At 4:00pm today, the final six players will take to the felt to determine a winner of the Five Diamond World Poker Classic, a stop on the World Poker Tour (WPT). PokerStars pro and GoDaddy Girl Vanessa Rousso leads the way with a stack of 5.8 million headed into the six-handed televised finale.
Among those railing Rousso on the play down day of the WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic was UB.com pro Maria Ho, who Tweeted late Tuesday night, “Congrats to @VanessaRousso for making the final table of the @WorldPokerTour event as the chip leader! Flying back to Vegas to sweat her!”
Also enthused about Rousso’s final table appearance was her better half, Chad Brown, who Tweeted, “Congrats to my girl making the final table and she is the chip leader. Back tomorrow at 4pm for the grand finale. My money is on the lady.” Brown is fresh off hip replacement surgery, but played in the Five Diamond just days after the operation.
Tuesday’s action saw the field play down from 15 runners to six and the final elimination of the evening went to Kia Mohajeri, who took seventh place for $97,000. Mohajeri ran A-Q into the A-K belonging to World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event November Niner John Racener on his final hand. The board ran out an uneventful 6-6-2-9-10 and Racener padded his stack to 3.2 million, good for second place on the leaderboard behind Rousso.
Andrew “luckychewy” Lichtenberger, a Full Tilt Poker pro, met his demise after calling all-in with A-Q on a flop of A-10-6 for top pair. However, Rousso flipped up A-6 for top and bottom pair and a running 9-4 didn’t improve Lichtenberger’s holdings. He bowed out in eighth place for $67,000 from the $10,000 buy-in tournament, his deepest run ever in a WPT event.
Titan Poker pro Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi bit the dust in ninth place in the WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic. Mizzi exited in especially brutal fashion after running pocket queens into Rousso’s pocket kings on his final hand. Mizzi now has back-to-back top 10 finishes in WPT tournaments, but has yet to make a final table. He was the Final Table Bubble Boy last month at Foxwoods, finishing seventh in the World Poker Finals for $88,000.
DoylesRoom Brunson 10 member Amit “amak316” Makhija exited in 13th place on Tuesday, banking $42,000 for his five-day run in the Bellagio poker tournament. After Rousso moved all-in on a board of 9-6-2-10, Makhija called for his stack and showed 9-8 for a pair of nines and a gutshot straight draw. Rousso tabled ducks for a set and a river six gave the PokerStars pro a full house.
The WPT could not have asked for a more star-studded final table:
1. Vanessa Rousso – 5,830,000
2. John Racener – 3,235,000
3. Andrew “good2cu” Robl – 3,210,000
4. Kirk Morrison – 2,650,000
5. Antonio Esfandiari – 2,105,000
6. Ted Lawson – 635,000
When play resumes, the blinds will be 25,000-50,000 with an ante of 5,000. After 12 minutes, the price of poker will increase to 30,000-60,000 with an ante of 5,000. Here’s what’s on the line for the six survivors:
1st Place: $870,124
2nd Place: $549,003
3rd Place: $358,964
4th Place: $232,271
5th Place: $168,924
6th Place: $126,693
Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest WPT coverage.
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