WPT -- Bellagio Festa al Lago Main Event Day 5Freddy Deeb Leads Televised Final Table of Six |
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Eleven players, six spots.
More than half of the remaining field at the 2009 WPT Bellagio Festa al Lago championship would make the final table, but until then there was that pesky formality of determining which five would walk away disappointed.
Those poker warriors had already battled for four days, and they returned on Sunday expecting a short day of play as the blinds quickly shot up and forced the action. At first, the day moved along at a slow crawl, as the short-stacks continued to get lucky and stay in the hunt.
Finally, just as the first level of the day expired, Bellagio-dealer-turned-poker-player Larry Berg got the rest of his stack in with Q
J
against Tommy Vedes and his Q
J. The board came with three diamonds, and Berg took a bad beat to hit the rail in 11th place, earning $47,710.
The next to go was consummate professional Chris Bjorin, who got it in during a classic race situation holding big slick against Vedes and his pocket queens. The pocket pair held, and Bjorin was sent off into the casino, no doubt looking for the next tournament to begin. He picked up $47,710 for his 10th-place finish.
Short-stack Richard Sciuto was eliminated just a few hands later when his pocket nines ran into the pocket kings of Jason Lavallee. The board provided little help, and Sciuto walked away with $63,610 for his ninth-place finish.
Kido Pham was resilient for most of the day, picking his spots well and generally doing his best to annoy the other players on the short stack. Finally, he shoved over the top of a raise from Shawn Cunix, and Cunix made the call with A-Q, dominating Pham’s A-10. The flop, turn, and river came out clean, and Pham was eliminated in eighth place, banking $89,450.
The final bustout of the day belonged to Aaron Jones, who was caught making a move with K-8. Craig Crivello looked him up with pocket jacks, and he improved to a set to end the final-table bubble. Jones, who plays online high-stakes cash games as “aejones,” picked up a cool $129,210 for his seventh-place effort.
Here’s a look at the chip counts for the final six players, who will return on Monday at 4 p.m. PDT to crown a champion.
Seat 1: Tommy Vedes — 2,990,000
Seat 2: Jason Lavallee — 2,045,000
Seat 3: Craig Crivello — 2,570,000
Seat 4: Freddy Deeb — 3,840,000
Seat 5: Jason Burt — 1,375,000
Seat 6: Shawn Cunix — 3,670,000
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