Photo Recap: Day 2 of WPT Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic

By BJ Nemeth

Day 2 came to an end with 137 players remaining from a total field of 438. It’s a field stacked with top players, as you can see by the top of the leaderboard:

1. Antonio Esfandiari – 485,600
2. Daniel Fuhs – 397,500
3. Faraz Jaka – 364,400
4. Doug Lee – 355,000
5. Vanessa Rousso – 334,100
6. Sorel Mizzi – 332,400
7. Keith Gipson – 325,100
8. Phil Ivey – 308,100
9. Doyle Brunson – 295,400
10. Nick Mitchell – 290,100

That top ten includes three former WPT winners (Esfandiari, Ivey, and Brunson), as well as the reigning WPT Player of the Year (Jaka).

Bellagio has the most liberal late-registration policy you’ll find in any major tournament, allowing players to register all the way through Level 8, which is more than halfway through Day 2’s action. So when play began on Day 1, the field size was about 245 (though plenty of players were already in line to register), and by the end of Day 1 it had reached 391. Another 47 players started the tournament at some point on Day 2, creating a total field size of 438. Looking at it another way, about 44% of the field registered after the initial "Shuffle up and deal" announcement.

Once registration closed, Bellagio released the prizepool information, paying the top 100 players (22.8% of the field), and awarding $870,124 to the winner. Here’s a look at the payout structure:

1st: $870,124*
2nd: $549,003
3rd: $358,964
4th: $232,271
5th: $168,924
6th: $126,693
7th: $97,131
8th: $67,570
9th: $59,123
10th: $50,677
11th-15th: $42,231
16th-20th: $33,785
21st-30th: $25,339
31st-40th: $21,116
41st-50th: $16,892
51st-70th: $13,725
71st-100th: $12,669

* First place includes a $25,500 seat to the season-ending WPT World Championship.

And now, a photographic look back at Day 2 of the WPT Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic:

Tony Dunst, the new host of the WPT’s "Raw Deal" segment, found himself at a tough table on Day 2, including three former WPT winners: Dwyte Pilgrim (pictured), Daniel Alaei, and Olivier Busquet. Dunst started the day short and never caught momentum, busting before the first break. Pilgrim fared much better, surviving the day with a nearly-average stack of 113,600.

Doug Lee was one of the first players to reach the 300,000-chip mark, and he got most of those chips in a 240,000-chip pot against Daniel Alaei. Alaei 5-bet all in preflop with A-K, but Lee turned over pocket aces, which held up to win the pot. Alaei busted as Lee catapulted to the top of the leaderboard. Lee finished the day in fourth place with 355,000.

After Christian Harder made a negative comment about Atlantic City, Phil Ivey came to the city’s defense. (Ivey got his start in poker by playing underage in Atlantic City with a fake ID.) One of our reporters was nearby and posted most of the conversation in the live updates. (Read that post by clicking here.) Another player at the table was following WPT Live Updates on his iPad, and when he saw the post about Ivey’s comments, he had to share them with the man himself. As you can see, Ivey smiled as he read it, and when he finished, he looked up and said, "I have to be careful what I say around them," motioning to the nearby media. "They write everything down."

Bellagio’s Fontana Lounge couldn’t hold all 438 players who entered this tournament, so the poker room was used for the overflow tables. About halfway thru Day 2, they were down to the final two tables in the poker room, waiting to join the rest of the tournament in the Fontana Lounge.

Dwyte Pilgrim (left) is the last player to reach the Fontana Lounge, joining a table with Emeline Boich (center) and Dan Heimiller (right). Pilgrim may have been the last player to enter the Fontana Lounge, but he has plans to be the last player to leave.

In the last hand before the last break of the day, Steve Gross (right) moves all in against Matt Keikoan (left) with the board showing [KhJc4h2c8c]. Keikoan thought for a while before he called, and Gross showed [AcAs] to win the pot and double up, carrying that momentum to the end of the day with an above-average stack of 174,000. Keikoan would run into some more bad luck (read about his hand against Doyle Brunson, below), and would be eliminated in the last level of the day.

Mike Sexton and the Royal Flush Girls (from left to right, Jennifer Haley, Melyssa Grace, Melanie Iglesias, and Sunisa Kim) welcome Doyle Brunson before he takes his seat in the tournament. Registration remained open until the beginning of Level 9, and Brunson entered at the last minute. In addition to being a first-ballot Hall of Famer and beloved by everyone in the poker world, Brunson received special recognition because this tournament bears his name — the WPT Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic.

Some people might be happy just to have a tournament named in their honor, but Doyle Brunson is in it to win it. Showing up for Level 9 means you start with a short stack, but that didn’t last long as Brunson quickly ran it up to put himself among the chipleaders. In this photo, Brunson waits to get paid off after winning a cooler to double up with [AcAd] against Matt Keikoan’s [KcKd].

The WPT camera crew showed up to record a big hand developing between Sorel Mizzi (foreground, right) and Phil Hellmuth (top left).

Maybe it’s the presence of the TV cameras, but Phil Hellmuth spent an extra-long amount of time in the tank when Sorel Mizzi bet the board of [AcQs5c4hKd]. Hellmuth would eventually fold to Mizzi’s bet. Hellmuth got a small bit of revenge on the next hand, attacking Mizzi’s big blind by raising with [5s4h], and betting the flop and the turn with four diamonds on the board and none in his hand. Mizzi folded on the turn, and Hellmuth showed his cards and said, "If I can’t get in through the door, I’ll come in through the window." Sorel, however, won the war, busting Hellmuth a short while later and finishing the day ranked sixth in chips. It’s unconfirmed whether Hellmuth left the tournament room thru the door or the window.

Proud Washingtonian Matt Affleck stands up between hands to keep tabs on the college football game between Washington and Washington State. (The jersey he’s wearing clearly shows his allegiance.) Affleck survived to Day 3 with a stack of 61,800, or about half the average stack.

Vanessa Rousso made her first big splash in the poker world here at Bellagio, bubbling the TV final table of the 2006 WPT World Championship by finishing in 7th place. She’s followed that up with some more impressive results, having a particularly strong 2009, but still in pursuit of her first major title. Things are going well for Rousso so far in this event, as she finished the day ranked fifth in chips.

In the last level of the day, Phil Ivey (left) was moved to share a table with Doyle Brunson (top right). Neither was hurt by the move, as both players finished among the top 10 in chips (8th and 9th, respectively).

It’s hard to get sympathy for problems that stem from having too many chips on the table. Doug Lee had his chips stacked pretty high when another player bumped the table and knocked them over. It took a few minutes to settle the mess.

When the tournament day ends, Phil Ivey doesn’t wait around to bag and tag his chips — he trusts that nobody would dare to mess with his stack. After the other players cleared out, Bellagio staff member Maria counts out Ivey’s chips before sealing them up for the night.

WPT Anchor Kimberly Lansing awards the first RISE Clothing Player of the Day award for WPT Season IX to Antonio Esfandiari, who finished Day 2 as the chipleader with 485,600. Esfandiari receives a hoodie, hat, and a t-shirt courtesy of RISE Clothing, a new poker lifestyle clothing line. You can follow them on Twitter at @shopRISE. 

Day 3 begins tomorrow (Sunday) at 12:00 noon PT. Return to WorldPokerTour.com for continuing live coverage, including hand updates, frequent chip counts, video interviews with Kimberly Lansing, and the still-searching-for-a-name recap show starring Jessica Welman and BJ Nemeth.

Reminder to the Players: The Las Vegas Marathon will be Sunday morning, and the Las Vegas Strip will be closed to automobile traffic. The North Valet entrance will remain open, but will likely be crowded. Players who aren’t staying at Bellagio should allow plenty of extra time to get to the casino.