The 2022 Five Diamond World Poker Clasic at Bellagio kicked off on the finish of the primary week of October. The competition is targeted across the marquee $5 million assured $10,400 buy-in World Poker Tour primary match, however there also are various excessive curler occasions on be offering. Four such high-stakes poker tournaments have already concluded, every received by means of a highly-accomplished skilled.
The first excessive curler at the time table used to be a $25,000 buy-in no-limit dangle’em event that ran on Saturday, Oct. 8. The match drew a small however difficult box of 9 entries, making a prize pool of $225,000.
In the top, two-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner and longtime Card Player columnist Steve Zolotow got here away with the identify, defeating bracelet winner Mikita Badziakouski heads-up to protected the identify and the highest prize of $135,000. This used to be the fourth-largest rating of Zolotow’s storied profession. It greater his lifetime event income to greater than $3.4 million.
Badziakouski used to be awarded $90,000 because the runner-up, rising his lifetime general to only shy of $40.6 million. This used to be his tenth PokerGO Tour money of the yr, with two wins and greater than $4.2 million in certified income. The 54 PGT issues he earned for this efficiency have been sufficient to look him climb into 9th position at the general leaderboard.
| Place | Player | Earnings |
| 1 | Steve Zolotow | $135,000 |
| 2 | Mikita Badziakouski | $90,000 |
The 2d excessive curler at the time table didn’t run, however the 0.33 did. A complete of 15 entries have been made within the $10,000 buy-in no-limit dangle’em match, making a $150,000 prize pool.
The most sensible 3 finishers in the long run divvied up that cash, with the most important percentage going to three-time bracelet winner and WPT champion Nick Schulman. Schulman lower a heads-up care for contemporary Poker Masters Purple Jacket winner Sean Winter that noticed him protected the identify and $68,256. Schulman now sits simply shy of $15 million in lifetime cashes. He has made the cash in 9 occasions because the get started of September, with the ones cashes by myself accounting for $585,000 of his profession general.
Winter earned $57,744 because the runner-up, bringing his lifetime income to greater than $23 million. This used to be his 18th PGT money of the yr, with greater than $3.5 million in income collected throughout the ones rankings. Winter now sits in 6th position in that issues race because of this.
Three-time bracelet winner and three-time Super High Roller Bowl champion Justin Bonomo completed 0.33 for $24,000. Bonomo used to be no longer but completed including to his event resume at this collection, despite the fact that.
| Place | Player | Earnings |
| 1 | Nick Schulman | $68,256 |
| 2 | Sean Winter | $57,744 |
| 3 | Justin Bonomo | $24,000 |
Next up at the time table used to be the $10,000 buy-in eight-game match. Twelve mixed-game aficionados ponied up the five-figure buy-in to create a prize pool of $120,000. As with the former match, the highest 3 finishers made the cash. The greatest percentage used to be captured by means of five-time bracelet winner Eli Elezra. The Poker Hall of Fame member earned $57,000 after placing a heads-up care for fellow Hall of Famer and PokerGO president Mori Eskandani, who locked up $53,000 earlier than the overall two made up our minds to play on for the trophy.
Eskandani were given all-in preflop in pot-limit Omaha with A
6
6
4 going through the A
Okay52 of Elezra. Eskandani bit backside set on a Q86 flop. The 2 stored him within the lead, however the 10 at the river gave Elezra the ace-high flush and the pot. Eskandani used to be left on fumes heading into the following recreation: deuce-to-seven triple draw. In his ultimate hand, he were given all-in earlier than the attracts and made a 9-8-7-5-4, but it surely used to be no just right towards the 7-6-4-3-2 of Elezra.
Five-time bracelet winner Brian Rast used to be the third-place finisher, incomes $10,000 to surpass $23.1 million in lifetime cashes.
| Place | Player | Earnings |
| 1 | Eli Elezra | $57,000 |
| 2 | Mori Eskandani | $53,000 |
| 3 | Brian Rast | $10,000 |
The recreation returned to no-limit dangle’em for the subsequent excessive curler at the time table, with 16 entries at $10,000 construction a $160,000 prize pool. The most sensible 3 finishers made the cash, with a vintage preflop race bursting the cash bubble. Two-time bracelet winner Jim Collopy’s A-Okay used to be not able to outrun the pocket nines of Yasuhiro Waki.
Despite successful that turn, Waki used to be the following to hit the rail. He misplaced a large bite of his stack with a wheel towards a flush for Justin Bonomo. He then were given the ultimate of his stack in with pocket jacks main Bonomo’s Okay-8, however two eights got here off the deck by means of the river to present Bonomo journeys. Wakiearned $25,600 because the third-place finisher.
With that, Bonomo took a wholesome lead into heads-up play with bracelet winner and 2019 Card Player Player of the Year award winner Stephen Chidwick. The two highly-accomplished high-stakes stars opted to strike a deal somewhat than play on, despite the fact that, with Bonomo taking the identify and $75,792 whilst Chidwick earned $58,608 because the runner-up.
Bonomo added to his lead on poker’s all-time cash checklist, expanding his profession income to a staggering $60,562,613. Chidwick stays in fourth position on that leaderboard with $44,647,605 in profession cashes.
| Place | Player | Earnings |
| 1 | Justin Bonomo | $75,792 |
| 2 | Stephen Chidwick | $58,608 |
| 3 | Yasuhiro Waki | $25,600 |
Player picture credit: PokerGO / Antonio Abrego.