L.A. Poker Classic -- $10,000 Heads-Up Day 1The Field Plays Down to the Final 13 Players on Day 1 |
|
The $10,000 heads-up no-limit hold’em championship event at the 2010 L.A. Poker Classic began today at Commerce Casino in Southern California. The tournament attracted a field of 39 players, and a random draw for initial pairings began the day. Seven preliminary matches would determine the final spots in the winners bracket of 32 players to start the day. CardPlayer.com provided live coverage throughout the event and will continue coverage for day 2 tomorrow.
Each match began with the two players holding 20,000 in chips, and the blinds kicked off at 100-200 for the first 30-minute level. The tournament was played out using a double-elimination-bracket format. When the dust settles, one player will emerge undefeated on the winners side of the bracket, and one player will emerge with one loss from the losers bracket to play in the heads-up final for a top prize worth $152,200. Commerce Casino has also added a $10,000 seat in the main event for the winner of this heads-up tournament. It will be a fierce battle for the money with just the top four spots getting paid. Here is a look at the payout structure:
1: $152,200 and $10,000 seat in main event
2: $76,100
3: $45,660
4: $30,440
Many of the play-in matches wrapped up quickly to start the day, but the play-in matches that featured Erik Seidel vs. Nick Rampone and Chad Brown vs. Michael Baxter stretched out for five levels before Rampone and Brown each won their matches. Here is how the winners side of the bracket looked at the start of play:
Winners Bracket Round of 32:
Winners in BOLD
Top Half
Victor Ramdin vs. Stefan Christopher
Steve Sung vs. Andy Bloch
Olivier Busquet vs. Anthony Guetti
Erick Lindgren vs. Chris Moore (pictured above right)
Rick Salomon vs. Kagawa Masaki
Frank Kassela vs. Ryan D’Angelo
Bottom Half
Brian Hacker vs. Alex Keating
Ryan Milisits vs. Vivek Rajkumar
Carlos Mortensen vs. Michael Binger
Thomas Gabriel vs. Eugene Katchalov
The matches played out at various speeds during the next level, as well, and some players advanced quickly, while other matches got stuck in the mud. By the time the final 16 had emerged, many players had been eliminated after a second loss on the loser’s side of the bracket. Check out the list below to see all of the 27 players that were eliminated on the first day of play. Here is what the sweet 16 finally looked like when the round of 32 wrapped up:
Winners Bracket Sweet 16:
Winners in BOLD
Top Half
Nick Rampone vs. Victor Ramdin
Andy Bloch vs. Anthony Guetti
Chris Moore vs. Scott Fischman
Rick Salomon vs. Frank Kassela
Bottom Half
Daniel Smith vs. Aaron Jones
Alex Keating vs. Vivek Rajkumar
Chad Brown vs. Michael Binger
David Singer vs. Thomas Gabriel
Both Chris Moore and Vivek Rajkumar quickly charged through the Sweet 16 to the Elite Eight. It appeared that they were set to repeat a showdown in the championship match as they did in 2009. Rajkumar took the top honors last year, winning $350,000, and Moore took home $190,000 in second place. Here is a look at which players joined them in the elite eight today:
Winners Bracket Elite Eight:
Top Half
Winners in BOLD
Victor Ramdin vs. Anthony Guetti
Chris Moore vs. Frank Kassela
Bottom Half
Aaron Jones vs. Vivek Rajkumar
Michael Binger vs. Thomas Gabriel
The elite eight was a fast and harmless process on the winners side of the bracket. Michael Binger advanced to face Aaron Jones tomorrow, while Anthony Guetti won to move on to a match against the defending runner-up Moore. Rajkumar lost his elite eight match and, for the second year in a row, he will have to win the losers bracket if he is to have any hope at winning the tournament. Moore has now made the final four on the winner’s side for a second year in a row.
Schedule for Tomorrow:
Winners Bracket Final 4:
Top Half
Anthony Guetti vs. Chris Moore
Bottom Half
Aaron Jones vs. Michael Binger
Day 1 Eliminations:
Erik Seidel, Scott Montgomery, Jonas Entin, Michael Baxter, Amit Makhija, Ryan Milisits, Brian Hacker, Aaron Been, Ryan D’Angelo, Kagawa Masaki, Josh Arieh, Steve Sung, Ryan Hughes, Erick Lindgren, Andy Bloch, Rick Salomon, Chad Brown, Olivier Busquet, Scott Clements, Gavin Smith, Stefan Christopher, Scott Fischman, Carlos Mortensen, Mike Leah, Nathan Dowdney, and Nick Schulman all lost two matches on day 1 and were eliminated from the tournament. There were eight players that lost only one match on the first day and they will return as the final eight on the losers side of the bracket tomorrow with a shot at redemption.
Losers Bracket Elite 8 + 1:
Top Half
Eugene Katchalov vs. Vivek Rajkumar
Daniel Gabriel vs. Nick Rampone
Bottom Half
David Singer vs. Victor Ramdin
Frank Kassela vs. winner of Alex Keating and Daniel Smith (noon match per player agreement)
Day 2 begins tomorrow at 2 p.m. You can follow along with all of the action in live updates on CardPlayer.com throughout the day.
Copyright © 2001-2024
CardPlayer.com. All rights reserved.
