The final table of the World Poker Tour (WPT) Celebrity Invitational is set. The group of six was determined last night at the Commerce Casino in Los Angeles and lawyer Damon Schramm leads the way with a stack of 865,000. A top prize of $100,000 is on the line in the invite-only tournament and each player left standing is assured at least $5,000.
Tom Christopher was the Final Table Bubble Boy after running pocket threes into World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner Davidi Kitai’s pocket jacks. Christopher’s elimination was even more painful because he missed the final table and landed out of the money, as only the top six players cashed.
Kitai holds the second largest stack entering the final table of the WPT Celebrity Invitational at 845,000. He became the first WSOP bracelet winner from Belgium after taking down a $2,000 Pot Limit Hold’em event in 2008 for $244,000. In that tournament, he defeated a final table that included Lee Watkinson and bracelet winner Ayaz Mahmood. Kitai finished fourth in the World Championship of Pot Limit Hold’em two years ago for $183,000.
Also reaching the final table on Sunday was noted poker pro Dan Heimiller. He owns a WSOP bracelet to go along with $1.3 million in career WSOP earnings. Heimiller’s gold came in 2002 in a $2,000 Limit Hold’em and Seven Card Stud event for $108,000. Ram Vaswani was his heads-up opponent in that contest and he’s recorded seven WSOP final tables since. The Celebrity Invitational marks the second WPT final table of his career.
After entering Sunday’s play down day as the chip leader, Poker News Daily Guest Columnist and former WPT in-studio announcer Linda Johnson bowed out in 13th place. In her final stand, she was all-in with pocket sevens and in a race against chess guru Almira Skripchenko’s A-Q of clubs. Skripchenko flopped an ace and never looked back, sending Johnson home empty-handed.
Johnson shipped a chunk of her stack to Kitai moments earlier after the latter moved all-in on a board of J-3-2-6-K with three diamonds. Johnson called and tabled pocket jacks for a set, but Kitai showed Q-J of diamonds for a runner-runner flush after flopping top pair. The pot was the largest of the tournament at the time and seemingly solidified a final table seat for Kitai.
Also bowing out in the final moments of Sunday’s action were Antonio Esfandiari, Lauren Kling, PokerStars pro Liv Boeree, and “I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here” winner Lou Diamond Phillips, among others. Here are the survivors who will vie for the $100,000 grand prize in the six-handed final table of the WPT Celebrity Invitational:
1. Damon Schramm – 865,000
2. Davidi Kitai – 845,000
3. Almira Skripchenko – 710,000
4. Dan Heimiller – 700,000
5. Dinara Khaziyeva – 670,000
6. George Rechnitzer – 660,000
The final table won’t be played until March 2nd at 4:00pm local time. In the meantime, the L.A. Poker Classic, a $10,000 buy-in WPT stop, will kick off at the Commerce on Friday. The tournament runs through March 3rd.
Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest WPT coverage.
“…I was so happy to attend the WPT’s Chrysalis Celebrity Invitational. Chrysalis has helped over 35,000 people out of homelessness over the last 25 years. WPT president, Adam Pliska, is at the top of his game. I was so happy to see so many stars, poker pros and players in one room. Thank you WPT for helping so many people.” – Johnny Luckett