The Magician's Reappearing Act

Level 34: 200,000-400,000, 25,000 ante

For Antonio Esfandiari, his 32^nd birthday was more than just a yearly milestone—it was a turning point for one of the World Poker Tour’s first big stars, as he returned to the tour’s limelight for the first time in seven years and emerged a little older, a little wiser, and a lot wealthier.

Esfandiari developed a reputation for building up stacks, making runs, but coming up short of the final table. This time around, things were different for the man known as The Magician from Day 1. He shot to the chip lead within the first two levels, stayed at or near the top of the counts for four days, avoided disaster on Day 5, and rallied to victory at the final table.

When the day began, Vanessa Rousso was on top and her stack only got bigger when she picked up pocket queens against Ted Lawson’s pocket nines to eliminate Lawson in sixth place. From that point forward, the chips started to move around though, as the rock-solid final table line-up battle in every pot with several players forced to make tough decisions for all their chips. Kirk Morrison made a couple of big laydowns that left him short on chips and he took a stand, calling Andrew Robl’s all-in on an A1059 holding AJ for top pair. Unfortunately for Morrison, Robl flopped a set of fives, so Morrison was drawing dead and out in fifth place.

John Racener ran into similar troubles, never finding much momentum at the final table and eventually finding himself short on chips. He open-shoved with Q8, Esfandiari called with KQ and Racener was the next to go in fourth place. 

Once play got down to the final three, things started to get really crazy. Robl had caught up to chip leader Rousso earlier in the match, but he took hold of the chip lead thanks to several big pots like Morrison’s elimination and a couple big battles with Rousso. All the momentum appeared to be going his way, and while Esfandiari was treading water, Rousso’s stack was slowly shrinking. She picked up a crucial double up though, surviving a thrilling all-in. She got it in with A-Q to Robl’s A-K and took the lead on a queen-high flop. Robl retaliated with a king on the turn, but a dramatic queen on the river gave Rousso the pot.

That hand gave Rousso new life and she battled long and hard, but she ended up exiting in third place. With the blinds escalating and her stack dwindling, Rousso made a move with Q2, ran into Esfandiari’s AQ, and hit the rail.

The heads-up match came down the birthday boy and his young friend and felt more like a frat house nickel cash game than a high stakes showdown. With virtually all of the audience cheering for both players, it was a lively and friendly vibe not often seen in the high pressure situation of a heads-up WPT battle.  Things eventually got a little more serious though, as the two battled back and forth, swapping the chip lead several times and keeping the match close.

In the end, the rising blinds took their toll on Robl, as Esfandiari started to pull away. Running low on chips, Robl moved all-in over the top of Esfandiari’s raise with Q10 and Esfandiari called with KJ. The dramatic flop fell AK6 and while Esfandiari flopped a pair, Robl had flush and straight outs to give him a double up. The 6 on the turn only helped Esfandiari and, with the [5s[] on the river, the crowd erupted in cheers and applause as The Magician pulled off an impressive feat—a second WPT title.

Here are the final table results from the Bellagio Five Diamond World Poker Classic:

1^st:  Antonio Esfandiari - $870,124
2^nd: Andrew Robl - $549,003
3^rd: Vanessa Rousso - $358,964
4^th: John Racener - $232,271
5^th: Kirk Morrison - $168,924
6^th: Ted Lawson - $126,693