Day 4: Antonio Esfandiari Leads (Again!) the Final 22

Level 20: 5,000-10,000, 1,000 ante

Day 4 has come to a close at the World Poker Tour Five Diamond World Poker Classic and there are just 22 players left in the hunt for the final table. They will return on Saturday to play down to the final six in the high limit area of the poker room at Bellagio.

Antonio Esfandiari (pictured) is in the chip lead once again, this time holding 1,597,000, and he is one of only four players to take over a million chips into tomorrow’s play. The others are Thomas Winters, Andrew Lichtenberger, and Shawn Buchanan.

Esfandiari was the first player of the day to reach that milestone, but he had a tougher time during the late stages of the night, dipping below a million for a while before he finished the night on another upswing and settled with the chip lead. Esfandiari is attempting to make the final table at this event for the third year in a row, where he will have a shot at winning the Five Diamond title for the second time in three years.

There are a lot of notables still in the mix, as is tradition here at Bellagio. The familiar faces looking to make this a star-studded WPT final table are Brian Rast, Greg Mueller, Scott Clements, Jason Somerville, Jonathan Aguiar, Joe Elpayaa, Jeremy Ausmus, Theo Tran, Eddie Sabat, Yevgeniy Timoshenko, Andrew Lichtenberger, Noah Schwartz, Ravi Raghavan, Freddy Deeb, and Shawn Buchanan. There are a half dozen WPT Champion’s Club members advancing to Day 5.

The money bubble burst very early on Day 4 and there were many notables that made the money in this event. They include Tyler Reiman, Tim West, Lee Markholt, Jimmy Tran, Cary Katz, Chino Rheem, Jeff Blenkarn, Steve Gross, Dana Kellstrom, Dan Shak, Will Failla, Andy Bloch, David Sands, Tony Dunst, Chris DeMaci, John Hennigan, and Phil Galfond. You can check out the full results list with prize payouts on the chip counts tab.

Check back in at 12:00 noon PT tomorrow to follow along with all of the action in live updates, chip counts, photos, and videos. Until then, you can check out the full chip count list heading into Day 5 and stay tuned for a photo blog recap of Friday's action that will be released later tonight.

Official Chip Counts For Day 5

Level 20: 5,000-10,000, 1,000 ante

Day 5 begins tomorrow (Saturday) at 12:00 noon PT, when the final 22 players will battle it out for the six seats at Sunday's televised WPT Final Table.

Here are the official chip counts:

TABLE 1
Seat 1.  Antonio Esfandiari  -  1,597,000  (133 bb)
Seat 2.  Jeremy Ausmus  -  346,000  (28 bb)
Seat 3.  Ravi Raghavan  -  693,000  (57 bb)
Seat 4.  Theo Tran  -  656,000  (54 bb)
Seat 5.  Brian Rast  -  385,000  (32 bb)
Seat 6.  Eric Panayiotou  -  458,000  (38 bb)
Seat 7.  -- empty
Seat 8.  -- empty
Seat 9.  Jason Somerville  -  252,000  (21 bb)

TABLE 2
Seat 1.  Greg Mueller  -  459,000  (38 bb)
Seat 2.  Freddy Deeb  -  557,000  (46 bb)
Seat 3.  -- empty
Seat 4.  Thomas Winters - 1,250,000  (104 bb)
Seat 5.  Eddie Sabat  -  343,000  (28 bb)
Seat 6.  Joshua Ladines  -  540,000  (45 bb)
Seat 7.  Andrew Lichtenberger  -  1,107,000  (92 bb)
Seat 8.  -- empty
Seat 9.  Jeremy Kottler  -  851,000  (70 bb)

TABLE 3
Seat 1.  Arthur Morris  -  863,000  (71 bb)
Seat 2.  Yevgeniy Timoshenko  -  716,000  (59 bb)
Seat 3.  Noah Schwartz  -  656,000  (54 bb)
Seat 4.  Jonathan Aguiar  -  732,000  (61 bb)
Seat 5.  Shawn Buchanan  -  1,290,000  (107 bb)
Seat 6.  -- empty
Seat 7.  Joe Elpayaa  -  368,000  (30 bb)
Seat 8.  Andrew Robl  -  429,000  (35 bb)
Seat 9.  Scott Clements  -  570,000  (47 bb)

Twitternet: Surviving Day 4

Level 21: 6,000-12,000, 2,000 ante

Few very unfortunate events took me from 650k to 250k in the last few orbits. 22 remain going to 6/12 back tmw at noon #runitup

— Jason Somerville (@JasonSomerville) December 8, 2012

732k end of day 4 with 22 left, good for slightly above avg, got a few @phil_hellmuth top 10 hands to get there!

— Jonathan Aguiar (@JonAguiar) December 8, 2012

Ended day 4 @bellagio @worldpokertour with 570k 22 players left bunch of champions and heroes left.

— Scott Clements (@BigRiskky) December 8, 2012

Made day 5 in #WPT 5 Diamond. 22 left, I have 716K going into 6/12K. Could be better, could be worse. Very excited for tomorrow!

— Yevgeniy Timoshenko (@JovialGent) December 8, 2012

Arthur Morris Folds Kings to Scott Clements

Level 20: 5,000-10,000, 1,000 ante

With the final board showing A10478 and about 180,000 already in the pot, Scott Clements bets 91,000 in middle position, and Arthur Morris (pictured) tanks for a long time in the cutoff before he folds KK face-up.

Clements wins the pot, and slides his cards to the dealer without showing anything.

Scott Clements  -  590,000  (59 bb)
Arthur Morris  -  885,000  (88 bb)

Andrew Lichtenberger Wins a 700K Pot vs. Freddy Deeb

Level 20: 5,000-10,000, 1,000 ante

With the final board showing 9543Q and about 300,000 already in the pot, Andrew Lichtenberger (pictured) has a bet of 205,000 in front of him in the cutoff, and Freddy Deeb is tanking in the big blind.

Deeb tanks for more than two minutes before he calls, and Lichtenberger turns over 44 for a set of fours. Deeb mucks, and Lichtenberger wins the pot.

Andrew Lichtenberger  -  1,220,000  (122 bb)
Freddy Deeb  -  770,000  (77 bb)

Champ versus Champ

Level 20: 5,000-10,000, 1,000 ante

Andrew Robl raises to 22,000 from UtG+1 and Yevgeniy Timoshenko, the Season VII WPT Championship winner, re-raises to 58,000 from the hijack seat. Noah Schwartz, the Season XI bestBet Jacksonville Fall Poker Scramble winner, calls from the cutoff and Robl releases his hand. 

The flop is 854, Timoshenko checks and Schwartz bets 72,000. Timoshenko folds and the chips go to Schwartz. 

Freddy vs. Eddy

Level 20: 5,000-10,000, 1,000 ante

The board reads 10759 when Freddy Deeb bets 75,000 and Eddy Sabat calls. The river falls 10 and Deeb bets 250,000. Eddy calls after some thought and Freddy flips over J8 for a straight flush. Sabat mucks and his stack is down to 560,000 after the hand. Deeb is up over a million after the dust settles.

Freddy Deeb - 1,120,000 (112 bb)
Eddy Sabat - 560,000 (56 bb)

Doyle Brunson Talks About His Namesake Tournament

Level 20: 5,000-10,000, 1,000 ante

The Godfather of Poker sat out of the event named after him, but he was nice enough to talk to us about his decision and the side action at the Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic.

Frank Rusnak Eliminated in 23rd Place ($31,714)

Level 20: 5,000-10,000, 1,000 ante

Frank Rusnak is all in preflop for about 200,000 with A-7 against Jason Somerville's J-J.

The board comes A-J-8-5-K, and Somerville wins the pot with a set of jacks to eliminate Rusnak in 23rd place.

Jason Somerville  -  640,000  (64 bb)
Frank Rusnak  -  Out in 23rd Place  ($31,714)

Phil Galfond Out in 24th Place ($31,714)

Level 20: 5,000-10,000, 1,000 ante

Photo: Even this deep in a major tournament, Phil Galfond takes his bad beat with grace.

Thomas Winters raises under the gun to 25,000, Jeremy Kottler calls from the cutoff, and Phil Galfond moves all in from the big blind for 261,000.

Winters tanks for about two minutes before he folds, and Kottler tanks for more than a minute before he calls with 1010. Galfond turns over KK, and he'll need it to hold to stay alive.

The board comes QJ2KA, and Kottler catches an ace-high straight to win the pot and eliminate Galfond in 23rd place. When the river card hit, Greg "FBT" Mueller simply says, "Sick."

Jeremy Kottler  -  730,000  (73 bb)
Phil Galfond  -  Out in 24th Place ($31,714)

Rather than getting up right away, Galfond politely moves all of his stacks forward to the dealer so they can be easily transferred to Kottler's stack. As he does this, Mueller says, "Even after a sick bad beat, this guy is still a gentleman. One of the biggest gentleman in the game."

KK v TT can't hold up and I out in 24th. Thanks for the support, guys!

— Phil Galfond (@PhilGalfond) December 8, 2012