The latest season of the World Poker Tour (WPT) is wrapping up with the Five Diamond World Poker Classic. The event attracted 716 players, pushing the prize pool up to almost $7 million. By the time it was over, Taylor Black was the last player standing.
His first-place finish added $1.2 million to his lifetime winnings, taking him to about $3.85 million in lifetime live poker tournament earnings.
Black Almost Unstoppable at the Final Table
Black was the dominant player at Sunday’s six hand final table with 17 million chips. That’s more than half of his chips. Only he had five million more chips than anyone else. There was no one else with even five million.
He could have beaten his closest competitor twice and would have still almost been in the lead. It seemed evident that Black would win, but he almost didn’t.
The final table was played at the HyperX Esports Arena at the Luxor. It went much as Black planned until it reached four-handed action.
Black still held a slight lead of about five million chips, even though three other players had beaten him. Gianluca Speranza raised the pre-flop to 400,000. After that, Black went all-in with A.J offsuit. Speranza called with A-K offsuit, but all the community cards were low, and Speranza doubled through Black for the chip lead.
Black fell there, eventually watching his pile shrink to four million. Speranza was worth over 10 million, and Lorenzo Lavis had more than nine million. The eventual winner went from top dog to the dog house in the blink of an eye.
Black Mounts a Return
When he hit the rail in seventh place, Bryn Kenney bubbled the final table. The final table of six was now set and included Black, Vik Shegal, Speranza, Lavis, Mohsin Charania, and David Kim.
Kim was the next to exit, although it took 41 hands for the final table to see eliminations.
It is possible to rise quickly in poker tournaments, just like one can easily sink. Trip 5s kept Black alive, and he kept his cool, doubling up through Speranza. This helped push his stack above 10 million. Black never looked back.
When the final heads-up battle rolled around, Black had rebuilt his stack, holding $19.15 million against Shegal’s 9.475 million. Shegal battled hard but couldn’t get over his hump.
Black raised to 500k and Shegal opted in for 7.575 million. Black called with A-K, dominating the A-8 held by Shegal. Black was almost done when the flop produced a King, sealing the deal.
Black took home his first WPT title with over $1.2 million in prize money. Shegal had to settle for $827,620 for his runner-up finish.
This tournament, with a $10,400 buy-in, attracted several big names. However, none of them survived.
Among the most notable players were Elio Fox, Markus Gonsalves, Matt Affleck, Erik Seidel, Darren Elias, Justin Bonomo, Chris Moorman, Nate Silver, and Alex Foxen. They may have fallen before the money this time, but they’ll all be back for more.
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