pocket eights. After three hours of play, Ravnsbaek had been from the penthouse to the basement and back again, holding a slim 200K chip lead over Dato that, unfortunately, wouldn’t last very long.

After moving all in on several occasions, Gianluca Trebbi was eliminated in fifth place when his 10-7 of hearts failed to catch against Longobardi’s pocket Jacks. Ravnsbaek’s aggressive play finally caught up with him when he pushed all in for 600K with pocket deuces and Bogdanov looked to see pocket tens in his hole cards. Once the board ran with no help for him, Ravnsbaek was out of the tournament in fourth place.

By the time the dinner break rolled around, Dato had moved back into the lead over Longobardi and Bogdanov, with the Russian’s chip stack shrinking in comparison to his two foes. Dato and Longobardi went to battle following dinner, with Dato picking up a big pot on a complete bluff to push his stack to the three million mark and drop Longobardi to just over one million.

It was at this time that Bogdanov began his charge. Basically pushing with any two cards, Bogdanov would find a double through Dato to get back into the mix. After picking up a big hand against Longobardi, the three players were virtually equal in chips.

Bogdanov would make the first breakthrough, resulting in the elimination of Dato. After Dato jammed with an unassuming K-4 off suit, Bogdanov found Big Slick in his hand and made the call. An Ace on the flop basically ended the hand and, once a blank came on the turn, Andrea Dato was out in third place and Rinat Bogdanov became the surprising chip leader.

Within two hands of Dato’s departure, the tournament was over. After losing the first hand, Longobardi raised it to 200K holding an off suit K-Q and Bogdanov made the call with only a 6-4. Longobardi caught a Queen on the flop, but there was a four there as well and Bogdanov called a bet from Longobardi. When a six came on the turn, Bogdanov made two pair and check called another bet from Longobardi. Another four on the river brought the fireworks as, after Bogdanov checked, Longobardi fired off 300K. Bogdanov moved all in and, after a moment, Longobardi made the call, only to see his Queens up vanquished by Bogdanov’s full boat.

1. Rinat Bogdanov, €229,800
2. Alessandro Longobardi, €111,700
3. Andrea Dato, €72,275
4. Simon Ravnsbaek, €52,565
5. Gianluca Trebbi, €42,705
6. Andrea Carini, €32,195

With the end of the WPT Venice Grand Prix, the tournament circuit will come back to the U. S. for their next three tournaments. Beginning today, the Seminole Hard Rock Lucky Hearts Poker Open is in action while, later in the month, the L. A. Poker Classic will be contested. In March, the WPT will visit San Jose, California, for the Bay 101 Shooting Star and, in April, the WPT will head back to Europe with a stop in Montesino, Vienna, Austria.

The season, which will once again be broadcast on Fox Sports Net (FSN), will consist of 37 episodes, up 11 from Season IX. Part of the change is an increase in the number of episodes per tournament; the story of each tour stop will now be told across three episodes instead of just two. Strong ratings were likely another catalyst for the added episodes, as ratings increased 30 percent from Season VIII to Season IX.

“The steadfast effort put into revamping the World Poker Tour last season was rewarded with resounding fan and viewer support,” said WPT President Adam Pliska in a press release. “For WPT Season X, we’re debuting more innovations and giving our audience even more reasons to tune in each week.”

One of those innovations is a new segment called WPT Champions Cup in which some of the most memorable moments from WPT final tables will be relived. Another new segment, On the Road, will give viewers a sort of “behind the curtain” look at the lives of the WPT cast.

Speaking of cast, poker icons Mike Sexton and Vince Van Patten will again be the voices behind the microphones, just as they have been since the very first televised episode of the World Poker Tour. Kimberly Lansing is back as the WPT Anchor, while Tony “Bond18” Dunst returns as the analyst on Raw Deal.

The first episode of the new season will be a special Season X preview, setting viewers up for the months to come. The Legends of Poker will be the first tournament to air, running three consecutive Sundays from February 19th through March 4th. The season will continue from there with 11 more tournaments, each consisting of three weekly episodes. All tour stops in the United States will be broadcast except for the first Jacksonville and Seminole Hard Rock events. The second stops at both locations will be shown. Two different tournaments at the WPT World Championship will be aired: the $25,000 World Championship itself as well as the $100,000 Super High Roller event.

For those who miss the Sunday broadcasts, each episode will re-air every Wednesday at 11:00pm local time.

The complete World Poker Tour Season X television schedule is as follows:

Feb. 12 – Season X Special
Feb. 19-Mar. 4 – Legends of Poker
Mar. 11-25 – WPT Grand Prix de Paris
Apr. 1-15 – Borgata Poker Open
Apr. 22-May 6 – World Poker Final
May 13-27 – Five Diamond World Poker Classic
June 3-17 – WPT Venice Grand Prix
June 24-July 8 – LA Poker Classic
July 15-29 – Bay 101 Shooting Star
Aug. 5-19 – Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown
Aug. 26-Sep. 9 – WPT Jacksonville
Sep. 16-30 – WPT World Championship Super High Roller
Oct. 7-21 – WPT World Championship

Here were the chip counts to start the final table:

David Shallow – 6,155,000
Steve Watts – 1,600,000
Patrik Vestlin – 1,100,000
Charles Chattha – 835,000
Ronan Gilligan – 775,000

While the final table was very short by World Poker Tour standards, coming in at under three hours, it wasn’t a totally smooth ride for Shallow.  Right off the bat, he doubled-up both Patrik Vestlin and Ronan Gilligan, causing his chip stack to fall to 4,276,000.  Gilligan rode the momentum, eliminating Steve Watts in 5th place.  Watts had moved all-in pre-flop with T-T for his remaining 1,130,000 and Gilligan called him with A-K.  The flop was Q-J-7, which was generally good for Watts, but it did give Gilligan a straight possibility if he could hit one of the remaining two Tens to go along with the 6 outs he already had.  No dice on the turn, but the river produced one of those Tens, allowing Gilligan to knock Watt out with a Broadway straight.  That pot took Gilligan up to 2,898,000, which was still a good chunk behind Shallow, but nothing that couldn’t be overcome.  It looked a whole heck of a lot better than the more than 5,000,000 chip deficit he faced about a half-hour earlier.

Just a few minutes later, Gilligan continued his hot streak.  Patrik Vestlin raised pre-flop and Gilligan called from the big blind.  The two saw a flop of 9s-7s-3s and Vestlin made the first bet with As-Qc, giving him the nut flush draw.  Gilligan check-raised to 450,000 with Js-9d – top pair and a flush draw – and Vestlin shoved for 1,750,000.  Gilligan thought a bit about his decision, but decided it was worth the risk and called.  The turn was the Tc; black, but the wrong black.  Another tease presented itself to Vestlin on the river in the form of the 8c and Gilligan’s hand held up.  Vestlin was gone in 4th place and just like that, less than an hour into play, Ronan Gilligan, the shortest stack to start the final table, was the chip leader.  He had 4,852,000, Shallow had 4,259,000, and Chaz Chattha had 1,029,000 chips.

After that, though, it appeared that Gilligan’s confidence may have gotten too high, as he began making some reckless raises and calls with marginal holdings.  Having watched his stack take several hits, he once again made a call of a David Shallow pre-flop raise with just 3-4 in the hole.  Shallow had T-9 and the flop was friendly to both, giving top pair to Shallow and an open-ended straight draw to Gilligan.  Shallow led out on the turn for 215,000, Gilligan raised to 525,000, Shallow moved all-in, and Gilligan called.  Gilligan couldn’t find the outs to complete the straight on either the turn or river and he was eliminated in 3rd place.

Going into heads-up play, David Shallow once again had a large chip lead over Chaz Chattha, 7,280,000 to 2,860,000.

Shallow was very aggressive heads-up, a style for which he is known, but that style came back to bite him less than 20 minutes into the one-on-one match.  Looking at just K-3 suited, he watched Chattha raise pre-flop to 140,000 and decided to three-bet it to 360,000.  Chattha took it up to 600,000, Shallow moved all-in, and Chattha quickly called.  And no wonder.  Holding pocket Queens, Chattha was a big favorite over most hands.  Shallow hit a 3 on the flop, but nothing else materialized and all of a sudden, Chattha had a slight chip lead, 5,180,000 to 4,960,000.

Just after that, Shallow regained a small edge, taking a couple small pots, and that was all he needed when the big hand was dealt.  With Q-Q, Shallow raised pre-flop to 135,000, only to see Chattha re-raise him to 380,000 with 9-9.  Shallow raised him back, making it 825,000 and Chattha moved all-in.  Shallow made the call.  The flop ran out K-K-2, pretty much as bad as it could get for Chattha without a Queen showing up.  The turn 8 and river 3 sewed it up for David Shallow, who won WPT Ireland along with the €222,280 first prize and a $25,000 seat in the season-ending WPT World Championship.

World Poker Tour Ireland – Final Table Results

1.    David Shallow – €222,280 ($289,031)
2.    Charles Chattha – €111,130 ($144,502)
3.    Ronan Gilligan – €74,090 ($96,339)
4.    Patrik Vestlin – €52,600 ($68,396)
5.    Steve Watts – €39,270 ($51,063)

While the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel is a new venue on the World Poker Tour, this will not be the first time a WPT event has been held there.  The debut WPT event at the casino, the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Showdown, was just this past April during Season IX.  Taylor Von Kriegenbergh prevailed in the $10,000 touranment, besting 422 opponents to win over $1.1 million.  The WPT Regional Series was also held at the casino in both November and December.

Unlike many World Poker Tour final tables, the WPT Lucky Hearts final table will not be televised, but it can still be seen via live streaming on the World Poker Tour website.

This new Main Event is now the fourth in WPT Season X in the state of Florida, joining WPT Jacksonville (November 2011), the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown (April 2012), and the second running of WPT Jacksonville (April-May 2012).  Since the state lifted its harsh restrictions on live poker games in 2010, Florida has seen more and more action from tournament organizers and cash game players alike.  While the southeastern United States still has a ways to go to be considered truly “poker friendly,” players in the region now have a number of viable options.

The World Poker Tour just completed a string of tournaments in December.  Prague was the stop during the first week of the month as 571 players ponied up €3,500 for their shot at the €450,000.  Russia’s Andrey Pateychuk took it down, using one heck of a run of luck to win his second major title of the year.  Immediately following WPT Prague, James Dempsey won the WPT Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, beating 412 opponents and winning $821,612.  Finally, this weekend saw the conclusion of the €3000 + €300 WPT Venice, held at the Casino di Venezia.  Edoardo Alescio made his first live tournament cash a big one, as he won the event and took the first prize of €194,000.

The World Poker Tour is taking a short break for the holidays and will resume on January 5th with WPT Ireland at the Citywest Hotel in Dublin.  The Tour will then head back to Venice in February for the WPT Venice Grand Prix before going back to the States for the WPT Lucky Hearts Poker Open.

Edoardo Alescio entered the six-handed final table in second place with 1,714,000 chips.  There was a clear divide between the “haves” and “have nots” at the table, with three players over a million chips (Michele Caroli led the way with over 2 million) and three players at half a million or under.  Here were the chip counts to start the day:

Michele Caroli – 2,097,000
Edoardo Alescio – 1,714,000
Andrea Benelli – 1,143,000
Steve O’Dwyer – 501,000
Alex Dovzhenko – 480,000
Andrea Dato – 461,000

Alescio started quickly, winning the first pot and taking a one million chip lead in less than an hour.  It was American Steve O’Dwyer who took the first pelt, though, eliminating Alex Dovzhenko in a race: O’Dwyer’s A-K outflopped Dovzhenko’s 9-9.  Dovzhenko was out in 6th place, while O’Dwyer was right back in the match with a million chips.

That cushion lasted less than an hour, as in what would be a preview of a face-off we’d see a lot of later, Alescio knocked him back down to near his final table starting stack.  Alescio continued to soar, growing his chip stack to over 3 million in the first two hours of play.  It looked like it would be a short day for all involved.

There was no quit in O’Dwyer, though.  Despite sinking lower, he kept up the fight, doubling up once through Andrea Benelli and then making a big move in a three-way hand.  Benelli moved all-in for his last 76,000 chips with K-T, O’Dwyer called with a dominated Q-T, and Michele Caroli called from the big blind with K-3.  The flop of 9-8-2 kept Benelli in the lead, but the turn was not so happy, as a Queen shifted the power to O’Dwyer.  Another Queen on the river sealed Benelli’s fate and he was gone in 5th place, while O’Dwyer climbed up to 1,743,000.

Just a few hands later, Andrea Dato moved all-in pre-flop for 249,000 with K-9 and O’Dwyer called with A-4.  Neither player improved through the river, which meant that Dato, the chip leader after Day 1A, was eliminated in 4th place and O’Dwyer moved into the chip lead.

From there, O’Dwyer looked like he was going to run away with the tournament, just like it appeared that Alescio would earlier.  His two Italian opponents couldn’t make any good moves, both attempting big bluffs at exactly the wrong time.  They kept sinking while O’Dwyer kept rising.  Eventually, Alescio need to just start shoving, something he did in an astounding eight of ten hands at one point, and in none of those instances was he called.

Finally, about six hours after the start of the final table, Alescio was looked up on an all-in.  He committed all his chips pre-flop with A-Q and Caroli made the call with A-J (considering the hand and Alescio’s shoving frequency, it was a good play, just bad timing).  The community cards were all blanks and Caroli hit the rail in 3rd place.

It was down to the decorated O’Dwyer versus the devoid-of-live-cashes Alescio, with O’Dwyer holding about a 3-to-1 chip lead.  Put your money on O’Dwyer, right?  Not so fast.

O’Dwyer got it up to around a 5 million to 1 million chip lead, but then Alescio went on a tear.  He picked up about 600,000 in two hands combined by – what else – moving all-in pre-flop.  He then picked up another quarter million before taking down what was probably the most important pot of the tournament.  With the board reading Q-9-4-7 with two diamonds, O’Dwyer bet and Alescio went all-in, holding 6-7 of diamonds.  O’Dwyer made the call with Q-T, giving him top pair versus Alescio’s third pair and flush draw.  The river made Alescio’s flush, allowing him to double up to just over 4 million and regain the chip lead for the first time in hours.

He extended his lead over the next few hands before finally putting the nail in O’Dwyer’s poker coffin.  O’Dwyer was all-in pre-flop with A-7 and Alescio called him with pocket 5′s.  The dealer laid out one of those “yeeeaaahhh….nooooooo!” flops, as he gave O’Dwyer a 7, but at the same time put down a 5 to give Alescio a set.  O’Dwyer couldn’t get lucky after that and Edoardo Alescio had made his first live cash, just a little thing called the WPT Venice championship.

WPT Venice – Final Table Results

1.    Edoardo Alescio – €175,000
2.    Steve O’Dwyer – €95,530
3.    Michele Caroli – €66,090
4.    Andrea Dato – €43,170
5.    Andrea Benelli – €34,245
6.    Alex Dovzhenko – €27,035

Ending Day 1A as the chip leader is Andrea Dato with 217,300 chips.  With blinds and antes about to hit 500/1,000/100, his 58,300 chip advantage over the second place player, Steve O’Dwyer, is significant.  But even though just 29 players remain from Tuesday and it is unlikely that there will be scores more after Wednesday, this is still poker and no lead is safe.  Just look at the last two WPT final tables.

Dato has earned just shy of $300,000 on the live tournament circuit in his career.  Almost half of it was won this summer when he placed 3rd in the $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em Triple Chance event at the World Series of Poker for $138,044.  His next biggest score came just last month when he finished 5th in the Main Event of the Italian Poker Tour Campione II, winning $62,264.

It is odd that so few players showed up for WPT Venice, considering this same event fielded 523 runners last season.  Perhaps the fact that it followed so closely behind WPT Prague, WPT Five Diamond, and the European Poker Tour’s Prague stop made it an unfortunate victim of a mass break from poker by European players.  Or, perhaps everyone went to the wrong casino.  Laugh if you’d like, but that actually happened.  Play started about an hour late on Tuesday because a number of players went to Casino Di Venezia Ca’Vendramin rather than Casino Di Venezia in Ca’noghera.  We assume that there weren’t a couple hundred players at the wrong poker room who still didn’t make their way to the correct one, so while Day 1B’s typically have more registrants than Day 1A’s, the field still shouldn’t come anywhere close to what it was last year.

Day 1B of WPT Venice will begin at 1:00pm Wednesday.

World Poker Tour Venice – End of Day 1A Chip Leaders

1.    Andrea Dato – 217,300
2.    Steve O’Dwyer – 159,000
3.    Wanny Piazza – 154,000
4.    Michele Caroli – 132,200
5.    Umberto Calabro – 124,000
6.    Roger Hairabedian – 120,600
7.    Alessandro Fasolis – 111,500
8.    Gianluca Nardone – 110,200
9.    Cristiano Guerrero – 105,900
10.    Rocco Palumbo – 101,100

While Dempsey was in good shape going into final table play with 3.86 million chips, he was staring up at 2010 November Niner Soi Nguyen, who was over a million chips ahead.  Just behind Dempsey was online star Andrew “luckychewy” Lichtenberger, who had already amassed around $1.4 million in live tournament earnings, including $500,000 from an 18th place finish in the 2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event.  Next was Vanessa Selbst, holder of two North American Poker Tour (NAPT) titles, a Partouche Poker Tour crown, a WSOP final table, and a 3rd place finish in the 2007 WSOP $5,000 Heads-Up No-Limit Hold’em event.  Then there was Antonio Esfandiari with 1.255 million chips.  You know, a poker nobody.  He only won this event last year to go along with another WPT title from 2004 and had won about $4.5 million in live tournaments worldwide.  Bringing up the year was Vitor Coelho with 560,000 chips.  Coelho was coming off a 4th place finish at WPT Jacksonville.

To review, here were the chip counts to start final table play:

Soi Nguyen – 4.995 million
James Dempsey – 3.86 million
Andrew Lichtenberger – 3.605 million
Vanessa Selbst – 2.25 million
Antonio Esfandiari – 1.255 million
Vitor Coelho – 560,000

Fast forward to heads-up, which featured the two chip leaders to start the day.  Nguyen and Dempsey were in a virtual deadlock to start the one-on-one match, with Dempsey leading slightly, 8.32 million to 8.225 million.  Dempsey extended the lead for a while, getting up above 10 million chips, but Nguyen struck back, grabbing a 3.8 million chip pot to reverse the standings and take a 1.1 million chip lead.

From there, Nguyen took off, winning and after hand after hand and eventually building up what looked to be a devastating chip lead, about 13.5 million to 3 million.  Dempsey clung to life, though, as Nguyen couldn’t put him away, despite having a gigantic lead for at least a couple dozen hands.  Dempsey was able to close the gap slightly, bringing Nguyen down to 10 million chips, and then it happened.

Nguyen min-raised pre-flop to 300,000, Dempsey three-bet to 850,000, and Nguyen called.  After the flop of Qs-4c-2s, Dempsey put out a one million chip bet and Nguyen called again.  When the Ts was dealt on the turn, Dempsey moved all-in and, after getting a count and thinking for several minutes, Nguyen made the call.  Dempsey didn’t have a made hand.  His Ad-Js gave him a flush draw and a gut-shot Broadway draw.  Nguyen had As-5d, a hand that was outkicked by Dempsey’s, though he did have Dempsey’s flush draw trumped.  Dempsey needed his kicker to hold and it did.  The Kh gave him a straight and a double-up to 12.925 million, completely flipping the table from just a few hands earlier.

Just five hands later, it was all over.  Nguyen went all-in pre-flop for 3.6 million with Kc-Jd and Dempsey called him with a dominating Kh-Qc.  Nguyen took the lead on the flop, though, as it came Jc-9h-6c, giving him top pair.  The turn was the 4h, a blank.  But the river came the Td, completing a King-high straight for Dempsey and giving him the championship.

This win at the 2011 WPT Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic marks James Dempsey’s second major title, as he won the $1,500 Pot-Limit Hold’em event at the 2010 WSOP.  The winner’s purse just about doubled Dempsey’s lifetime live tournament earnings, which now stand at $1,726,528.

2011 WPT Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic – Final Table Results

1.    James Dempsey – $821,612
2.    Soi Nguyen – $517,478
3.    Vanessa Selbst – $338,351
4.    Andrew Lichtenberger – $218,933
5.    Vitor Coelho – $159,224
6.    Antonio Esfandiari – $119,418

Thirteen players came back on Saturday afternoon to the Bellagio, prepared to work their way down to the traditional six handed WPT final table. 2010 World Series of Poker “November Nine” member Soi Nguyen held a nearly one million chip lead over his nearest competitor, Andrew “luckychewy” Lichtenberger, while other formidable foes such as the United Kingdom’s James “Flushy” Dempsey, defending champion Antonio Esfandiari, Kyle Julius, Vanessa Selbst and David Williams lurked down the leaderboard. The potential existed, at the start of the day, for the creation of one of the most difficult final tables in WPT history.

The short stacks in the tournament – William Reynolds and Rudy Maarek – got the action going right off the bat on Saturday. Within moments of the opening bell, Reynolds had shoved his stack in against Esfandiari (but didn’t get a call), while Maarek doubled his stack through Vitor Coelho. Reynolds would not make it through his next shove, however, as he squared off against Coelho again.

After a raise from Reynolds, Coelho and Larry Wells called to see an A-K-9 flop, after which Reynolds fired a continuation bet, with Coelho calling and Wells dropping out. On the four turn, Reynolds kept up the pressure with another bet, but Coelho dropped his remaining chips in the center. Reynolds made the call, tabling A-J for top pair, but Coelho had him drawing dead with his flopped set of nines. After the unimportant river, Coelho moved up to just shy of one million chips, while Reynolds dropped to less than 200,000. On the next hand, Braden Hall would eliminate Reynolds in thirteenth place.

In a key hand, Selbst sent Julius to the rail in a hand where the chips went to the center pre-flop. After a six-bet all in by Julius, Selbst immediately made the call and tabled pocket Kings against Julius, who was making a move on the veteran pro with only a 7-5 of diamonds. The J-5-4 flop paired Julius and a turn six opened up some more outs for Julius, but a river ten would give the hand to Selbst. After a count of chips, Selbst held a scant 50K more, eliminating Julius’ run at this WPT championship in twelfth place and moving Selbst up over the two million mark.

Once Maarek was eliminated in eleventh place by Esfandiari, the final ten players gathered on a single table to work to the final six barely two hours into Saturday’s play. Nguyen still held a lead, but it had shrunk to just 500K over Selbst and 800K over Esfandiari. Over the next 122 hands (and seven hours), the leaderboard would blaze with lead changes as the contenders for the last WPT championship of 2010 were determined.

At some point during the unofficial final table, Selbst, Nguyen and Dempsey all held the lead, while David Williams (tenth, $47,767), Anthony Yeh (ninth, $55,728) and Braden Hall (eighth, $63,960) all fell away from the felt. With the final table bubble looming, the players took more than two hours to determine who would sit at the final table.

Lichtenberger made some moves up the leaderboard during this period, but it would be Nguyen who would maintain his Day Four chip lead to the final table by eliminating the “bubble boy.” In this case, it was Larry Wells, who went to battle after Nguyen raised pre-flop.

On an A-7-6 flop, Nguyen fired after raising pre-flop and Wells only called, as he did pre-flop. With a five on the turn, Wells once again simply called a 275K chip bet from Nguyen. On the Ace river, Nguyen decided to quit playing nice and moved his remaining stack to the center. Wells made the call, turning up an impressive A-J for trip Aces, but Nguyen would show a 9-8 of diamonds for a flopped open ended straight which got there on the turn. For his efforts, Larry Wells took home $91,544 for his seventh place finish.

At 4PM (Las Vegas time), the final six players will gather to determine a champion in this event:

Seat One: James Dempsey, 3.86 million
Seat Two: Vitor Coelho, 560,000
Seat Three: Antonio Esfandiari, 1.255 million
Seat Four: Andrew Lichtenberger, 3.605 million
Seat Five: Vanessa Selbst, 2.25 million
Seat Six: Soi Nguyen, 4.995 million

There’s something for every poker fan at this particular final table. Dempsey is looking for the second leg of poker’s “Triple Crown” by winning this tournament, while Esfandiari looks to make history by being the first player to be a repeat champion of a WPT event. Selbst, for her part, is looking to become the first female champion of an open WPT tournament, while Nguyen is looking for his first major title to add to his excellent WSOP performance in 2010. Lichtenberger is a highly respected online player looking for his first major title, while Coelho faces the arduous task of rising from the short stack to becoming a WPT champion.

The WPT website will be live streaming the tournament this afternoon on a thirty minute delay (the broadcast will begin at 4:30 Vegas time). Hosted by Tony “Bond_18” Dunst (who drove deep in this tournament) and other prominent pros, we should know this evening who will take home the final championship of the calendar year on the World Poker Tour.

49 players started the action on Friday and, with the final table playing on Sunday, were looking to get as close as possible to that six handed final table as possible so play would be short on Saturday. Kyle Julius, who captured the lead late on Thursday night, was facing challenges from 2010 World Series of Poker “November Nine” member Soi Nguyen and the defending champion of this event, Antonio Esfandiari. By the end of Friday’s play, these men would change positions but not the pursuit of the latest WPT championship.

Day One chip leader Vanessa Selbst, who has been a constant on the leaderboard during this tournament, got off to an excellent start on Friday afternoon. She cut a big stack of chips from Jason Dewitt, then ended the tournament of Allen Cunningham. After eliminating Cunningham, Selbst would sit on 930K in chips and, although she had a slight misstep against Nguyen, end Friday’s play with roughly that stack.

One of the biggest movers during the action on Friday was the United Kingdom’s James Dempsey. After starting the day with less than 300K in chips, “Flushy” more than doubled his chips in the first hour of play. On an interesting A-8-7-5-3 board, Dempsey was able to make pocket Kings work against Yuri Siniak to push his stack up to nearly 800K. It wouldn’t be the last time that the Englishman would be heard from in this tournament.

Within the first two hours of play, Cunningham, Allen Kessler, Matt Giannetti, Jonathan Little and Madison Bergeron were among the casualties, all receiving $15,922 for their efforts. With the elimination of Peter Jetten (40th, $19,903) and Dwyte Pilgrim (37th, $19,903), among others, the field reached the final four tables within three hours of action on Friday.

Dempsey would continue on his good run of Friday by eliminating Javier Quinones from the tournament in 34th place, pushing Dempsey’s stack to 1.35 million. This wasn’t good enough for the chip lead, however; Nguyen and Julius jousted for that position through the late afternoon action and, joined by Andrew Lichtenberger, this foursome would swap positions in the Top Five through the rest of the evening’s play.

After Dewitt’s elimination in 28th place (preceded by the departures of Dee Dozier and David “The Dragon” Pham), three tables were left. Nguyen and Julius were separated, but each found new combatants to go against. Nguyen picked up Dempsey at his table, while Julius would find Larry Wells at his. Esfandiari, who maintained his Friday starting stack throughout the day, would take up the battle with Lichtenberger.

In one of the more exciting hands of Friday’s play, Julius would end Nicolas Fraioli’s day decisively. After a raise by Julius and a call from Fraioli in the small blind, the duo saw a monochrome 5-3-2 all club flop. After both players checked, another five on the turn brought a 37K chip bet from Fraioli and a flat from Julius. As the dealer prepared to burn a card, Fraioli announced he was all in in the dark and Julius called him in the dark, turning up 6-4 of clubs for the flopped straight flush. A stunned Fraioli turned up his cards, the K-J of clubs for a king high flush, which was crushed. After the inconsequential river, Julius shot to 1.775 million in chips and Fraioli was out in 22nd place ($23,884).

The end of the evening presented another hand noteworthy, as it pushed Lichtenberger into contention. After a bet from Blake Kelso and a reraise from Lichtenberger, Selbst would flat from the button. Once Matt Marafioti moved all in from the big blind, the action heated up. Kelso pushed all in over Marafioti’s bet, Lichtenberger called and Selbst got out of the way.

Lichtenberger held the lead with his pocket Kings, but his outs for improvement were gone as both Kelso and Marafioti held Big Slick. An all spade 10-2-3 flop gave Marafioti a shot at a flush draw, but a ten on the turn and a nine on the river ended the tournament for Marafioti (15th, $39,806) and Kelso (14th). With the double knockout, Lichtenberger pushed his stack over the two million mark and ended the play for the day with thirteen players remaining.

At noon Saturday (Las Vegas time), the final table of the WPT Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic will be determined, with these players in contention:

1. Soi Nguyen, 3.1 million
2. Andrew Lichtenberger, 2.114 million
3. James Dempsey, 1.877 million
4. Larry Wells, 1.327 million
5. Antonio Esfandiari, 1.099 million
6. Kyle Julius, 1.097 million
7. Anthony Yeh, 1.091 million
8. Vitor Coelho, 950,000
9. Braden Hall, 926,000
10. Vanessa Selbst, 869,000
11. David Williams, 748,000
12. Rudy Maarek, 706,000
13. William Reynolds, 565,000

There are two Champions’ Club members (previous WPT champions) still alive, Esfandiari and Williams, with Esfandiari looking to make history by repeating as champion of this tournament. Selbst is the final woman left in the tournament and has been playing excellent poker throughout the event. Nguyen, Dempsey and Lichtenberger are all able to handle the challenges of late tournament poker, however, which will lead to an exciting day of play at the Bellagio today!