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The current season of the World Poker Tour (WPT) drew 716 entries, bringing the total prize pool up to $7 million. By the time the event was over, Taylor Black from Santa Cruz, California, was the final player standing in the WPT Five Diamond Poker Classic Main Event. His first-place finish adds $1.2 million to his total earnings, bringing his total live poker tournament earnings to almost $3.85 million, according to the Hendon Mob poker database.
This was Black’s second seven-figure score in his poker tourney career, exceeding the $1,092,000 he won as the winner of the 2018 partypoker LIVE MILLIONS North America main event, which became his career’s greatest payday.
The Final Day Of The Event
The final day of WPT started with Taylor Black leading over the other five competitors. He had 227BB when he entered the final table, whereas the other player with the next-largest stack, Gianluca Speranza, was only 62BB. Taylor added to his benefit in the early going by scoring the first knockout of the day. David Kim went all-in preflop and was called by both Speranza and Black. On the turn street, the community cards were 6♦ 5♠ 3♠ K♠. Black placed the bet for 5,00,000, and Speranza folded. David Kim moved all-in pre-flop with A♦ K♦ as a top kicker. His hand was drawing dead against the 5♥ 5♣ of Black as he had a flopped with pocket fives. With the 2♣ on end, Kim finished in 6th place with $261,235.
Next to get defeated was Indo-American Triple Crown Poker winner Mohsin Charania. He made his final stand with 10♥ 3♥ and Black called with 8♦ 6♦. The cards on the board K♣ 9♦ 5♦ 3♦ 3♠ gave Taylor Black a diamond flush, thus, eliminating Mohsin in the process for $342,645.
The four-handed play took nearly three hours that lasted for 87 hands. Lorenzo Lavis was finally the next player to hit the rail in fourth place. On the flop round, the community cards on the board were A♠ Q♣ 3♣, Lavis went all-in with K♣ 4♣ against Black’s A♥ 10♦, for top pair. The turn and river street was no help for Lorenzo, and he got defeated in fourth place for $454,590.
After the fifth and fourth place eliminations, it was unlikely that another elimination would take place only two hands later. Speranza with A♦ 3♦ battled against Vik Segal 8♦ 8♣ who shoved his 7 million chip stack from the SB. Speranza called from the BB. The cards on the board improved neither players hand, and Vik Segal‘s pocket pair held up to win the pot. Speranza was eliminated as the third-place finisher and earned $609,960.
Black Regains the Lead, Emerges Victorious
At the beginning of the heads up play, Black had a 2:1 chip advantage over Shegal, which he rapidly increased to 3:1. It just took 11 hands between both players to decide the tournament. On hand 195, the final hand of the tournament came to an end. Segal 3-bet all-in his final 7.5 million in chips with A♠ 8♦ and Black with A♥ K♠ from the button position raised to 500,000. Taylor Black called. The board ran out K♣ 10♣ 6♥ Q♦ 9♠, allowing Black to take the hand with the top pair along with the trophy. Vik Segal incredible run ended in 2nd place and earned $827,620 as a runner-up finish. Taylor Black wins WPT 5 diamond online poker, and the second million-dollar score of his poker career. Also, this winning made his name added to the WPT Mike Sexton Champions Cup.
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