Mohsin Charania Takes Down Five Diamond World Poker Classic for his Second WPT Title

The Five Diamond World Poker Classic WPT event gathered a total of 586 entries, generating a massive prize pool to be divided amongst the 54 best finishers at the Bellagio. It was a very tough field to beat, as some of the best players in the game gathered to compete for the prestigious World Poker Tour title, but that did not stop Mohsin Charania.

Outlasting the likes of Phil Laak, Daniel Negreanu, Jason Somerville, Dan O'Brien and many others, he made it to the final table and proceeded to run away with the first place prize of $1,477,890, a cool Hublot watch, and his second WPT title to date.

What makes Charania’s victory even more impressive is the fact that at the start of Day 4, he was sitting last in chips of the remaining 78 players. Undeterred, the Canadian-born pro continued to fight with seriousness and commitment, which eventually landed him in the heads-up for all the marbles.

Charania started the final table fifth in chips after successfully spinning up his Day 4 stack of under 10 big blinds. It was a great comeback, but he still had a mountain to climb before claiming the title (or at least a steep hill).

The other five players sitting among him included some of poker's heavy hitters. Brett Shaffer was starting the day the chip leader, followed by TobiasReinkemeier, Garrett Greer and Ryan Fee. Ryan Julius was the official short stack and the only player with under 1 million in chips.

Facing formidable competition and a chip deficit, Charania certainly had his work cut out for him, but he has proven in the past that he is not one to give up and that he represents a serious threat even when his chips are low.

The first one to visit the rail was Reinkemeier ($218,842), who made a misread against Greer when his Ace-Ten could not outrun Greer’s pocket Jacks. He was soon followed by Fee($272,842), who also fell at the hands of Greer. This time, Garrett was able to crack Fee’s pocket Aces after flopping a set of Jacks, which turned to quads by the river. We can certainly say that Jacks served Greer well at this final table.

Ryan Julius did well to bring his short stack all the way to fourth place, but that is where his run ended when he ran into the pocket Aces of Shaffer. For his efforts, Julius earned $383,684.

By this point, we hadn’t seen much of Charania, who waited patiently for his time to come, and come it had. First he doubled up through Greer, and some hands later, did the same against Shaffer to put him back in the game.

Soon after the second double-up, Shaffergot the last of his chips in the middle against Greer and, failing to win a flip, he was sent to the rail in third place, good for $562,736. It was heads-up time!

Greer would start as the big chip leader and it looked like Charania was destined to finish second. But all it takes is a few lucky hands and tables get turned, even facing a 9 to 1 chip deficit.

Things started going Charania’s way and he was able to double up four times before the crucial hand took place. All the chips found their way into the middle for the fifth time, and it was Mohsin’s pocket Treys against the Ace-King of Greer. The small pocket pair held up and all of a sudden it was Charania sitting with a huge advantage.

Only four hands later, it was all over. Greer got what little he had left in the middle with pocket Deuces and almost made it through, but the river gave Charania a straight to seal the deal.

A second place finish for Garrett Greer brought him $869,683 and probably a somewhat sour taste in his mouth after letting a huge chip lead slip through his fingers, but that's just the way things go sometimes.

Mohsin Charania thus claimed his second World Poker Tour title, a Hublot Power Unico watch, gold Monster 24K headphones and, of course, $1,477,890 in prize money. He will also receive a $15k entry into the WPT World Championship taking place in Atlantic City. All in all, it was a great couple of days for Charania.

Photo: WPT Blog