WPT Five Diamond Poker Classic Day One: Three Former WSOP Main Event Champs Big Stacked

3 min read

Day One of the $10,400 buy-in WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic at Bellagio concluded Tuesday night with three former WSOP Main Event champions – Martin Jacobson, Joe McKeehen, Joe Hachem – bagging big stacks. Alex Foxen also finished with a sizable stack and looks to put the finishing touch on GPI Player of the Year.

WSOP Main Event
Three former WSOP Main Event champions went home after Day One at WPT Five Diamond with massive stacks. (Image: wpt.com)

A total of 697 players – 417 of whom advanced to Day Two – have participated. Registration will remain open until after the fourth level of the day on Wednesday.

Last year’s WPT Five Diamond had 605 Day One entries and finished with 812 players. Ryan Tosoc, who finished runner-up in 2016, won it for $1.95 million. He bagged 90,000 chips on Tuesday, well above average stack. If he makes the final table, it could be considered the most impressive feat in World Poker Tour history.

WSOP Main Event Winners Crushing It

Milos Skrbic leads the way heading into Day Two, which begins at noon PT, with 205,500 chips. But in third place is 2013 world champion Martin Jacobson (186,400). And not far behind him is 2015 WSOP Main Event champion Joe McKeehen (160,500) and the 2005 king of poker Joe Hachem (130,000).

Other Notable WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic Day One Chip Counts

  • Dan Shak 156,500
  • Alex Foxen 144,600
  • Jason Koon 121,000
  • Erik Seidel 107,000
  • Mike Sexton 85,000
  • David Peters 80,000
  • Brian Rast 75,000
  • Kristen Bicknell 70,000
  • Antonio Esfandiari 56,000
  • Maria Ho 50,000
  • Darren Elias 50,000
  • Phil Hellmuth 34,000
  • Anthony Zinno 20,000

Two other Main Event winners bagged and tagged on Tuesday, both finishing at above starting stack. The reigning champion – John Cynn – left with 57,000, while the 2017 world champion Scott Blumstein finished at 54,000.

Also among the Day One survivors are CardsChat ambassadors Ryan Laplante (102,000) and Jeff Gross (88,000).

Foxen Eyes GPI POY

The 2018 GPI Player of the Year could come down to the WPT Five Diamond. Alex Foxen, David Peters, Justin Bonomo, and Stephen Chidwick, the top four competitors, all bagged chips on Day One.

Foxen leads the way with 3,836.72 points but the other aforementioned players are all within 150 points, which means his lead isn’t safe. That is, of course, unless he final tables this event while his nearest competitors fail to cash. In that case, he’ll likely have POY wrapped up.

Foxen’s girlfriend, Kristen Bicknell, also bagged a decent stack on Tuesday (70,000) as she seeks a second straight Female Player of the Year award.

Bicknell, a Partypoker ambassador, has nearly $2.3 million in lifetime live tournament cashes.

Payouts for the WPT Five Diamond won’t be announced until registration closes. But it’s safe to assume the winner, and possibly runner-up, will take home over $1 million.



Related Posts

Did you know about our poker forum? Discuss all the latest poker news in the CardsChat forum

Popular Stories