Day 5 of the $25,000 WPT World Championship has come to and end, and within five hours of play a final table was established. The day started with 18 players, and Faraz Jaka was leading the pack with 3,117,000 in chips. Play started at 10,000/20,000 blinds and 3,000 ante.
Tony Cousineau had been the short stack for the last few days of play, but he was able to squeeze into the money with 60,000 in chips which was only three big blinds. He shipped it on the first hand of play with Ts 9h, and Nikolay Evdakov called with Ah 4c. The board ran out As Tc 5c Kc 8d to take Cousineau out in 18th place. Cousineau took home $47,033 for his efforts.
In a wicked turn of events, Faraz Jaka went from the chip leader going into Day 5 to out in 14th place. He lost a big pot early in the day, and then David Williams finished him off. Currently, he is still he leader in points for the WPT player of the year, but the matter is now out of his hands as Shawn Buchanan and Scotty Nguyen can beat him with a 1st place finish, and Phil Hellmuth can tie him with a 1st place finish.
J.J. Liu was the last woman standing, and during level 21 when the blinds were 12,000/24,000 with a 3,000 ante she made her move. She shoved for 213,000 on the button, and after some deliberation David Benyamine made the call from the small blind. Liu turned over Qc Qs against the 7c 7s of David Benyamine. The flop gave Benyamine some hope when an 8d 6s 5d flopped. The turn was the 9c that Benyamine needed to hit a straight, and Liu couldn’t catch back up. She took home a respectable $51,736 in winnings.
Day 6 will be exciting with the final table resuming play at 15,000/30,000 with a 4,000 ante. John O’Shea will be the chip leader with 3,174,000, and Phil Hellmuth will be the short stack at the table with 839,000. Here are the seating assignments and chip counts for the final table:
Seat 1. Scotty Nguyen – 2,637,000
Seat 2. Phil Hellmuth – 839,000
Seat 3. Nikolay Evdakov – 922,000
Seat 4. John O’Shea – 3,174,000
Seat 5. Billy Baxter – 2,429,000
Seat 6. Eric Baldwin – 2,130,000
Seat 7. David Williams – 2,454,000
Seat 8. David Benyamine – 2,561,000
Seat 9. Shawn Buchanan – 1,087,000
Seat 10. Cliff Josephy – 1,269,000
