WPT -- Doyle Brunson Classic Championship Day 3

The big story coming out of day 3 at the WPT Doyle Brunson Classic Championship was Eric Baldwin (pictured right) clinching the 2009 Card Player Player of the Year race. Unfortunately, two players did their best to steal the spotlight with their bad behavior as the night continued.

Only two players (a different two than the ones referenced above) could catch Baldwin for POY honors, and both were alive and well in the tournament on day 3. Yevgeniy Timoshenko needed a second-place finish or better, and Cornel Andrew Cimpan needed a top-three finish in order to bridge the gap.

Despite being eliminated by Tom Dwan late on day 2, Baldwin returned to Bellagio to play in the $500 side-event that was occurring simultaneously in the Fontana Lounge. Baldwin did the math and realized that a victory in that event would force both players to finish one spot higher in the tournament.

Ultimately, it wouldn’t matter, as Cimpan and Timoshenko both hit the rail during play. Interestingly, both players got the rest of their chips in with the best hand, only to see their hopes dashed by the river. There are still some tournaments remaining in Atlantic City, but they aren’t expected to offer enough points for anyone to catch Baldwin. Stay tuned to a future edition of Card Player magazine to read about the 2009 POY race.

Around the time Baldwin was announced as the winner to the rest of the field, Daniel Alaei (pictured left) made his move up the leader board by taking on fellow big-stack Bryan Devonshire. Both saw a flop of A A 6. A bet and two raises later, and the dealer pealed off the 4. Devonshire then bet big, and Alaei shoved all in. Devonshire called and saw the bad news, as his A Q was outkicked by Alaei’s A K. The river was the 10, and Devonshire was crippled. Alaei was over the 1-million mark, and things would just get better from there.

Alaei then played a big pot with another large stack in Yegor Tsurikov. The action ended with an all-in from the young player that was immediately called by Alaei, who had made a full house with his 9 8. That pot put him up near the 1.7-million mark, where he would stay for the rest of the day, claiming the overall chip lead.

Scotty Nguyen (pictured below left) got in on the act, as well. Nguyen was being his usual boisterous self when he criticized a dealer over a small mistake. Dan O’Brien tried to calm the situation down, and Nguyen took offense to him chiming in with a defense of the dealer. Shortly after that, Nguyen decided to play a hand completely blind against O’Brien and ended up giving the young pro more than 100,000 in chips before finally taking a peek and mucking on the river.

Nguyen was clearly upset with O’Brien, but the barrage of F-bombs were unfortunately unloaded on the quiet and polite man sitting to his right. The action started with the unknown player, who raised to 24,000 in the cutoff. Nguyen reraised to roughly 50,000 on the button, and the cutoff then reraised to 150,000. Nguyen called, and the flop came K 7 3.

The cutoff moved all in, and Nguyen called all in with 7 4 for a pair and a flush draw. His opponent showed pocket aces, but they were cracked when the turn and river came 5 and 7, giving Nguyen the winning hand with trips. Nguyen immediately slammed the felt when the river fell and began screaming obscenities toward the cutoff and the rest of the table, explaining that he was tired of people messing with him. The unknown player, clearly devastated by the hand and left with just a few big blinds, could only sit quietly as Nguyen scooped the huge pot. Despite immediately receiving a 10-minute penalty, Nguyen took his time stacking the million-plus pot, carefully maneuvering each chip around his beer before taking his punishment.

The day came to an abrupt end just 20 minutes later, and the remaining 36 players bagged and tagged their chips for the evening. They will return on Thursday to play down to the money at 27 and continue towards the final table.

Here’s a look at the field and their chip counts heading into day 4.

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