Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic - Live Updates

“I’m lucky, but I don’t think I’m that lucky,” said Josh Arieh as he rose from his seat.

He had just moved all in and had been called by Daniel Alaei on a flop of T♦ 2♠ 5♦.

Arieh had pocket sevens but was crushed by Alaei’s T♥ 8♦.

“He’ll need a seven or else Daniel Alaei will be our champion,” said TD Jack McClelland.

The spectators stood and watched on as the dealer burned and turned the 6♥ followed by the 8♣.

The crowd cheered as the two players shook hands.

Six days and many, many hours of poker later, we have a new WPT Champion.

His biggest cash to date, Alaei’s $1,428,430 win is just one of many. He never lost his cool, he never acted out. From day one all he did was keep his head down and play sharp and focused poker.

Josh Arieh has a slew of cashes of his own and will be adding $952,290 in prize winnings to his record for his second place finish.

And so concludes the 2009 W.P.T.B.D.B.F.D.W.P.C. (World Poker Tour Bellagio Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic).

Josh Arieh shoved all in and was instantly called by Daniel Alaei. Arieh winced as he turned over his A♣ 7♥. Alaei was in great shape to win the tournament with A♠ Q♦.

The dealer turned up the 9♥ 2♣ 9♥ which gave Arieh a chance to chop. He did one better by catching the 7♠ on the turn. Arieh had taken over the lead and a blank on the river gave him the pot

“I sure played that one good,” said Arieh.

With that pot Arieh had pulled up back to even. It’s anyone’s game now.

It only took two hands before Josh Arieh and Daniel Alaei raised and reraised each other preflop until all the money was in. It was the classic Hold-em race. Pocket queens for Alaei and Ace-King offsuit for Arieh.

The dealer threw out a flop with a painted card. The crowd leaned forward, it was a jack! The turn was also paint – another jack! The river was a meaningless three and, just like that, it’s now Alaei who has the monster lead with over 14 million of the 19.7 million chips in play.

After moving all in a few times, and getting away with it, Faraz Jaka did so once again but was quickly called by Daniel Alaei.

Alaei turned over pocket kings and Faraz was a 2-1 dog with his A♠ 6♥.

“Ok let’s see the flop,” the tournament director said.

The dealer flopped out the K♠ T♣ 5♥. A woman in the crowd squealed in delight while Jaka’s cheering section groaned.

Jaka was down to needing a runner-runner straight but an 8♠ on the turn signaled that Jaka’s time at this WPT final table was up.

This was the second time in five months that Jaka made it to a WPT final table and came up short. His previous WPT finish was a second place in the $15,000 Bellagio Cup Championship event for which he took $774,780.

Today’s third place finish earned him $571,375. Over $1.3 million in WPT cashes in the last five months. Not bad.

Going into heads up play, Josh Arieh is holding almost a 2:1 chiplead against Daniel Alaei. The tournament clock was reset and calibrated to 30 minute levels so get ready for some of the hottest action the WPT has ever seen.

Just before a scheduled break, Josh Arieh battled against Daniel Alaei.

Alaei had limped in from the button and Arieh made it 560,000 to go. Alaei called and they saw a flop of J♠ 9♠ 3♣#.

They both checked and the dealer burned and turned the 8♣. This time Arieh bet 725,000 and Alaei made it 1.8 million to go.

Arieh flat called and the dealer threw out the 6♠.

Both players checked and Arieh turned over 8♠ 7♦. Alaei mucked and Arieh piled up the pot.

His stack is now a seemingly insurmountable 13.7 million!

Daniel Alaei got a renewed lease on life after doubling through Josh Arieh.

Alaei shoved preflop for 1.3 million with A♥ 9♣ and was called by Arieh’s K♠ J♥.

An ace on the flop allowed Alaei to relax a little – that is, until the turn gave Arieh a gutter draw. Arieh needed a queen to make broadway but instead the river was an innocent little 3♣.

Alaei kept the momentum going by picking up A♣ K♦ on the very next hand and having Shawn Buchanan shove all in on him.

Shawn was in deep trouble with his K♥ 8♦.

The cameras rolled as the dealer turned over card after card, none of them an eight.

Buchanan was out of luck and out of chips. He exited the stage area and took his cheering section which amounted to about a third of the crowd with him. He will collect $333,302 for his fourth place finish.

It looks like we have a poker game now. Josh Arieh, Daniel Alaei, and Faraz Jaka are the only three that remain and they all have plenty of chips to play with.

Scotty Nguyen just pair over paired his way out of the tournament. He moved all in from early position after looking down and seeing two nines.

It folded over to Faraz Jaka who looked down at two black kings and moved all in. Arieh folded and the two turned over their hands.

The crowd stood up and many began to shout for a nine while others chanted “Boom Jaka-laka”.

Unfortunately for the Poker Prince there would be no nine. The crowd applauded for Scotty as he made his exit and then Jaka’s cheering section began chanting out “Toilet!” in reference to Jaka’s online name.

It looked for a little bit like Arieh might just run away with the tournament but it’s too early to count out Jaka. His stack is pumped up to just over 7 million to Arieh’s 9 million.

The fifth place finish added about a quarter million dollars to Scotty's over $10 million in career earnings.

A few minutes after returning from break, Faraz Jaka open shoved from under the gun to 2,150,000. It folded over to Daniel Alaei who pondered the situation before quietly announcing the call.

Alaei turned over A♦ 9♦ – the hand that had won Josh Arieh a nice pot just a little while ago. Jaka turned over two black queens.

After failing to hit an ace, more than half of Alaei’s stack was dragged over to Jaka’s. Alaei is down to just 1.6 million and will have to regroup if he’s going to get back in this tournament.

Josh Arieh is sitting at the top of the leader board with a massive stack that is approaching 9 million. Faraz Jaka moved into second place but has less than half of Arieh’s stack with 4.4 million.

Arieh is on fire and it looks like it's going to be difficult to slow him down.

A different Josh Arieh has emerged since the last break. He’s actually started to play some poker. He just made a pretty sick call against Faraz Jaka.

By the time the river was out, there was about 1.5 million in the pot. The board was T♠ 7♠ 4♦ T♣ and Jaka fired a chunky 900,000. Arieh tanked it before making the call and turning over A♦ 9♦ for just ace high.

As if that wasn’t shocking enough, Jaka mucked!

Jaka looked a little rattled by the call and we can’t help but wonder if this will be the beginning of his downfall.

Arieh scooped the 3.3 million chip pot and is now looking to be a true contender.

Josh Arieh just doubled up much to the chagrin of the Scotty Nguyen fanatics in the crowd. It was a pretty standard all in preflop. Arieh shoved with pocket sevens and Nguyen called with A♠ J♠.

Josh had about 1.5 million when he shoved and, after an all brick boarded, he ended up doubling up to a shade over 3 million.

In other news, Daniel Alaei is our new chip leader. He’s been grinding away winning several small pots and one sizeable 2 million chip one off of Shawn Buchanan.

With a J-T-9-9-3 three-clubbed board, Alaei fired off a bet of 550k on the river and was called by Buchanan. Alaei turned over just King-Jack but it was good enough to win the hand.

After that hand and a couple others, Buchanan is suddenly bringing up the rear while Arieh has climbed into third place.

Steven O’Dwyer did his best to stay alive in the tournament by artfully maneuvering his short stack. All was going well until he finally ran into a big hand.

It folded to O’Dwyer in the small blind and he, like many times before, shoved all in. Scotty looked down at pocket jacks and quickly made the call.

O’Dwyer needed some help, he only had A♦ 6♦.

The dealer got the OK from the tournament director to run a flop: J♥ 6♠ 7♠.

It was crushing news for O’Dwyer, Scotty had flopped a set. Down to just running aces or running sixes, it would take a miracle for O'Dwyer to remain in the tournament.

The dealer burned and turned an exciting A♠, but it was only half of the miracle O'Dwyer needed. The river was a brick and O’Dwyer was off to collect his dough.

With O'Dwyers freshly deposited chips, Scotty is now within striking distance of Faraz Jaka's stack.

We finally had some action go down. Daniel Alaei raised it up and was shoved on by Josh Arieh. Alaei liked his hand enough to make the call.

The hands were turned up and Arieh was slightly ahead with A♠ 8♥ to Alaei’s K♥ J♦.

The ten high flop was meaningless but a queen on the turn gave Alaei some extra outs in the form of an open ended straight draw.

Arieh anxiously watched  on as the dealer flipped over a meaningless 3♥ on the river. Arieh doubles up to 2 million.

Here at the final table, Arieh’s passiveness was costing him chips while O’Dwyer’s short stack aggression is keeping him alive.

Shawn Buchanan raised from under the gun and was called by Josh Arieh on the button. O’Dwyer moved all in and forced everyone to fold.

On the next hand, Daniel Alaei raised it up and O’Dwyer moved all in yet again. Just like last time, everybody folded and O’Dwyer stacked up the pot.

Arieh, realizing he needed to do something, ripped a page out of O’Dwyer’s playbook and moved all in on the hand after that. It worked and Arieh picked up a round’s worth of blinds and antes. He did it again a few hands later and everybody folded.

Three hands, there all ins, zero flops. Looks like we're going to need a cooler setup before we actually see some action.

The first TV break came and went quietly.

The players are feeling each other out and it seems like they’re being cautious. Josh Arieh might be playing a little too cautiously; he’s been passive so far and has blinded off a bunch of his chips without doing anything.

Last night, Steve O’Dwyer told PL.com that he feels very comfortable with his short stack playing abilities. He estimated that he was the best short stack player at the table and he came ready to play. He's proving it.

He shoved all in on the very first hand and took it down without resistance. A few more preflop shoves and he found himself out of last place and with a stack nearly twice as he started the day with.

The cards are finally in the air after a slightly delayed start. Scotty Nguyen was a little late but the audience didn’t seem to mind. He walked in with the swagger of a rock star and blew kisses to the wild crowd.

There is one thing that will be different this time around here at the Bellagio. There will be no alcohol served to either the fans, or the players. Apparently things got a little rowdy last WPT and the staff made the decision to cut the flow of alcohol.

We thought Scotty might fly into a rage upon hearing that his beloved Michelob Ultras would have to wait, but he took it in stride.

“It’s ok baby. I think it’s a good thing because what happened here last time wasn’t good,” he told us before taking his seat.

The final six at the WPT Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic starts in just minutes and it already appears to be one of the best final table’s in World Poker Tour history.

The name in lights is Scotty Nguyen, making his sixth WPT final table in an attempt to book his second win.

Should he bank the $1.5 million for first, Nguyen would also become one of only four players in poker history to reach the $12 million career earnings mark.

But Faraz “The-Toilet” Jaka, making his second WPT final six after a second-place finish at the WPT Bellagio Cup this past July, currently has the lead.

Sitting third in chips and making his first first WPT final table appearance is two-time WSOP bracelet winner Daniel Alaei.

2007 WPT Mandalay Bay winner Shawn Buchanan comes in with a shot at his second title fourth in chips and two-time WSOP bracelet winner Josh Arieh is currently fifth heading into his second WPT final table.

Finally, rounding out the final six is Steve O’Dwyer, an online pro who has been around the World Poker Tour for a few years, making his first final table appearance.

With a $1.5 million first-place prize on the line, this should be a whole ton of fun.

To follow all the action from start to finish, keep it locked right here on PokerListings' Live Updates.