Five Diamond World Poker Classic 2017
- Five Diamond World Poker Classic 2017 Game
- Five Diamond World Poker Classic 2017 Results
- Five Diamond World Poker Classic 2017 Winners
- Five Diamond World Poker Classic 2017 Leaderboard
Alex Foxen has won the 2019 World Poker Tour Five Diamond World Poker Classic $10,400 buy-in no-limit hold’em main event at Bellagio. The 28-year-old poker pro from Cold Spring Harbor, NY earned $1,694,995 for defeating a record-setting field of 1,035 total entries in this event, which was up from a previous high of 1,001 entries in 2018. Incredibly, Foxen had finished as the runner-up in this same tournament in 2017. He managed to battle his way back to heads-up play just two years later, and this time around emerged victorious with his first WPT main event title.
“It’s surreal – it’s kind of hard to put into words,” Foxen told WPT reporters after coming out on top. “It feels amazing. The last time I got to this spot I was a little bit disappointed in how I played heads-up. It’s just incredible to get the opportunity again and be fortunate enough to pull out the win.”
“Winning the WPT trophy in this event particularly is definitely the biggest thing to me. It’s the most significant tournament win to me so far. It’s awesome,' Foxen continued. '[The] WPT is probably the most prestigious tour besides the WSOP, and it just feels amazing to win this one because it’s just one of the biggest, toughest ones.”
In addition to the title and the money, Foxen was also awarded 2,400 Card Player Player of the Year points for taking down this event. This was his second title and 19th final-table finish of 2019. The huge score, made with just over a week remaining in the year, was enough to see Foxen climb into second place in the 2019 POY race standings, which are sponsored by Global Poker. With 7,134 total points and $5,687,955 in year-to-date earnings, Foxen currently sits just 210 points behind the current leader Stephen Chidwick.
The final day of this event with Foxen sitting in second chip position behind Danny Park with just six players remaining. Foxen was able to win a big hand against Park early on to supplant him atop the leaderboard. He furthered his advantage by scoring the first knockout of the day, with his 99 beating out the KQ of Jonathan Jaffe on a 101028J runout. The WPT champion was sent to the rail in sixth place, earning $355,125 for his deep run in this event.
- Ryan Tosoc Wins WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic for $1,958,065 Written by Teemu - Monday, December 11, 2017, Live poker Picture courtesy: World Poker Tour The week-long 2017 World Poker Tour.
- 2017 WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic - Organizer: Bellagio 3600 South Las Vegas Boulevard, Las Vegas, NV 89109, USA, Las Vegas, United States.
Despite starting the day with the largest stack, World Series of Poker bracelet winner Danny Park was the next to be eliminated. During five-handed action he lost a preflop race with pocket three’s against Toby Joyce’s ace-king to fall to the bottom of the chip counts. Not long after that he got all-in with 1010 against the AQ of Joyce. Park remainined ahead through the flop and turn, but the Q on the river gave Joyce the superior pair and the pot. Park took home $465,780 as the fifth-place finisher.
Four-handed action continued for around ten orbits. Peter Neff had begun the day as the clear short stack, but had managed to stay afloat long enough to secure two pay jumps. Neff’s run came to an end when he shoved all-in from under-the-gun with KQ and got looked up by Seth Davies, who had picked up AJ on the button. The board came down A9768 and Davies hit a pair of aces to eliminate Neff in fourth place ($617,480).
2.5 Day 5 Ryan Tosoc outlasted 812 players and bested his last year’s runner-up finish in this same event to claim his first WPT title when he won the 2017 World Poker Tour Five Diamond World Poker Classic for $1,958,065. The penultimate day of the 2017 World Poker Tour’s Five Diamond World Poker Classic is set for play on Sunday afternoon at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. After almost a week of play Sean Perry, the.
With just three players remaining, Foxen had already begun to pull away from the pack. Following Neff’s elimination, he sat with over 25 million in chips for more than 120 big blinds, while Seth Davies and Toby each had around 35-40 big blinds.
Davies and Joyce managed to find a few double-ups through Foxen, but he still was the clear leader by the time the next knockout took place. Davies got his last chips in with A5, only to run into the AQ of Foxen. Davies was unable to come from behind and was sent to the rail with $877,285. This was the second-largest score of Davies’ career, and it brought his lifetime earnings to $7,693,891.
With that Foxen took more than a 2.5:1 chip lead into heads-up play against Joyce, who was looking to become the first-ever Irish WPT main event champion. He quickly built that advantage to more than 4:1 by the time the final cards were dealt. On the ninth hand of heads-up play, Foxen limped in from the button with AJ and Joyce checked his option holding J9. The flop came down J53 and Joyce checked. Foxen bet 400,000, only to have Joyce check-raise to 1,100,000. Foxen three-bet to 2,000,000 and Joyce made the call. The K on the turn prompted Joyce to check. Foxen moved all-in, having Joyce well covered. Joyce made the call, only to find he was in rough shape. The 4 on the river secured the pot and the title for Foxen. Joyce earned $1,120,040 as the runner-up finisher.
Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded at the final table:
| Place | Player | Payout | POY Points |
| 1 | Alex Foxen | $1,694,995 | 2400 |
| 2 | Toby Joyce | $1,120,040 | 2000 |
| 3 | Seth Davies | $877,285 | 1600 |
| 4 | Peter Neff | $617,480 | 1200 |
| 5 | Daniel Park | $465,780 | 1000 |
| 6 | Jonathan Jaffe | $355,125 | 800 |
| 7 | Timo Kamphues | $273,695 | 600 |
| 9 | Joseph Serock | $213,225 | 400 |
| 9 | Eric Afriat | $168,005 | 200 |
Winner photo credit: Joe Giron / WPT.
Five Diamond World Poker Classic 2017 Game
Contents
- 1 The Final Table
- 2 Early Tournament Highlights
The event was once again held at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, Nevada attracting both poker’s elite and amateurs from around the world who came to battle it out for their chance to enter the WPT Champion’s Club.
After five long days of play, the televised final table was set to get underway.
The Final Table
Seat 1: Mike Del Vecchio (4,970,000)
Seat 2: Sean Perry (7,650,000)
Seat 3: Ryan Tosoc (5,105,000)
Seat 4: Ajay Chabra (3,065,000)
Seat 5: Richard Kirsch (2,620,000)
Seat 6: Alex Foxen (955,000)
The first to leave the bright lights was Richard Kirsch, who made a WPT final table back in Season VI. His fate was sealed when his pocket tens were looked up by Mike Del Vecchio‘s pocket queens.
The next elimination came when Ajay Chabra failed to turn his flush draw into the real thing against the ace-high of Sean Perry, the start of day chip leader. But the momentum didn’t last when Perry found himself busting in fourth-place.
It was the only WPT Champions Club member at the final table, Del Vecchio who would leave in third place when he his king-jack failed to improve against Tosoc’s ace-queen.
That left Tosoc and Alex Foxen both having the experience to pull off a win. But this day seemed to have Tosoc’s name written all over it.
On the final hand of the day, Tosoc went to the flop with queen-ten and was well behind Foxen’s ace-ten. It was Tosco who found a straight on the turn and was lucky enough to avoid a queen on the river which would have made Foxen a bigger straight.
Foxen’s $1,134,202 second-place prize is more than double his career earnings to date. No doubt he will look back at 2017 as the year he made his mark in the poker world.
As for Tosoc, he just tried to stay focused and not let the enormity of the situation get the better of him.
“Last year I wasn’t very nervous. I had some nervousness last year, but this year, going back-to-back I mean there’s no nervousness whatsoever.”
The Final Table Results
1st Place: Ryan Tosoc for $1,958,065
2nd Place: Alex Foxen $1,134,202
3rd Place: Mike Del Vecchio $752,196
4th Place: Sean Perry $504,090
5th Place: Ajay Chabra for $350,500
6th Place: Richard Kirsch for $271,736
Early Tournament Highlights
Here are some of the highlights leading up to the final table.
Day 1
On Day 1, the most prominent story might have been the long lines. The day ended with the tournament clock registering 600 entries and alternates still waiting for a seat. About 550 of those 600 players advanced to Day 2 including chip leader Brandon Meyers (152,700), Gregory Back (130,400), Eric Baldwin (114,700), and Ray Pulford (109,000).
You could also find WPT Commentator, Tony Dunst, and last season’s champion James Romero both taking just over starting stacks into the next day.
Day 2
The second day of play started with an alternate list of about 85 people, ensuring another record-setting event for the WPT when registration closed later in the day. And sure enough, they did hit that record when the final tally came in at 812 players.
A healthy prize pool of $7.876 million was announced with both first and second places earning over a $1 million.
Five Diamond World Poker Classic 2017 Results
As Meyers bagged the chip lead for the second day in a row, he spoke to the WPT about what it takes to stay focused.
Five Diamond World Poker Classic 2017 Winners
“Having patience and realizing its a long tournament. You can’t win it on the first, second, or even third day. Try to take advantage of the good situations that arise.”
There are 320 players and plenty of big names that earned a ticket to Day 3 and joining Meyers as the tournament continues to whittle the field towards a champion.
All eyes were on the remaining three-time WPT champs, Gus Hansen (118,700), Darren Elias (214,700), and Chino Rheem, who holds just over a starting stack. Other former WPT champions that made it through to Day 3 include Daniel Strelitz (310,900), Anthony Gregg (225,600), Taylor Paur (166,000), Mike Del Vecchio (155,100) and Kevin Eyster (136,700).
Day 3
Meyers reign as chip leader came to an end when Blake Bohn made a surge towards to the top of the leaderboard late in Day 3 when his ace-king held against Rainer Kempe‘s ace-queen. As a result, Kempe was eliminated, and Bohn had some playing chips.
Bohn has found himself in the money seven times in past WPT events and even made a final table at the Season XIII WPT Borgata Poker Open, but has yet to claim a title.
There was still plenty of competition from WPT Champions Club members standing between Bohn and his first win including Matt Giannetti (549,000), Jared Jaffee (422,500), Tony Gregg (403,500) and WPT Player of the Year, Benjamin Zamani (132,000).
The day ended with 90 players, only 81 of which would make the money.
Day 4
Day 4 began with a quest to cash. Nine players would need to take their leave before the remaining players would earn a paycheck.
It took 19 hands of hand-for-hand play for the bubble to burst when Steffen Sontheimer and Ben Zamani were all in.
Zamani held ace-king and dominated Sontheimer’s king-queen. But it was Sontheimer who found a pair when his queen hit the flop sending Zamani home empty-handed in 82nd place.
At the end of the day, it was Ajay Chabra, with only two live cashes for a total of $39,000 to his name, who topped the leaderboard. But all eyes were on Ryan Tosoc as the idea of a back-to-back final table began to seem like a real possibility with only 18 players left.
Day 5
Five Diamond World Poker Classic 2017 Leaderboard
As you would expect, Day 5 was action-packed as the final 18 attempted to work their way to a seat at the final table representing the largest field in WPT history.
It only took a little over six hours of play for the final table to be solidified.
And of course, sitting right there second in chips was last year’s second-place finisher, Ryan Tosoc.
Tosoc has a special place in his heart for Bellagio, saying, “I just run good here. I feel so confident playing here. It doesn’t matter what I have in the hand; I just feel really locked in here.”
And of course, you know by now that Tosoc pulled off an almost unimaginable feat by besting last year’s result with a win.
Tosoc said, “It feels unreal. It kind of feels like I’m in a dream right now.”
Lucky for Tosoc the dream is real, and this win puts his live career earnings at $3,481,973. Now, that’s something to dream about.
Lead photo courtesy of WPT Flickr page.