For the most part, that's exactly how it played out as Ruberto dominated much of the play and sealed his first major title and the $325,928 first-place prize early Tuesday evening.
A veteran grinder on the Florida scene known as "Boston Tony," Ruberto boosts his career live earnings over $750k with the win and secured himself a seat the the $25k WPT Championship in May.
The only blip in Ruberto's day came four-handed when his pursuers briefly caught and overtook him, but he quickly righted the ship and busted each of the remaining three players to seal the win.
Sam Soverel finished as the runner-up and earned $187,762 - substantially more than his listed career live tournament earnings of $6,606.
Finishing in third was 2009 WSOP Ladies Event champion Lisa Hamilton, who took home $112,657. Day 3 chip leader Vitor Coelho busted in fourth.
Darryll Fish, the most experienced player at the table but the short stack coming into the day, was unable to get anything going and was the first to exit in sixth.
He was followed shortly after by Club WPT qualifier Artie Rodriguez.
The final six and their payouts, courtesy of WPT.com:1st: Anthony Ruberto - $325,928 2nd: Sam Soverel - $187,762 3rd: Lisa Hamilton - $112,657 4th: Vitor Coelho - $75,105 5th: Artie Rodriguez - $55,077 6th: Darryll Fish - $46,315
The rest of 2011 is jammed with World Poker Tour action with four more events still to go before the holidays.
WPT Marrakech begins Thursday with a four-day event at the Casino de Marrakech, followed shortly after by WPT Prague from Dec. 1-5.
The tour returns to the US for the WPT Five Diamond Classic at the Bellagio in Las Vegas Dec 6-11 and then bounces back to Venice, Italy, for an event Dec. 13-18.
Follow all the action in the WPT Live Updates section or look for our daily recaps on PokerListings.com.
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