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Phil ‘The Unabomber’ Laak was crowned PartyPoker.com World Open V champion last night at the Palm Beach Casino scooping the $250,000 top prize to boot.  In his customary hoodie and sunglasses Laak took only five hands in the heads up face off against online qualifier Jan Veit to seal victory.

It had not been such a comfortable ride for the american earlier in the final after he suffered a string of heavy losses. At one point he was staring down at a chip stack of 47,000 with the blinds at 15,000/30,000, about as close to elimination as you can possibly get.

The poker Gods must have been looking down favourably on Laak as he held in there doubling up three times.  On each occasion he pushed all-in only to be called by a stronger hand but somehow Laak hit his cards and he was back in the game.

First out on the final table was early chip leader Andy Black, followed shortly by Mike Sexton, whose deserved Hall of Fame induction was confirmed to the public while he was playing the final table. Sexton’s pocket eights ran into Veit’s pocket kings. Champion Laak had special words for the Ambassador of Poker on collecting his trophy. “Mike Sexton, inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame today. The consummate player. Full stop.”

Next to go was Jennifer Tilly when her AJ failed to hit against Veit’s 99 - it looked to many like it was going to be the online qualifier’s day. Fourth place belonged to PartyPoker.com Grassroots team member Bodo Sbrzesny, who impressed again in front of the cameras in a gruelling heads-up battle with Andy Black in his heat and with his creative play at the final table.

Sbrzesny, a Palladium Lounge Elite member, exploded on the scene last year after he won a rake race on PartyPoker.com to take a seat at the Poker Den 36 hour cash game. He certainly made in impression on Roland De Wolfe and Barny Boatman there, by bluffing both with 72 and showing them.

What followed was a long period of three handed play but it was Luke ‘FullFlush’ Schwartz who busted next. After problems entering the casino on the first day, he had his responsible escort on hand in the crowd and certainly did himself justice. As you would expect, he contributed to a chatty and entertaining final table.

Schwartz busted when Veit hit runner, runner for a club flush. At the heads-up stage Veit held a 1,190,000/910,000 advantage but you couldn’t rule out comeback king Laak.

Incredibly, the heads up battle was practically over before it had got going as first hand both players found an Ace in the hole and pushed all-in.  Phil had Veit dominated with A8 against A4, to add insult to injury for the Austrian an 8 dropped on the flop leaving him with only 300,000 chips enough for only five big blinds.  The inevitable all-in from Veit soon followed and Phil called with a Q10, his hand was good enough to beat J7.

We’ve had a great time over the course five days, through seven heats plus the final the players have kept us royally entertained.  It just leaves me to say congratulations to Phil, he’s a very worthy winner of the world Open, showing why he’s one of the most accomplished and popular players on the circuit.

We have exclusive photos from the final table for your perusal over at our facebook fan page facebook.com/partypoker.

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Thomas Baker World Open V Jennifer Tilly, Phil Laak

We started with 48 players on Sunday and after seven extremely tough and entertaining heats we are down to the final seven.  battling it out for the $250,000 top prize and the title of World Open V champion are six world renowned pros and our one sole online qualifier Jan Veit.

Play got underway at 15:30 GMT, quite early for a final table but the schedule has had to be adapted to accommodate the new triple stacked format that gives players a whopping 300,000 starting chip count.  As with the previous heats the action was few and far between at the low level blinds.  But as the blinds began to increase the players were forced to start pushing the chips around.

With the combustible Luke Schwartz at the table Phil Laak and Andy Black were keen to tease the young londoner but Luke took it all in his stride determined not to let the experienced pros knock his concentration.  Schwartz was by far the most aggrerssive player at the table, consistently picking his spot to make pre-flop raises and slowly amass chips.

Online qualifier Jan Veit also made a strong showing in the early stages with his solid, tight style of play.  The most entertaining player at the table was Andy Black not happy with throwing digs at Luke he frequently made big bluffs against the unusually timid Jennifer Tilly as his chip stack vaulted up and down.

After the first break the play all of a sudden began to excite the large crowd that has descended on the Palm Beach Casino.  We saw all in after all in but the end result was chips being shared between the players as no one could deliver that crucial first knockout blow.  Andy Black had continued his cavalier style of play but after a few successes against Tilly his risky strategy began to count against him.

Soon he became the short stack, just waiting for the right moment to push all in.  With KJ in the hole Black made the move but Phil Laak looked down at A7 and that was enough to make the call.  The Ace hit on the flop and that was the end of the tournament for the former Main Event finalist.

Next to go was Mike Sexton, facing up to the inevitable all in as the short stack Mike pushed with eights only to be called be Jan Veit’s pair of kings.  It’s goodnight the the PartyPoker representative but it hasn’t been a completely bad day for the poker legend (more on that later).

Soon after tournament director called for the next break.  We are now five handed with Tilly, Laak, Bodo, Veit and Luke Schwartz left.  Nobody has yet staked a claim to be the dominant force at the table so it’s still anybody’s game.

Keep up to date with the latter stages of the tournament at our live feed on twitter.

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Thomas Baker World Open V Jennifer Tilly, Luke 'FullFlush1' Schwartz, Mike Sexton, Phil Laak

In recent minutes, Bodo has come through the runner-up heat, beating online qualifier Patrick Funke. The heads-up was dubbed the ‘Funke Bodo’, in tribute to nightclub ‘The Funky Buddha’ that is opposite the casino.

Talking of funky buddhas, ‘Mad Monk’ Andy Black is also at the final table - joining Phil Laak, Jennifer Tilly, Austrian online qualifier Jan Veit and Luke ‘FullFlush’ Schwartz.

Organisers are hoping for no trouble when Schwartz turns up after he found himself barred from the casino when he arrived for his heat on Sunday.

It’s a great mix of personalities on the final table pitting very different styles against each other in the fight for the $250,000 top prize.  One thing to llok out for in particular isto see how Tilly and Laak approach the game.  Will they play as normal ignoring the fact that they are a couple or will they shy away from betting against each other in the early stages.

Obviously, we’re not suggesting there will be any collusion but it will create an interesting and highly unusual dynamic at the final table.  The other competitors will also be weighing up how to take advantage of the situation, can they distract the duo with their comments at the table or engender hands that force the two to play off against each other.

whatever happens we are in for a treat tonight, this is one of the most star studded final tables we have ever had at a PartyPoker tournament, and with the new triple stack format we’re guaranteed some great poker.

You can follow the final table action as it happens over at our live PartyPoker Twitter feed.

PartyPoker.com World Open V – The Final Table

Luke ‘FullFlush’ Schwartz

Jan Veit

Andy Black

Phil Laak

Jennifer Tilly

Mike Sexton

Bodo Sbrzesny

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Thomas Baker World Open V Andy Black, Bodo Sbrzesny, Jennifer Tilly, Luke 'FullFlush1' Schwartz, Mike Sexton, Phil Laak

Mike Sexton has won Heat 6 of the World Open v becoming the fifth pro to make it to today’s showpiece final at the Palm Beach Casino in Mayfair.

It hadn’t always looked like the PartyPoker Global Ambassador would progress through this heat as time and time again he ran up against bigger hands leaving him short stacked.  The WPT commentator had to dig deep into his vast reservoir of poker experience to claw his way back into contention.

In a field including such poker luminaries as reigning champion Marty Smyth, 2009 European Open V winner Roberto Romanello and Brazilian star Felipe ‘Mojave’ Ramos the game started of very cagily as the players sized up each other.  It was no surprise to see the players acting warily as the new triple stacked format afforded them the time to gradually build their chip counts.

It was Romanello and Smyth who made the first breakaway from the pack amassing over 700,000 chips before the first break.  As the blinds began to increase we saw our first players depart.  First out was Bruno Fitoussi then Felipe and Dixie followed in quick succession.

As we came into a three-handed game online qualifier Daniel Drescher lead the way with 1.1m chips with Romanello and Sexton trailing way behind.  But suddenly the wily Sexton stepped up a gear first doubling up against Romanello with A10 V A4 then delivering the final blow to knock the long time chip leader out of the tourney in third place.

That left Sexton up against the German Drescher.  To say we were left with a gulf in experience at the table would be an understatement of the mightiest proportions.  But as you will all know in a two-way fight it can be anybody’s game.  However it wasn’t to be as unbelievably the heads-up battle lasted just one hand.  Drescher had aggressively pushed all in with a flush draw but Sexton had hit two pair with two fours and two fives, Sexton made the call and hit the full house on the turn to leave Drescher drawing dead.

The rapidity of the finish had caught everyone by surprise but not the calm and composed Mike Sexton who has seen it all before.  He now progresses into today’s final and Drescher moves into the runners-up heat.

Great news for the PartyPoker pro but that leaves us with one problem who are we going to get to commentate on the final now Mike’s taken his seat?  Any takers out there?

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Thomas Baker World Open V Mike Sexton, Partypoker Team