4th Annual Five-Star WPC - Day 6
Joe Bartholdi WPTChampion
Now the heat is on. 6 final players and the TV-cameras are turned on. One could see on the players' faces that they could smell the $3,760,165 first price.
4th Annual Five-Star World Poker Classic
No-Limit Hold'em Championship
Day 6 - Monday April 24th, 2006
| Day 1A | Day 1B | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 |
Men Nguyen came into the final table with a small stack and he had to make a move quite fast. When he got pocket 10's he obviously pushed all in but unfortunately he ran into Claus Nielsen's pocket Queens. Men the Master failed to improve and were eliminated in 6th place.
On the 27th hand of the final table James Van Alstyne decided to move all in. Ronald De Wolfe called with a bit over $1,765,00 and turned over pocket kings. He couldn't be in much better shape and should easily beat Van Alstyne's Ks 6s. The flop looked a bit scary though, it came 9h-7d-5s and Van Alstyne caught a straight draw. But the turn and the river did not make a straight and Van Alstyne was left with only $10,000 in chips.
In the next hand Van Alstyne was all in just on the antes. Actually he had a premium hand that time, A-K, but Joe Bartholdi drew out on him with J-T. Van Alstyne was eliminated in 5th place earning $439,375.
In the 54th hand of the final table Claus Nielsen had the button, everyone folded to him and he raised the pot to $1,100,000. Joe Bartholdi on the big blind called. The flop came: 9c-7d-2d and both players checked. The turn was 7c and Bertholdi bet $1,000,000. Nielsen called. The river was Qd and Bartholdi checked, Nielsen bet $2,000,000 and Bartholdi moved all in. Nielsen called with A-Q for top pair but Barholdi turned over Kd-9d for flush. After this interesting hand Nielsen was eliminated.
Now there were only 3 players left. Bartholdi with $18,000,000 and david Mathew an Roland De Wolfe with about $6,000,000 each.
The next player eliminated was Roland de Wolfe. He decided to push all his chips in after a $900,000 raise from Bartholdi. Bartholdi called and flipped over pocket queens. De Wolfe showed a pair of sixes which did not get any help from the community cards. He was eliminated in 3rd place.
When the tournament went heads up Joe Bartholdi held a 3:1 chip lead on David Matthew. After a few of hands Matthew worked himself up, and after about 100 hands at the final table they were almost even. It was hard to predict the outcome of this heads-up battle.
But after hand 116 the tournament was over. David Matthew had the button and limped in. Bartholdi checked and the flop came: Ah-9c-8h. Bartholdi checked and Matthew put $800,000 in the pot. Bartholdi raised it up to $2,800,000 and Matthew pushed all in. Bartholdi called with 9-5 for second pair. And Matthew showed Th-4h for a flush draw. No heart came and the pair of 9's held up.That hand concluded a great poker tournament at the Bellagio. Bartholdi could cash in a whopping $3,760,165 and Matthew got a decent consolidation price of $1,903,950.
Arthur Crowson
Mason Raymond's Top 3
1. Joe Bartholdi - The Champ! I didn't even notice the guy until day 5 when he suddenly was number two in the chip count. Bartholdi was in command of the final table right from the start. Claus Nielsen knocked out Men "The Master" in 6th place early on, but from there on it was Bartholdi's show. He eliminated James Van Alstyne with a pair of Jacks; he busted Clause Nielsen with a King high flush; he knocked out Roland de Wolfe with a set of Queens. And heads-up, he never really gave poor David Matthew a chance.
2. The Final Hand - I've seen a lot of final hands, and this one was nothing special, but of course it's still worth mentioning. Bartholdi flopped middle pair (9's), and Matthew flopped a flush draw. All the chips ended up in the middle, but Matthew didn't get the help he was hoping for, and the tournament was over. 9-5 is not a very impressive hand, but it was enough for Bartholdi this time. David Matthew made the mistake of not raising and thus let his opponent into the hand. I'm pretty sure that Bartholdi wouldn't have called if Matthews had raised.
3. $3,760,165 - Nuf said!
