Five Diamond World Poker Classic Day 4

Antonio “The Magician” Esfandiari is proving to be an unstoppable force at this year’s Five Diamond World Poker Classic Main Event. As we noted over the weekend, Esfandiari has been leading the competition since Day 2 and by the end of Day 4 had only widened the gap. As it stands going into Day 5, Esfandiari has a whopping 2,680,000 chips while the second place stack (held by the tournament’s dark horse, John Racener) trails considerably with 1.9 million chips.

We’ll get down to the nitty gritty elimination details after the jump, but of the 54 players that took seats at the beginning of the action on Day 4, here are the 15 that remained at the end of the night: 

1. Antonio Esfandiari – 2,680,000
2. John Racener – 1,900,000
3. Andrew Robl – 1,750,000
4. Kianoosh Mohajeri – 1,694,000
5. Kirk Morrison – 1,545,000
6. Luis Velador – 1,423,000
7. Sorel Mizzi – 1,380,000
8. Ray Dehkharghani – 1,148,000
9. Andrew Lichtenberger – 915,000
10. Vanessa Rousso – 888,000
11. Christopher DeMaci – 801,000
12. Amit Makhija – 756,000
13. Ted Lawson – 400,000
14. Daniel Fuhs – 246,000
15. Charles Caris – 125,000

Proving yet again what an unrelenting grind this year’s tournament has been, five of Day 3’s top ten held on to proceed to Day 5, leaving little room for the rest of the field to advance. Among those that did was Racener, who proved his WSOP Main Event runner-up finish earlier this year was no fluke when he battled his way from the back of the pack to the front to end the day with the second stack.

Among the more disappointing eliminations were David Baker, Freddy Deeb and Bryn Kenney, but it was the ousting of tournament namesake Doyle Brunson that resonated the longest. Brunson entered Day 4 in 13^th place but ultimately couldn’t catch a break. He was one of Day 4’s last eliminations, finishing the tournament in 18^th place when his A-J failed to find any leverage on the draw, sending him to the rail against Mohajeri’s superior A-K.

Day 5’s fifteen remaining players are duking it out at this very moment to determine which six will return to Tuesday’s televised final table. In the first notable hand of the day, Rousso improved her position by going all-in against Esfandiari, who quickly mucked. Caris also made an early move to increase his ammunition by doubling up off of DeMaci. The new short stack – Daniel Fuhs – didn’t fare as well, ending his run in 15^th with a fatal loss to Rousso.

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