The World Poker Tour (WPT) recently finished up its Five Diamond World Poker Classic, with an amazing turn out for the popular event. The tournament finished up on Sunday with 569 entries into the $10,000 buy-in event. With so many players competing, the prize pool jumped its guarantee of $5 million by over $500,000!

It would take just under 400 hands at the final table for the winner to be crowned. Steve Buckner and Chad Eveslage went head-to-head at the felt, with Eveslage coming out on top, earning his second WPT title win. For the finish, he also claimed a prize of just over $1 million.

Making It to the Final Two

After the final table was named and a few poker players were eliminated, it looked Buckner would be next. He was all-in against Michael Gathy, and the hand was in his favor. Buckner was all in with Q-J off-suit and was called by Gathy who held A-J offsuit. The flop pushed the hand towards Gathy with A-8-6, and Buckner needed a runner-runner to stay in the game.

A king on the turn helped, and the 10 on the river sealed the hand for Buckner, giving him a much larger chip stack and keeping him from elimination. Next to go would be Brian Kim, in fourth place and just three players remaining.

To get there, Eveslage would open with 300,000, and Buckner called. Kim would move all in with just over 4.5 million in chips. Eveslage would move all in, and Buckner would fold. Kim showed an A-Q of diamonds, and Evelsage held pocket 10s.

The board rand A-Q-10-7-7 giving Eveslage the top two pair and the win.

Heads-Up for the Win

Now all that’s left in the WPT event is Buckner, Gathy, and Eveslage. It wouldn’t take long before Gathy decided to raised to 500,000 on the button and Eveslage pushed all-in. Gathy would put his chips in and show A-J off-suit. Eveslage held A-Q off-suit. The board fell 10-4-2-6-9 and Eveslage would win the hand and move on to heads-up with Buckner.

Blinds have reached massive proportions and Eveslage was all-in against Buckner with over 12 million in chips. He held A-9 and was called by Buckner with pocket queens. The board ran 8-5-3-4 with an Ace on the river sealing the win for Eveslage.

Final Results:

Place Player Prize
First Chad Eveslage $1,042,300
Second Steve Buckner $690,000
Third Michael Gathy $505,000
Fourth Brian Kim $377,000
Fifth Albert Calderon $283,000
Sixth David Kim $216,000
Seventh Zach Donovan $166,000