WPT -- Doyle Brunson Classic Championship Day 4

At the beginning of day 4 at the 2008 World Poker Tour Doyle Brunson Classic Championship, 55 players remained in contention for the $1,538,730 first-place prize. By the end of the night, the tournament field had been sliced down to the true contenders in the tournament. Eighteen of them will return at noon tomorrow to play down to the WPT television final table of six. The large amount of chips given to each player to start the tournament made for deep-stack tournament play during day 4, but that didn’t stop the professional-heavy field from building huge pots more often than not.

Many players fell victim to losing these large hands, and they made their exits throughout the day with some prize money as a consolation. Here are the notable bustouts from day-4 competition:

$23,420

55th: Tim Vance (pictured at right)
54th: Tuan Le
53rd: Shawn Cunix
52nd: Daniel "Rekrul" Schreiber
51st: Skip Wilson

$28,825

50th: Henrik Antanesian
49th: Gary Haglund
48th: Allen Cunningham
47th: Nam Le
46th: Matt Gianetti
45th: Elia Ahmadian
44th: Tommy Vu
43rd: Scott Bohlman
42nd: Thang "Kido" Pham
41st: Adam "csimmsux" Geyer

$36,030

40th: Elizabeth Montizanti (pictured at right)
39th: Jonathan Little
38th: Barry Greenstein
37th: Abe Mosseri
36th: Mike McClain
35th: Arthur Azen
34th: Mark Teltscher
33rd: Daniel O'Brien
32nd: Jared Rubin
31st: Luke "IWEARGOGGLES" Staudenmaier

$43,235

30th: David Oppenheim
29th: Bradley Berman
28th: Yehuda Yerushalaim
27th: Andy Bloch
26th: Mohsin Charania
25th: David Benyamine
24th: Chuck Kelley
23rd: John Hennigan
22nd: Jacobo Fernandez
21st: Hunter Frey (pictured at right)

$57,645

20th: Tom Franklin
19th: Steve Landfish

The top of the leader board drastically changed each and every level during the day, and those near the top were never safe. Those at the bottom were never that far out of contention, either. Mike Matusow staged a comeback late in the day, which saw him go from having his tournament life on the line to the top five in chips in the course of an hour. He ended the day with 1,435,000, and he is in good position to make a run to his second WPT final table of 2008.

Here is a look at the chip counts for those players left in the field, as well as their table draws for tomorrow:

Table 52

Seat 1: Justin Young -- 1,807,000 (pictured at right)
Seat 2: Tom Pniak -- 1,041,000
Seat 3: Hoyt Corkins -- 1,251,000
Seat 4: Robert Mizrachi -- 1,266,000
Seat 5: Nick Schulman -- 480,000
Seat 6: Mike Matusow -- 1,435,000
Seat 7: Amnon Filippi -- 1,374,000
Seat 8: Joe McGowan -- 420,000
Seat 9: Ben Straate -- 3,197,000

Table 54

Seat 1: Martin de Knijff -- 298,000
Seat 2: Steve Sung -- 1,359,000
Seat 3: Evan McNiff -- 1,532,000
Seat 4: Ben Tollerene -- 492,000
Seat 5: Bill Klein -- 999,000
Seat 6: Chino Rheem -- 1,200,000
Seat 7: Brett Richey -- 2,164,000
Seat 8: Clonie Gowen -- 1,049,000
Seat 9: Jack Wu -- 1,412,000

The 18 remaining players will play for as long as it takes to get down to six tomorrow beginning at noon at Bellagio. Card Player will be there to bring you all of the action in live updates, chip counts, photos, and videos.

Here are the highlights of the day as featured in CardPlayer.com’s live updates:

Steve Sung Doubles Up Through Clonie Gowen

Steve Sung (pictured at right) moved all in preflop for 266,000, and Clonie Gowen called him down. They flipped up their hands, and Sung held A J. Gowen held A 10, and the board ran out K 7 3 6 9. Sung doubled up, and Gowen fell to 1.03 million.

Nick Schulman Makes a Great Call

Evan McNiff bet 150,000 from the cutoff on a board of A 7 4 3, and Nick Schulman made the call. The river was dealt 7, and McNiff bet 327,000. Schulman went into the tank for several minutes and counted out the chips needed to make the call. He eventually moved them into the middle, and McNiff turned up 4 2. Schulman turned up A J to win the large pot and skyrocket his chip stack up to 1.8 million, which is good for second on the leader board. McNiff was knocked down to just over a million.

Chino Rheem Makes a Great Call

Chino Rheem checked a flop of K Q 7 from the small blind, and Clonie Gowen bet 75,000 from the big blind. The turn was dealt J, and Rheem checked. Gowen bet 150,000, and Rheem made the call. The river fell K and Rheem checked again. Gowen bet 275,000, and Rheem made the call. Gowen showed down 9 8, and Rheem turned up A 9 for the pick-off of Gowen's bluff. Rheem held 1.35 million after the hand. Gowen was sent spiraling downward with just 550,000.

Mike Matusow Doubles Up...

Mike "The Mouth" Matusow (pictured at left) doubled up when his K-J made trip kings on a board that ran out K-K-8-3-9 against the pocket aces of Robert Mizrachi.

...Then the Mouth Busts David Benyamine in 25th Place ($43,235)

David Benyamine moved all in under the gun for 189,000 and Mike Matusow made the call. Their cards:

Matusow: 9 9
Benyamine: A Q

Board: K 10 4 3 4

Matusow climbed to 550,000 with the win, and Benaymine hit the rail in 25th place.

Mike Matusow Doubles Through Jacobo Fernandez, Who Later Busts

Mike Matusow was all in preflop with pocket kings against Jacobo Fernandez and his pocket nines. The board ran out safely for Matusow, and he doubled up to 1.2 million. Fernandez was left with just six big blinds, and he was eliminated a few hands later in 22nd place when Amnon Filippi rivered a flush.

Related Articles

Xixiang Luo Wins His Second Bracelet Of Summer

Daniel Perkusic Wins WSOP $50k PLO High Roller

Nakache Wins 2024 WSOP $10k PLO Championship

Most Viewed Articles