TAKE FIVE: WORLD POKER TOUR AT THE BELLAGIO

Wednesday, Dec. 12, 2007 | 7 a.m.

Event: World Poker Tour's Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic

Site: Bellagio

Date: Today through Tuesday

Entry fee: $15,000

Schedule: Noon today, Day 1A

Noon Thursday, Day 1B

Noon Friday, Day 2

Noon Saturday, Day 3

Noon Sunday, Day 4

Noon Monday, Day 5

6 p.m. Tuesday, final table

Prize money: To be determined by number of entrants. First place will include a $25,000 seat in the World Poker Tour Championship, April 19-26 at the Bellagio.

The game: No-limit Texas hold 'em

Final table viewing: Free on a first-come, first-served basis

No ordinary Joe

The sixth annual Five Diamond tournament has become a major stop on the World Poker Tour, the lucrative, made-for-TV tournament circuit that now includes 21 stops at sites from Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Reno to Spain and the Turks and Caicos Islands. The 2006 edition, last December at the Bellagio, attracted 584 entrants for a prize pool of $8.4 million. Joe Hachem won the tournament's $2.18 million top prize, joining an elite group of players who have won a World Series of Poker main event and a World Poker Tour event. Hachem was the 2005 World Series champ.

The honoree

The event, which encompasses three weeks of no-limit Texas hold 'em tournaments at the Bellagio culminating with the World Poker Tour segment, was created to pay tribute to legendary poker player and longtime Las Vegan Doyle "Texas Dolly" Brunson, according to Doug Dalton, the Bellagio's director of poker operations. This year's event comes on the heels of the death last week of poker pro Chip Reese, Brunson's close friend and sometime business partner. Brunson acknowledged their nonpoker ventures - which included efforts to raise the Titanic and go in search of Noah's Ark - weren't always financially sound. "Not all of our business endeavors were successful," Brunson said. "We always had poker to fall back on."

The contenders

Any World Poker Tour event at the Bellagio is a lock to draw many of poker's most prominent personalities. Gus Hansen, Carlos Mortensen and Minh Ly are among previous champions, and Daniel Negreanu placed third in last year's deep field. Brunson finished third in the 2005 Five Diamond after a memorable final-table exchange with Patrik Antonius, the eventual runner-up. Brunson, holding pocket 3s, called a big preflop bet by Antonius, who was trying to play the bully holding ace-2. "How could you make that call?" Antonius said. Brunson responded: "How could I make that call? How could you make that bet? We're playing poker, not solitaire."

Tour highlights

Season 6 of the World Poker Tour, which began in May at the Mirage and continues through April with the World Poker Tour Championship at the Bellagio, has featured victories by big names including Dan Harrington and Bill Edler. Harrington, author of an acclaimed three-volume set of books on hold 'em tournaments, won the $1.6 million top prize at the Legends of Poker at the Bicycle Casino in Los Angeles. Edler, of Las Vegas, won the $747,615 top prize at the Gulf Coast Poker Championship at the Beau Rivage in Biloxi, Miss. Edler, who has more than $2.6 million in tournament winnings this year, was down to his final two chips late in the tournament before rallying for his first World Poker title.

On the air

The sixth season of the World Poker Tour will be televised on GSN, the Network for Games (Cox cable Channel 344), which acquired the rights to the tour after World Poker's previous deal with the Travel Channel expired. The tournaments are expected to air on Monday nights beginning next year. The complete TV schedule for Season 6 has yet to be decided, according to a spokesman for GSN, although an announcement is scheduled for early 2008.

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