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Legends of Poker Day 3 Recap

Joe Sebok Rises to the Top

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Fifty-three players returned for their third day of play, but only 45 would leave the Bicycle Casino with something to show for their efforts. After half an hour of quiet, methodical play around the money bubble, the action opened up and the players started dropping quickly.

Mari Lou Morelli went out on the first bad beat of the day. On a flop of A 8 3, Morelli moved all in and was called by James Dowdy. Dowdy showed A 7 but was behind to Morelli's A 9. The turn gave Dowdy outs for a chop when the 3 hit the felt. But the river was a cruel 7, sending Morelli to the rail out of the money.

With 47 players remaining, two pros got involved in a huge hand that would leave one devastated and the other with the chip lead. After a series of preflop raises resulting in a $155,000 pot, Mike Wattel moved all in for $160,000 more. Lee Markholt went into the tank for several minutes while Wattel sat motionless. Eventually, Markholt stated that he must call, getting almost 2-1 odds on his money. He tabled A K and Wattel showed Q Q, stating he didn't want to be in this position. The board came J 4 3 6 K, and Markholt spiked a king on the river to win the massive pot, and eliminate Wattel just short of the money. Wattel stormed out of the tournament area, devastated by the end result.

The bubble would burst after only a few rounds of hand-for-hand play. The action moved around to Steve Kerman in the small blind, who pushed all in for $72,000. Joe Sebok insta-called and had Kerman outchipped by only a few thousand. Kerman showed Q 10 and Sebok showed pocket aces. The flop came Q J 9 giving Kerman several outs, but the turn and river came 6 4, making Kerman the unfortunate bubble boy.

Once the bubble burst, the eliminations came at a rapid rate and many well-known professionals were among the casualties, including David Daneshgar (45th), Josh Arieh (44th), Minh "PokerHost" Nguyen (41st), and Steve Brecher (37th).

Anna Wroblewski, the lone remaining female participant, ran into some bad luck to finish in 42nd place. She raised from late position to $24,000 and Brian Powell moved all in from the button for $165,000. Wroblewski called all in with K K and Powell showed A 10. The board came A A 7 Q 3, and Powell flopped trip aces to eliminate Wroblewski. As she started to collect her things she said, "I never win with that hand."

With four tables left, Barry Greenstein and Joe Sebok were moved to the same table. But the father-son final table wasn't mean to be when Greenstein was eliminated in 31st place. Greenstein raised to $25,000 from the cutoff and Gavin Griffin reraised to $75,000 from the button. Greenstein called all in showing Q J and Griffin showed 10 10. The board came A A 2 A K and Sebok was left fatherless at the table.

Other notables to finish in the money included David Chiu (35th), Justin "looshle" Pechie (34th), Jordan "iMsoLucky0" Morgan (33rd), Dutch Boyd (30th), Peter "number1pen" Neff (29th), "Miami" John Cernuto (27th), and Adam "Csimmsux" Geyer (24th).

Gavin Griffin had an up-and-down day. After eliminating Captain Tom Franklin, Griffin had a massive chip lead on the rest of the field. But Griffin got unusually cold-decked to drop down to one of the short stacks. As the day wound down, Griffin pushed all in for his last $95,000 from under the gun, and Joe Sebok moved all in behind him. Griffin tabled K3 but was dominated by Sebok's A K. The board ran out A 5 2 8 8, and Sebok's hand held up to put him over the $1 million mark. Griffin was sent to the rail in 20th place.

Eighteen players will return tomorrow to battle down to a sixhanded World Poker Tour final table. Here are the remaining players and their chip counts:

Table 13

Seat 1 - Mike Jung - $191,000

Seat 2 - Thu Nguyen - $490,000

Seat 3 - Franco Brunetti - $218,000

Seat 4 - Mike McClain - $684,000

Seat 5 - Lee Markholt - $873,000

Seat 6 - Raymond Davis - $539,000

Seat 7 - Brian Powell - $248,000

Seat 8 - Shi Jia Liu - $476,000

Seat 9 - Joe Sebok - $1,057,000

Table 17

Seat 1 - Peter Feldman - $853,000

Seat 2 - Dan Harrington - $370,000

Seat 3 - Robert Goldfarb - $296,000

Seat 4 - David Pham - $1,007,000

Seat 5 - Don Zewin - $378,000

Seat 6 - Sean McCabe - $183,000

Seat 7 - Wayne Chang - $281,000

Seat 8 - Tom Schneider - $803,000

Seat 9 - Billy Pilossoph - $788,000

Come back to CardPlayer.com and WorldPokerTour.com at 2 p.m. for all your live updates, chip counts, photos, videos, and favorite player pro blogs.