664 Players started about a week ago to decide who would become WPT 5 Diamond Doyle Brunson World Poker Classic champion. The prize pool of $9,661,200 created a first place prize of $2,482,605 which outside of the World Series of Poker and the WPT World Championship is the biggest prize in tournament poker history.
The final 6 starting by seat position was Ken Rosen, Ted Kearly, Jordan Rich, Eugene Katchalov, Ryan Daut, and David “Devilfish” Ulliott. There was a huge discrepancy in chips though as Katchalov had 8,360,000, Rich had 6,585,000 the next 4 all within 1.1 and 1.9 million and Daut coming in severely short-stacked at 330,000.
6th place was decided after the very first hand with Daut moving all in with AJ and being called by Kearly with pocket 8’s. Kearly flopped a set and Daut went home with $192,715.
At this point it would seem a foregone conclusion that Rich and Katchalov would wear down the others and fight it out for the title but that would not be the case. It was as early as the third hand that Rich raised the button and was called by Katchalov from the small blind. The flop cam Q-J-8 rainbow, Rich bet out 320,000 and Katchalov raised to 840,000, Rich re-raised to 1,620,000 and after some time mulling it over, Katchalov made it 2,640,000 and Rich mucked. We will have to wait for TV to see what each player was playing.
It was just 13 hands later that they were at it again. Katchalov raised under the gun to 300,000, Rich re-raised to 1 million. Katchalov moved all in and was called by Rich. This time though we know what they had, Katchalov had AA and Rich JJ. No help came for Rich and he was sent home 5th with $289,070 and gave Katchalov a huge chip advantage.
Rosen was the next player to be eliminated in 4th place and a $433,675 cash prize. Unfortunately for the rest of the table it was Katchalov that took him out and now had a monster chip stack of 15 million.
After a slight dent in the Katchalov armor came when Kearly pushed with QJ and doubled up through the chip leader, Katchalov got back on track soon after eliminating David “Devilfish” Ulliott. The Devilfish finished third for a win of $674,500.
It was now heads up between Katchalov and Kearly. Kearly had a long way to go if he was to fight his way back into contention. The chip count going into heads up play was:
Katchalov  16,755,000
Kearly  3,175,000
It didn’t take long and Katchalov road that big chip lead all the way to the title. Kearly finished second and earned a respectable $1,252,640 for his efforts. Katchalov’s win earned him $2,482,605, a $25,500 seat in the 2008 WPT World Championship and of course the title of champion for winning the WPT 5 Diamond Doyle Brunson World Poker Classic. There is one more distinction for Eugene Katchalov, he set the record for winning a final table with just 53 hands played. The record he broke was ironically Doyle Brunson’s set in the 2004 WPT Legends of Poker.
WPT 5 Diamond Doyle Brunson World Poker Classic Final Results
Eugene Katchalov  $2,482,605
Ted Kearly  $1,252,640
David Ulliott  $674,500
Ken Rosen  $433,675
Jordan Rich  $289,070
Ryan Daut  $192,715
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