Busto: Nguyen 5th, Buchanan 4th
by Court on 12.20.09, 2:16 am
The short stacks at the Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic found the time right to get the chips in the middle. With the blinds up to 80k /160k and a 15k ante and Josh Arieh amassing the lion’s share of the chips it was time for the rest of the players to ratchet up the intensity. That, along with some big hands led to a deluge of all ins and calls.
After Josh Arieh opened for 350k Scotty Nguyen moved his last 1.365 million in and Faraz “The-Toilet” Jaka moved all in over the top for 5 million plus. Arieh wanted no part of it and gladly got out of the way leaving the two all ins heads up. Jaka had found the K
K
and had the 9
9 of Nguyen dominated. Nothing changed when the board was ran out and Nguyen (right) became the 5th place finisher for $249,976.
A steady upward climb for Josh Arieh finally picked up a small dip when he doubled up Danny Alaei. Josh had opened for 425k and Alaei moved in for 1.77 million. Josh took a brief moment and checked the count on the chips before calling with the KJ. His cards were live against the A9 of Alaei but an ace on the flop gave Alaei a big advantage in the hand. Arieh picked up a gutshot straight draw on the turn but the river missed his 3-outer and Alaei was able to double up to nearly 4 million while Arieh was left with a healthy 10 million chips.
Alaei put his newfound chips to use the very next hand. Shawn Buchanan moved all in for 1.5 million and Alaei put all his chips in as well. Faraz and Arieh folded leaving Buchanan all in with his K8
against the AK of Alaei. There were a lot of middle cards on the flop that gave a brief scare to Alaei but the 9-7-3 flop didn’t hit Buchanan’s eight and after the board ran out with another nine and a jack Shawn Buchanan (left) was eliminated in 4th place for $333,202.
After eliminating Buchanan the chip stack in front of Alaei had quickly jumped back up to 5.5 million, ahead of the 3.5 million stack of Jaka and trailing the 10.5 million stack of chip leader Josh Arieh.
Arieh continued to add to his lead, taking a chunk out of Alaei’s stack. Danny limped in for 160k from the button in 3-handed play and Arieh raised from the big blind to 560k. Danny called and on the J93 flop both players checked to the 8 turn. Arieh then bet 725k and Danny raised to 1.8 million. Josh made the call and with the 6 river both players checked to showdown. Josh turned up his 87 for a pair of eights and once Danny’s cards went face down into the much Arieh was able to collect another large pot and build his chip leading stack to over 13 million while dropping Alaei to shortstack status with his remaining 2.8 million.
