382 players turned up, each paying the $10,000 entry fee, which made the prize pool $3,781,500, which is a record for a WPT event. It took three days to narrow the field down to six, the final 6 were:
In seat 1, with $701,000, Adam Schoenfeld.
In seat 2, with $219,000, Mike Keohan.
In seat 3, with $276,000, David Benyamine.
In seat 4, with $1,148,000, Antonio Esfandiari.
In seat 5, with $452,000, Bill Gazes.
In seat 6, with $1,026,000, Quoc Al Vinh.
Keohan, in the small blind, held a pair of J’s, and pushed it in for $297,000. Benyamine called, the flop came K Q J, giving David the nut straight draw, an A on the turn, and a 4 on the river sent him home, twice the victim of big blows from Keohan, the sole amateur in the bunch. Benyamine finished in 6th place, with a payout of $132,355.
Keohan, in first position, bumped it $125,000, and Schoenfeld pushed in all of his $650,000 on Ks 3s. He was crushed when Keohan turned over Kd Kc, and he was sent hime in 5th place when the board went Qh 4s 3h, 5h, 4c, taking $170,170 with him though.
Antonio found Qd Qc, and raised a moderate $170,000. Gazes quickly pushed all-in, for $570,000, with Ac 8h. Vinny, with As Jc, was suspicious of Bill’s quick move, and called. Antonio then came over the top of both of them, and moved all-in, a 9h 8s 3h 3d Jh board, sent Gazes out in 4th with a payout of $226,890.
Keohan went all-in $250,000 with Qd Jd. The pros, with identical K 7 offsuit, both called, and checked the board all the way to a 9c 9d 5c 6d, they chopped the pot and sent Keohan to the rail in 3rd place with $359,245.
Antonio looked down to find pocket Aces, and came out with a sneaky $150,000 raise, making it look like a move. Vinny then went all-in with Q 4 offsuit. Antonio couldn’t call fast enough, raising up his titan of a hand for the appreciative crowd to see.
When the flop came K 9 2 rainbow, Vinny was drawing thin, and when the turn came 3 he was drawing dead. With that, Antonio Esfandiari, became the WPT’s latest instant millionaire, cashing out a record $1,399,135, and a $25,000 seat at the WPT Championships. Vinh may have finished 2nd, but his $718,485 wasn’t to bad.
- Thomas Hardy
