Raghavan Spoils Esfandiari’s WPT Party Trick

Raghavan Spoils Esfandiari’s WPT Party Trick

Monday, 10 December 2012

Antonio Esfandiari might have been stealing the limelight ahead of yesterday’s WPT Five Diamond Poker Classic yesterday, but it seems that Ravi Raghavan didn’t read the script.

Written off by the critics at the start of the finale, short stack Raghavan did his best to ignore the chatter from the rail and work on getting himself back into contention.


Indeed, after being amongst the chip leaders for most of the tournament, Raghavan was in unfamiliar territory as the small stack. However, after stealing a few pots in the early offing he really got into his stride when the field began to thing.


After watching Jeremy Kottler and Andrew Lichtenberger hit the rail in sixth and fifth respectively, it was Raghavan’s time to shine. A successful coup against crowd favourite Antonio Esfandiari boosted not only Raghavan’s chip stack but his confidence.


With just two players standing in his way he managed to dodge the attacks of Thomas Winters and Shawn Buchanan long enough to see the former hit the rail in third.


Now just one player from victory, Raghavan turned axe man again as Buchanan could only offer minimal resistance to his opponent’s onslaught.
Unable to find a way to win, Buchanan finally bowed down to his opponent and left Raghavan to claim the title and $1,268,571 top prize.


Final Table Results:
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


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Tags: Ravi Raghavan, Shawn Buchanan, Antonio Esfandiari, Andrew Lichtenberger, WPT Five Diamond Classic