2013 WPT Doyle Brunson Five Diamond Day 4: Bubble Bursts; Bellande Leads Final 21
The 2013 World Poker Tour Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic Main Event played deep into the money on Monday's Day 4. Plenty of action was had, including the bursting of the money bubble, but at the end of the day, all eyes were on Jean-Robert Bellande as he led the final 21 players with 1.637 million in chips.
Bellande took a large chunk of chips to move himself to the top of the leaderboard by busting Brian Rast in 32nd place. According to the WPT live updates, Bellande raised from middle position to 18,000 during Level 19 with the blinds at 4,000/8,000/1,000. Rast was in the cutoff seat and reraised to 43,000. Bellande fired right back with a reraise to 118,000, then Rast moved all in for around 440,000. Bellande called holding the A♦A♠, having Rast's A♥10♥ dominated. The flop, turn, and river ran out Q♦9♣3♣J♣A♣, and Rast was gone.
2013 WPT Five Diamond Day 4 Top 10 Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jean-Robert Bellande | 1,637,000 |
| 2 | Keith Tilston | 1,274,000 |
| 3 | Eddy Sabat | 1,026,000 |
| 4 | Christian Harder | 980,000 |
| 5 | Joe Serock | 949,000 |
| 6 | Barry Hutter | 766,000 |
| 7 | Dan Martin | 700,000 |
| 8 | Steven Silverman | 667,000 |
| 9 | Dan O'Brien | 643,000 |
| 10 | Gary Benson | 643,000 |
While plenty of marquee names remained heading into Day 4 with 59 players left, all eyes were on 2010 champion Antonio Esfandiari. Since 2008, Esfandiari has cashed in this event every year and was hoping to make it six in a row. That includes winning the event in 2010 and making the final table in 2011 and 2012. Unfortunately for Esfandiari, his run came to an end just a handful of spots off the money.
The final trick for "The Magician" came in Level 16 with the blinds at 2,000/4,000/500. Esfandiari moved all in for his last 42,500 from middle position and was called by Matt Glantz. Everyone else folded, leaving Esfandiari at risk with the A♠9♥ against Glantz's K♦K♣. The board ran out 10♥6♣3♠Q♦7♥, and Esfandiari was out the door.
Glantz didn't survive much longer, falling to Dan Martin in a huge clash during the same level.
Glantz opened to 9,000 from middle position, and Martin reraised to 21,000 out of the big blind. Glantz came back with a reraise of his own and made it 54,000 to go. After getting an estimate on Glantz's stack, Martin took some time and then reraised to 103,000. Glantz moved all in, and Martin snapped him off. That spelled bad news for Glantz and his A♠K♥ because Martin tabled the A♦A♥.
The Q♣10♠7♠ flop did give Glantz a Broadway straight draw and the 2♠ on the turn added a flush draw, but the 2♥ river card was as far away from his outs as it could get. Martin scooped the pot to assume the chip lead, and Gantz was eliminated short of the money.
After the eliminations of Joey Weissman in 48th place and Cliff Josephy in 47th, the tournament was on the official bubble. Then, during Level 17 with the blinds at 2,500/5,000/500, the bubble would burst thanks to Kevin Eyster's elimination.
Eyster had opened to an unknown amount from under the gun, Steven Silverman three-bet to 40,000 on the button, and then Eyster moved all in for 88,000. Silverman called and showed the J♦J♥. Eyster had the K♠K♥, but couldn't hold following the board running out A♠4♦3♣4♣J♣.
From there, the eliminations mounted and the line at the payout desk grew. Michael Benvenuti was first to go in 45th place for $21,700, and he was followed by Galen Hall (43rd - $21,700), Mike Sexton (42nd - $21,700), Jeff Madsen (39th - $21,700), Don Nguyen (37th - $31,700), Mohsin Charania (33rd - $26,039), Scotty Nguyen (29th - $26,039), John Hennigan (25th - $30,379), and last year's champion Ravi Raghavan (23rd - $30,379).
Raghavan busted in Level 20 with the blinds at 5,000/10,000/1,000 to the hands of Dan O'Brien. Raghavan was all in preflop with 6x6x against O'Brien's AxKx, but thanks to an ace on the river, he was sent home short of a repeat victory.
Day 5 will begin at 12 p.m. Las Vegas time on Tuesday with the plan to play down to the official televised WPT final table of six. Stay tuned to PokerNews to see who made it and who fell short upon the completion of play.
Data courtesy of WorldPokerTour.com
Get all the latest PokerNews updates on your social media outlets. Follow us on Twitter and find us on both Facebook and Google+!
