Five Diamond World Poker Classic Day 3

Day 3 of the WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic Main Event concluded tonight and live tournament fans that were following the action can confirm that it was some of the year’s best. Since our readers weren’t privy to a Day 2 round-up, we’ll bridge the gap with a recap of what happened yesterday, too. The most notable news from both days belongs to one player, though: Day 2 and Day 3 leader Antonio Esfandiari.

Esfandiari has been a strong contender from the first moments of the tournament and finished Day 1 in 4^th behind Ryan D’Angelo, Amirouddine Alibay and Albert Kim. It didn’t take long for the top three to slip down the ranks. Ultimately, all three of the players that had once been ahead of Esfandiari were out of the competition altogether by the end of Day 3.

Brent Roberts took a verbal beating from tablemate Phil Hellmuth, but “the Poker Brat” himself hardly fared any better. Previous WPT champion Allen Carter was also eliminated in Day 2. In addition to Esfandiari’s continuing domination, Phil Ivey held his spot in the top ten just above tournament namesake Doyle Brunson. Vanessa Rousso also had a strong Day 2 performance, boosting her to the fifth place stack.

Day 3 trimmed the fat entirely, taking the field down to 54 players. Altogether, 101 players would cash with the lowest payout being $12,669. Some notable top 100 finishers included Johnny Chan, Hoyt Corkins, Chau Giang, John Juanda, Jason Mercier and Phil Ivey. Spectators got a thrill when Ivey and Brunson were assigned to the same table late in the day, but were disappointed when Ivey was eliminated shortly thereafter (and not by Brunson).

Day 3 ended with Esfandiari well in the lead as the only player with over 1 million chips. Trailing well behind with the second place stack was Doug Lee at 702,500 with Vanessa Rousso continuing her climb to claim the third place stack with 694,000 chips. The remainder of the top ten (by rank) are as follows: Freddy Deeb, Nick Phillips, Jerry Young, Ray Dehkharghani, Charles Caris, Bryn Kenney and Kianoosh Mohajeri. Doyle Brunson continues to stalk the top players, sitting confidently behind the 13^th largest stack with 446,000 chips.

Day 4 will kick off tomorrow at noon. The incentive to survive is high with the top prize at $870,000. Ousted players looking for a second chance to profit will get it when Event #17, $5000 No Limit Hold’em, begins shortly thereafter at 2pm.

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