4th Annual Five-Star WPC - Day 5
It's the Final Countdown
Day 5 started of with $20,000 - $40,000 blinds with a $5,000 ante. 19 players and over $30,000,000 were in play.
4th Annual Five-Star World Poker Classic
No-Limit Hold'em Championship
Day 5 - Sunday April 23th, 2006
| Day 1A | Day 1B | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 |
The day started with a lot of action. Quite a few players were eliminated in the first hours of day 5 Surinder Sunar, Erica Schoenberg, Gary Maresh , Valentino Morella, Simon Moussa and Paul Wasicka all busted out early.
Patrick Antonius also busted out early in day 5. He raised to $170,000 preflop and Vanessa Rousso called. The flop came 10s-8s-5d. Antonius made a pot sized bet and Russo pushed all in. Antonius called within a fraction of a second and turned over two aces. He was now in good shape against Russos 10h-9h. But the turn showed a nine and the river did not show an ace nor did it pair the board. Antonius was out.
Cliff Josephy and Victor Ramdin, two players who played great throughout the tournament were the next players eliminated. The field was down to 10 players and they could now move to the final table.
Carlos Zambrano was the first player eliminated from the final table. He moved "all in" in the first hand. James Van Alstyne called him and showed two queens. Zambrano flipped over A-Q and he did not catch anything on the board.
Next to be eliminated was Chad Brown when he moved all in from the button with Js-5s and a relatively small sack. David Mathew called him with 2c-2s. The board came: 10c-10s-2d-jd-7s. Chad Brown was out. David Mathew also eliminated the next player when his A-K held up against Espen Saltne's A-J. Now there were 8 players left.
After this the game turned a bit slow. Very few flops were seen and it seemed like no one wanted to risk being the next person eliminated. But finally something happened; James Van Alstyne raised to $485,000 preflop, Vanessa Russo pushed all her chips into the middle.She only had $1,475,000 left. Van Alstyne called and it turned out he was in terrible shape with his A-J against Russo's A-K. But when the jack fell on the turn and the river was blank Russo had to stand up and leave the tournament.
Now there were only 6 players left: James Van Alstyne with the chip lead followed by Joe Bartholdi, Claus Nielsen and David Matthew. In the final six we also had two short stacks owned by Roland De Wolfe and Men "The Master" Nguyen.
Arthur Crowson
Mason Raymond's Top 3
1. The Final Table - Finally, we have reached the final table. Men "The Master" Nguyen is the most famous name among the last six, but he is short stacked, and I don't think he will win. At this stage I would put my money on the chip leader James van Alstyne, or the Dane Claus Nielsen, who have played some great poker. Nielsen qualified for the event through a Super Satellite, and everything seems to be going his way at the moment. Only one thing is certain - it will be an exciting day tomorrow.
2. Vanessa Rousso - So close, yet so far away - Vanessa Rousso got eliminated in 7th place on a really Bad Beat. She moved all-in with As-Ks, and got called by James Van Alstyne who held Ad-Jd. A jack came on the turn, and Rousso misses the televised final table with the smallest of margins. So, there won't be a woman at the final after all. Damn! Erica Schoenberg, who was in 7th place before Day 5 was eliminated in 16th place.
3. Antonius eliminated with Aces - Vanessa Rousso flopped a pair of 10's and put Patrik Antonius all-in. The Fin quickly called with pocket Aces. However, another 10 came on the turn and Antonius was knocked out of the tournament. I don't know how many times I have seen pocket Aces being broken this week, but it is a lot. It's absolutely incredible, but as they say - that's poker. To be on the safe side I checked out one of the official WPT cards decks, but everything seemed to be in order.
Interview with Vanessa Rousso
You almost made the final table. How do you feel now?
- Miserable. Going out with A-K against A-J is a nightmare.
You would have been in a really good position had you doubled up.
- I know. That just makes things worse.
Are you pleased with your performance in the tournament?
- Yes, of course. This is my greatest achievement in poker so far.
Better luck next time, Vanessa.
- Thank you
