Heading into the World Poker Tour (WPT) Five Diamond World Poker Classic, players would have had visions of grandeur; thoughts of hearts tumbling around rib cages; priceless poker preserved like Polaroid pictures.
Only a few of those visions came true.
Let’s check out for whom dreams and reality merged into one with a short round-up of the $10,000 action at one of the WPT’s most iconic festivals.
Two people stood out as salt of the $10,000 Bellagio earth, and we’ll begin with Alex Foxen.
Coming into the series, Foxen sat in 12th place in the 2019 Global Poker Index (GPI) Player of the Year (PoY) race, a title he had in a locket engraved ‘2018’. At the end of the 29-event marathon, he sat on the throne, and it will take a miracle to oust him.
Foxen finished in the money (ITM) of six Five Diamond events, including winning the Main Event for $1,694,995, picking up 1,155.96 GPI PoY points. Amongst that bag of goodies were three ITM finishes in the $10,000 events (2nd, 3rd and 5th).
If Foxen is a lock to defend the GPI PoY, then the same can be said of Sam Soverel, who will almost certainly retain his Poker Central High Roller of the Year title, after also cashing in three of the five $10,000 events. The Poker Central team hasn’t updated the rankings since Nov 14, at which time, Soverel held an 820 point lead over Cary Katz. Katz has had 3 ITM finishes during that time, including a one and two, but Soverel has finished ITM in six events.
So Foxen and Soverel were the stars of the $10,000 events, but this batch of ruffians didn’t do too badly for themselves.
Dan Shak won his first tournament since taking down the €25,000 NLHE Super High Roller at the World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE) in 2017. It’s the first time PLO title for Shak, although he did finish runner-up to Chris Bell in the 2010 $5,000 PLO Hi/Lo 8 at the WSOP – the closest Shak has come to winning a WSOP bracelet.
James Carroll took down his first tournament since winning his second WPT title in April after imprisoning the 1,360-entrant field in the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown on his way to locking up a $715,175 payday. Carroll’s first WPT title came in 2014 when he beat 718-entrants on his way to a lifetime best score of $1,256,550 in the WPT Bay 101 Shooting Stars.
Anthony Zinno kept the light glowing on his faint hopes of winning the 2019 Global Poker Index (GPI) Player of the Year (PoY) award, picking up 211.97 points for his runner-up finish to Carroll. The triple WPT Champ is ranked #4 in the GPI and sat in 9th place in the GPI PoY rankings as of Wednesday, Dec 17.
Chance Kornuth followed up his Poker Masters workshop with another sterling display in the Bellagio. Kornuth finished second in three Poker Masters events before finishing 10/122 in the $10,300 NLHE High Roller at MILLIONS World in the Bahamas, before making two $10,000 final tables at the Five Diamond, finishing second and sixth.
The person who drilled Kornuth into the second position in that $10,000 was Cary Katz. The Poker Central founder proved he could switch his ARIA form to the Bellagio with his fourth victory of what’s been the most accomplished annual return of his career. All told, Katz earned $8.7m playing tournaments in 2019 and had the most significant piece of Bryn Kenney’s action during his $20.5m display at the Triton Million – not bad for someone who calls poker his hobby.
Zachary Clark won his second $10,000 NLHE event of the year after overcoming a field of 60-entrants, including Alex Foxen, heads-up. Clark took down a 32-entrant $10,000 NLHE event at the ARIA in May – the only other time Clark has won a game with a 5-figure buy-in.
Christopher Vitch continued to prove that he’s one of the best card-for-card poker players in the world with a victory in the 8-Game Mix event. It’s the third win of his career, all in different disciplines, and his Bellagio bump was his first outside of the WSOP.
Other poker farmers who have been turning poker tables into arable land all year, and made the final table of at least one $10,000 event include Jonathan Depa (3rd in the PLO), Joseph Cheong (7th in the NLHE), Shaun Deeb (2nd in the 8-Game Mix), Jeremy Ausmus (5th in the NLHE), and Justin Bonomo (9th in the NLHE)
Here are the results in full.
Pot-Limit Omaha
26-entrants
ITM Results
- Dan Shak – $119,600
- Sam Soverel – $72,800
- Jonathan Depa – $41,600
- Armando Collado – $26,000
No-Limit Hold’em
43-entrants
ITM Results
- James Carroll – $113,704
- Anthony Zinno – $100,816
- Martin Zamani – $90,780
- Sam Soverel – $43,000
- Alex Foxen – $34,400
- Chance Kornuth – $25,800
- Joseph Cheong – $21,500
No-Limit Hold’em
27-entrants
- Cary Katz – $124,200
- Chance Kornuth – $75,600
- Alex Foxen – $43,200
- Ben Yu – $27,000
8-Game Mix
33-entrants
- Christopher Vitch – $116,600
- Shaun Deeb – $101,200
- Denis Strebkov – $52,800
- Adam Friedman – $33,000
- Matt Glantz – $26,400
No-Limit Hold’em
60-entrants
- Zachary Clark – $180,000
- Alex Foxen – $120,000
- Sam Soverel – $84,000
- Ralph Wong – $60,000
- Jeremy Ausmus – $48,000
- Sean Winter – $36,000
- Barry Hutter – $30,000
- Byron Kaverman – $24,000
- Justin Bonomo – $18,000