Bellagio Five Diamond Preliminary Wrap Up

The final six preliminary events at the Bellagio Five Diamond World Poker Classic were packed full of excitement. Many professional players won events, including Dutch Boyd ($2,000 no-limit hold’em), James Mackey ($3,000 no-limit hold’em), Matt Graham ($5,000 no-limit hold’em), and Humberto Brenes ($1,500 seniors no-limit hold’em). Hafiz Khan set a model of consistency that was envied by all by making three consecutive final tables in a row at open buy-in events. First, he finished in ninth place in Event No. 9, he followed that up by finishing in fourth place in Event No. 10 , and for the third part of his trilogy he finished in sixth place in Event No. 12. His three appearances at $5,000 no-limit hold’em preliminary final tables netted him a gain of $113,950.The most exciting event of the last half of preliminaries at Bellagio was the the final one before the start of the $15,000 World Poker Tour Doyle Brunson Classic Championship. Event No. 12 was the last of three $5,000 no-limit hold’em tournaments, and the professionals turned out in force. The final table featured an impressive collection of players, including two Card Player Player of the Year contenders David "The Dragon" Pham and Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier. Grospellier fell in ninth place, taking home 100 points, which brought his 2008 total up to 5,510. Pham almost went the distance but he eventually fell in third place. He was awarded 800 points, which was good enough to leap frog Grospellier to move into second place on the leader board. Pham now holds 6,022 points total, and he sits just 682 points behind current leader John Phan. If Pham is able to run deep in the WPT championship event next week he would become the first player to ever repeat as POY champion.

Event No. 7 — $2,000 No-Limit Hold’em

Number of Entries: 234
Prize Pool: $453,960

1. Dutch Boyd — $162,605
2. Benny Chen — $94,260
3. David Finkelstein — $53,560
4. Allen Carter — $29,990
5. Daniel O’Brien — $23,565
6. Michael Kamran — $19,280
7. Eric Baldwin — $12,855
8. Stanislav Alekhin — $8,570
9. Stephane Matheu-Cambas — $6,855

Event No. 8 — $3,000 No-Limit Hold’em

Number of Entries: 204
Prize Pool: $593,640

1. James Mackey — $207,305
2. Sean Getzwiller — $124,990
3. Amit Makhija — $71,020
4. Farzad Rouhani — $39,760
5. Richard Tatalovich — $31,250
6. Vivek Rajkumar — $25,565
7. Jon Turner — $17,045
8. Robert Firestone — $11,365
9. Remy Biechel — $9,090

Card Player Live Coverage Event — Event No. 9 — $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em

Number  of Entries: 143
Prize Pool: $693,550

1. Evgeny Serebryakov — $239,275
2. Harry Kazazian — $146,970
3. Jimmy Fricke — $83,505
4. Ian Woodley — $46,770
5. Carlos Mortensen — $36,745
6. Adam Katz — $30,060
7. Artem Ivankeo — $20,040
8. Freddy Deeb — $13,360
9. Hafiz Khan — $10,690

Live Updates for Event No. 9

Card Player Live Coverage Event — Event No. 10 — $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em
   
Number of Entries: 154
Prize Pool: $746,900

1. Tim Bullard — $256,350
2. Mark Teltscher — $158,710
3. Kenneth Smaron — $90,175
4. Hafiz Khan — $50,500
5. Benedetto Bianco — $39,675
6. Michael Mizrachi — $32,465
7. Corwin Cole — $21,640
8. Sergey Altbregin — $14,430
9. Remy Biechel — $11,540

Live Updates for Event No. 10

Event No. 11 — $1,500 Seniors No-Limit Hold’em

Number of Entries: 168
Prize Pool: $244,440

1. Humberto Brenes — $78,220
2. Chris Bjorin — $53,775
3. Art Duncan — $30,555
4. Nancy Todd Tyner — $17,100
5. James Vuksic — $13,445
6. Mike Souchak — $11,000
7. Max Stern — $7,335
8. Harvey Gray — $4,890
9. Tom Franklin — $3,910

Card Player Live Coverage Event — Event No. 12 — $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em

Number of Entries: 247

1. Matt Graham — $400,685
2. Davidson Matthew — $257,940
3. David “The Dragon” Pham — $146,555
4. Russell Rosenblum — $82,070
5. Gualtar Salles — $64,485
6. Hafiz Khan — $52,760
7. Timothy Anders — $35,175
8. Steven Merrrifield — $23,450
9. Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier — $18,760

Live Updates for Event No. 12