Ravi Raghavan Wins WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic

Ravi Raghavan has won the WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic, after defeating a field of 503 players on his way to taking down the title, and collecting the $1,268,571 first place prize.
The 26 year-old US pro now takes his live earnings to an impressive $1,817,346, and commenting later on his remarkable victory at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, said: “It is the biggest achievement of my life, and it’s amazing. Just winning is amazing, regardless of the stage. I should expect to win, but I didn’t.”
A total of 368 individual players entered the $10,300 buy-in main event, with 135 re-entries to create a prize pool worth $4,879,100. Notable names cashing in at the tournament included Brian Rast in 19th ($31,714), Jeremy Ausmus in 18th ($36,593), Scott Clements in 16th ($40,250), Andrew Robl in 15th ($40,250), Greg Mueller in 13th ($43,912), Freddy Deeb in 12th $56,110), Yevgeniy Timoshenko in 11th ($56,110), Jason Somerville in 10th ($56,110), Theo Tran in 8th ($102,461) and Jonathan Aguair in 7th ($143,933).
By the time the final table had been reached, six tough competitors still remained including Antonio Esfandiari, Andrew Lichtenberger, Shawn Buchanan, Jeremy Kottler, Thomas Winters and, of course, Ravi Raghavan. First to leave the arena was a Jeremy Kottler, who finished 6th ($187,845) after his A-K faltered against the pocket sevens of Winters. He was followed by a short-stacked Lichtenberger (A-9) in 5th ($234,197) after a battle of the blinds against Raghavan (Q-4) with the board then falling J-8-4-2-K.
Subsequently, Esfandiari was disappointed to run his A-K into the pocket aces of Raghavan to depart in 4th for $329,339, and after Thomas Winters (A-7) was eliminated by Shawn Buchanan (10-10) in 3rd ($483,031), the heads-up phase of the competition got underway.
Eventually, Raghavan would pull away to a 4 to 1 chip lead when the the final hand was played with Buchanan (K-7) all-in pre-flop and up against the pocket sevens of Raghavan. The board then rolled out J-9-9-8-4 to relegate Buchanan to a runner-up finish worth $746,502, while Ravi Raghavan was crowned the 2012 WPT Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic champion.
The final table payouts were as follows:
1. Ravi Raghavan – $1,268,571
2. Shawn Buchanan – $746,502
3. Thomas Winters – $483,031
4. Antonio Esfandiari – $329,339
5. Andrew Lichtenberger – $234,197
6. Jeremy Kottler – $187,845