He may not be the biggest name in the game, but he certainly could be a star in the making given the outgoing personality of Yi Fang, who finished Day 4 of the Five Diamond World Poker Classic at Bellagio leading the final 33 players remaining in the event. Fang steadily chipped up throughout…
He may not be the biggest name in the game, but he certainly could be a star in the making given the outgoing personality of Yi Fang, who finished Day 4 of the Five Diamond World Poker Classic at Bellagio leading the final 33 players remaining in the event.
Fang steadily chipped up throughout the latter half of the day, taking a large pot of Joshua Ladines to move into seven-figure territory and take the chip lead. He didn’t relinquish it from that point forward, ending the day with 1,311,000. The only other player to end the day over a million is Isaac Baron, who finished the day with 1,012,000.
The day began with 78 hopefuls and the money bubble looming with 54 players earning a payday. David Sands was the unfortunate bubble boy, exiting in 55th place, ensuring the rest of the field a payday.
Some of the notables who cashed include Dan O’Brien (53rd), Ben Tollerene (50th), Cornel Cimpan (48th), Darren Elias (47th), Jeremy Ausmus (44th), and Kathy Liebert (36th).
While it sounds like many big names headed for the door or hopped into Day 1 of the $100,000 Alpha8 event, there are stil plenty of notable names and big stories beyond just Yi Fang.
For example, Season III Five Diamond Champ Daniel Negreanu is still in the hunt for his third WPT title and the chance to become the first player to ever win the same WPT event twice. He finished the day with 378,000, which is below average, but still plenty of chips for the Hall of Famer to work with.
Other Champions Club members in the field include Jared Jaffee (967,000), Keven Stammen (932,000), Will Failla (496,000), Mohsin Charania (230,000), and Anthony Zinno (227,000). Several other notables are in the field too, including Celine Dion’s husband Rene Angelil, Dan Bilzerian’s brother Adam Bilzerian, and two German high rollers, Fabian Quoss and Tobias Reinkemeier.
There are several young players in the hunt too, including former WPT One to Watch Aaron Massey (606,000) and current BLUFF.com Ones to Watch Garrett Greer (979,000).
The Skrill last-longer contest seems as though it will come down to the wire, with six players still in contention. Dan Heimiller has the best shot of the group, as he ended the day with 816,000 after spending a chunk of the afternoon as chip leader, but Brandon Adams (who won his way into this event via a DraftKings satellite), Shaun Suller, Joshua Ladines, Chane Kampanatsanyakron, and Millard Hale, but Hale will be climbing an uphill battle after losing a huge pot to Ryan Fee on one of the last pots of the night to end with 51,000 chips.
Here are the chip couts and seat assignments for the 33 Day 5 players who will be back in action at 12pm PT on Friday.
At the end of Day 1 at the first-ever World Poker Tour Alpha8 to take place in Las Vegas we have 30 players that bagged up chips from the 48 entries today at Bellagio. Leading the way among those survivors is Noah Schwartz (pictured above) with 1,095,000. Today was also notable since it saw the largest WPT Alpha8 field ever with 48 entries. That number can even grow tomorrow, because registration is open until the start of Level 9, about 2:15 PM PST.
There are a few other big names near the top of the leader board, including Phil Laak (783,000), Jason Koon (747,500), and Jake Schindler (736,500). Eight other players bagged up more than half a million tonight. That Elite Eight includes Alec Torelli, Daniel Cates, Tom Marchese, Scott Seiver, Brian Rast, WPT Season XIII Player of the Year leader Darren Elias, and recent WPT Alpha8 London Champion Daniel Colman.
The eighth player on that list is a little less familiar than some of the others, but he might have the most interesting story of any player in the tournament today. Jason Les was sitting in a coffe shop in Costa Mesa, California earlier today when he saw that 30 players had entered this tournament. Les then decided to drive to Vegas and join the fun. Les bagged up 668,000 at the end of play.
Another player with an interesting tale to share in today’s field is Scott Henry. He usually plays in small games back home in Michigan, but after watching the WPT Alpha8 on television Henry decided he wanted to play here in Las Vegas. Henry bagged up 202,000 at the end of play tonight.
We lost just a few players today that didn’t decide to re-enter, but they could just as likely be back in action tomorrow. The fallen included Alan Schein, Amit Makhija, Andrew Lichtenberger, Bill Klein, Byron Kaverman, Cliff Josephy, Curt Kohlberg, Daniel Perper, David Benyamine, Kathy Lehne, Ray Faltinsky, and Yevgeniy Timoshenko.
On Friday, action will shift over to the WPT Alpha8 television set for Day 2 in this $100,000 buy-in high-roller tournament. Cards will get back into the air at Noon PST, and you can follow all of the action in live coverage from the WPT Live Updates team.
