Day 5 at the WPT Doyle Brunson Classic saw lots of drama and upsets; of the five biggest stacks that started the day, only Faraz Jaka and Daniel Alaei made it to the 6-handed tv-table. Scotty Nguyen will also be there after a remarkable rush that saw him come back from 11bb to the second biggest stack.


Scotty's run involved some luck and controversy, as he sent John Juanda to the rail and crippled Chad Batista (pictured) in a pretty unusual fashion. It started when Juanda moved all-in from the button, announcing his raise verbally but not putting the chips in the middle. The dealer confirmed Juanda's raise and it was on Chad Batista on the small blind. Unfortunately, he had his earphones on and his hood was blocking his view so he didn't realise that Juanda was still in the hand. Batista moved all-in, and seeing his mistake, Scotty Nguyen burst out laughing on the big blind. Batista became visibly annoyed and some not so pleasant conversation ensued; the tournament director was called over, and after he confirmed that verbal bets are binding and both players are all-in, Scotty announced he was all-in too and turned over pocket aces. Juanda had A6, the very upset Batista had 22 and neither one got any help from the board. Batista was left with a short stack and soon pushed all-in with 55, Scotty rubbed some salt in the wounds by calling with KJs and spiking a king on the board.

Play will commence 4pm local time (7pm ET / 1am CET) at the Bellagio. Winner walks away with more than 1.4 million dollars.

Seat 1 — Daniel Alaei — 3,925,000
Seat 2 — Faraz Jaka — 5,385,000
Seat 3 — Josh Arieh — 1,710,000
Seat 4 — Steve O’Dwyer — 1,050,000
Seat 5 — Scotty Nguyen — 4,900,000
Seat 6 — Shawn Buchanan — 2,800,000

Source: CardPlayer.