History is going to be made tonight here at the Fontana Room at the Bellagio Casino in Las Vegas where the final table of the latest World Poker Tour event is taking place. Tonight is the final table of the Five Diamond Poker Classic main event. The buy-in was $15,000 and 555 players entered on Monday. Five days later, we're down to six players including the legendary Doyle Brunson, the always entertaining Phil Laak, Joanne "J.J." Liu, the best player in Europe in Patrik Antonius, Darrel Dicken, and Rehne Pedersen of Denmark. Tickets were in such high demand that rumors circulated that people were scapling seats for over $1K. I never got so many requests for tickets. That's what happens when you have the Unabomber and Doyle Brunson at the final table. Plus Joanne Liu has a shot at being the first female to ever win a WPT event.When the players were intoduced, the biggest applause was for Texas Dolly himself. It was like watching Babe Ruth walk onto the field at Yankee Stadium. After all, the Bellagio is Doyle's home casino. His big game is held in Bobby's Room over near the poker room.
I got Phil Laak in a prop bet with BJ from Card Player. He has Doyle Brunson. Earlier ths year, Brunson's good friend Johnny Chan took Phil Laak down in heads up play en route to his tenth bracelet. In the unofficial media pool, Heather has Patrik Antonius, BJ has Texas Dolly, and I got Phil Laak.
Here are today's payouts:
1. $2,078,185Here's the final table seating including chip counts (courtesy of Poker Wire):
2. $1,046,470
3. $563,485
4. $362,140
5. $241,495
6. $160,995
Seat 1: Darrell Dicken $3.510M***** Live Blogging Updates *****
Seat 2: Patrick Antonius $1.755M
Seat 3: Rehne Pedersen $3.225M
Seat 4: Joanne "J.J." Liu $3.63M = chipleader
Seat 5: Phil "The Unabomber" Laak $2.505M
Seat 6: Doyle Brunson $2.025M
7:23pm... Cards are in the air!
7:25pm... No Jen Tilly sightngs.
7:30pm... During the first orbit Joanne Liu moves all in over the top of Phil Laak. He quickly folded and offered Liu $4 to see her hand. Liu told him that he needed to wait to see it on TV.
8:00pm... The action has been slow during the first 14 hands. Phil Laak has been chatting up the table. Patrik Antonius moved all in on Doyle on one hand and Texas Dolly folded.
8:05pm.... Courtney Friel was tickling BJ in media row. Lucky fucker.
8:11pm.... Recent chipcounts from Linda Johnson say that Doyle is the short stack with $1M and Joanne is still the chipleader with over $4M.
8:18pm... There are plenty of big time pros in the audience including Billy Baxter, Marcel Luske, Chau Giang, Todd Brunson, Joe Hachem, and Marco Traniello.
8:28pm... Patrik Antonius took down two big pots. One was over 900K and the other was over $1.5M.
8:45pm... Recent Elimination: Phil Laak was just knocked out by Patrik Antonius. He ran into Patrik's A-A. Patrik raised and Laak moved all in with K-3o. Patrik quickly called and his hand held up despite Laak flopping a pair and turning a gutshot straight draw. Phil Laak finished in 6th place and won $160,995. I lost both prop bets with BJ. Antonius now has over $6M and is the chipleader.
8:53pm... Texas Dolly just doubled up against Darell Dicken. Brunson moved all in with A-K and Dicken called with A-J. Brunson's Big Slick held up.
9:05pm... Here's an updated chip count:
1 Patrik Antonius $5.7M9:35pm... Darrell Dicken doubled up against Rehne Pedersen. Dicken had J-10 and Pederson had A-Q. Dicken flopped a ten and his hand held up.
2 Joanne "J.J." Liu $ 4.2M
3 Doyle Brunson $3M
4 Rehne Pedersen $2.15M
5 Darrell Dicken $1.5M
9:53pm... Here's an updated chip count:
1 Patrik Antonius $ 6M10:00pm... Rehne Pedersen doubled up against Darrell Dicken who was just crippled to less than 800K. Dicken had Q-J and Pedersen had A-J and flopped an ace.
2 Joanne Liu $ 4.3M
3 Doyle Brunson $ 2.3M
4 Darrell Dicken $ 2.05M
5 Rehne Pedersen $ 1.1M
10:25pm... It was almost 1:40 minutes since Laak had been busted when Darrell Dicken was eliminated. His 4-4 lost a race to Patrik Antonius' A-J when Antonius flopped a Jack. Dicken won $241,495 for 5th place.
10:35pm... Joanne Liu won a pot with A-J. She flopped an ace and checked the flop. Patrik Antonius bluffed at the pot on the river when he bet out $1M with 2-4o and absoultely nothing. Liu picked up a big pot.
10:40pm... Patrik has over $8M, Liu has $5M, Rehne has $2M and Doyle has $1.5M.
10:46pm... Rehne Pedersen doubled up against Joanne Liu. He had been playing tight all night long when he moved all in with K-K. Liu called with 4-4 and her hand did not improve.
11:07pm... Doyle Brunson 1, Patrik Antonius 0. On a flop of 8-4-2, Brunson moved all in. Antonius called with 9-9. Brunson paired his kicker on the turn, but that gave Antonius a flush draw. The river didn't help Antonius and Brunson's two pair held up. He doubled up and had almost $5M in chips.
11:27pm... Heather from Poker Wire turned to me and said, "My ass is starting to hurt."
11:31pm... Almost dead even. Here's an updated chip count:
1 Doyle Brunson $4.5M12:01am... New level. Blinds are $150K/$300K with $30K antes.
2 Joanne 'J.J.' Liu $4M
3 Patrik Antonius $4M
4 Rehne Pedersen $3.5M
12:20am... Rehne Pederesen moved all-in with 2-2 and Doyle Brunson called with 10-10. His hand held up and Texas Dolly doubled up.
12:24am... Recent Elimination: Joanne Liu moved all in with A-3. She was up against Patrik Antonius' A-10s. Her hand did not improve and she was eliminated in 4th place. She won $362,140.
12:33am... Doyle Brunson took over the chip lead after his 3-3 held up against Patrik Antonius' A-2. He rivered a full house to cripple the young Antonius. Here's the chip count:
1 Doyle Brunson $8.9M12:28am... Doyle Brunson and his A-7 doubled up Rehne Pedersen when his 2-2 held up.
2 Patrik Antonius $4.3M
3 Rehne Pedersen $3.5M
12:44am... More stars in the audience including Jen Harman, Johnny Fuckin' Chan and Tom McEvoy.
12:53am... Back by popular demand!
Last 5 Pros I Took a Piss Next To:1:00am... Doyle Brunson moved all in with A-6 and Patrik Antonius called with A-9. They both flopped and ace but Antonius' hand held up. He doubled up against Texas Dolly.
1. Mike Sexton
2. Patrik Antonius
3. Gavin Smith
4. Phil Laak
5. Allen Cunningham
1:04am... Doyle Brunson moved all in with K-J and Rehne Pedersen quickly called with K-K. On the turn, Doyle picked up an open ended straight draw but he didn't improve on the river. Doyle Brunson was elimianted in 3rd place. He won $563,485.
1:08am... We're heads up. Rehne Pedersen has $9.39M to Patrik Antonius $8.27M. It's the battle of Northern Europe with Pedersen representing Denmark and Antonius representing Finland.
1:22am... During the money presentation one of the Bellagio girls dropped some of the cash off her tray and landed right in front of Flipchip and me. They had to do a second take. Gus Hansen made a rare appearance in the Fontana Room.
1:35am... Blinds are $200K/$400K wih $40K antes. That means $680K is in the pot before any players act. Patrik Antonius has already moved all in twice and Pedersen folded both times.
1:42am... Rehne Pedersen moved into the chiplead 10M to 7M when he took down a pot on the flop.
2:07am... Both players were all in pre-flop. Patrik Antonius had As-Ks and Rehne Pedersen showed Ad-4d. The flop was 5-6-7 and Pedersen caught an amazing board. The turn was a 3s and he turned a straight, but that gave Antonius a flush draw. It didn't hit and Antonius was crippled.
2:10am... With just $150K left, Antonius was all-in with Ks-7s. Pedersen had 8-8 and his hand held up. Pedersen won $2,078,185 and a $25K seat in the WPT Championships in April. Antonius won $1,046,470 for second place.
2:15am... That's it from the Bellagio. This concludes one helluva 2005 and marks the last tournament that I'll cover this year. Signing off from Las Vegas!
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