Antonio “The Magician” Esfandiari overcame a highly competitive final table to win the title and $870,124 in the WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic.

This was Esfandiari’s second WPT title after previously winning the L A Poker Classic back in 2004 for $1,399,135. That was the year when he also won $184,860 and his first WSOP bracelet in the $2,000 Pot Limit Hold Em event. In fact 2004 was the last time Esfandiari had won a major title despite a series of six figure cashes most notably at EPT Monte Carlo in 2008 and his 24^th place at the WSOP Main Event in 2009.

Incredibly out of the 438 players who chipped in with $10,300 to play in the event - 100 of them were guaranteed to take home some money. This meant that although 100 players were relatively happy, the final table pay-outs were considerably lower for those using the betfair poker sign up bonus than in previous years. 

It was a stellar final table with Andrew Robl, Vanessa Rousso, John Racener, Kirk Morrison and Ted Lawson all intent on stopping The Magician from weaving his magic.

It seemed for a long time that Vanessa Rousso was going to become the first ever female winner of a WPT event and she was the chip leader entering the final table. Although she eliminated Ted Lawson in only the 2^nd hand of final table play we will have to wait until a female gets her hands on the trophy as she was eliminated  in 3^rd place for a $358,964 consolation.

Those over at www.betfairpoker.com note that this left a rather unique heads up encounter between poker stable mates and good friends Antonio Esfandiari and Andrew Robl. The Magician calling down Robl’s QT shove with KJ to ship him his 2^nd WPT title.