Final Table Set at L.A. Poker Classic Main EventIt Took 14 Hours on Day 5 to Decide the Final Six at Commerce Casino |
|
Carlos Mortensen, Annie Duke, Steve Sung, Mark Newhouse, and Johnny Chan. Those familiar names and faces will not be at Thursday’s WPT L.A. Poker Classic main-event final table.
What started as a potentially star-studded affair has turned into the kind of television that perhaps only a mother could love. But we should probably take a closer look at last year’s LAPC main-event before we pass judgment. It wasn’t too long ago that the same could be said for Cornel Andrew Cimpan, and all he did was go on to win two World Poker Tour titles and become a serious contender for Card Player’s Player of the Year award.
On Wednesday, while Cimpan was spending his time at the high-stakes cash tables downstairs, a group of 22 players gathered in the Commerce Casino ballroom to fight their ways to the final table. The action started out just as it had been the entire tournament, fast and furious. But once the final table was reached, it became a long and grueling process to determine the final six.
A pair of online superstars in Dylan “ImaLucSac” Linde and Dan “Wretchy” Martin were the first to go, and they were quickly followed by Annie Duke, who had rode the short stack for quite some time before she lost a race to end her tournament.
Former champion Mark Newhouse was looking for his first trip back to the bright lights of the WPT set since 2006, but his run came to an end in 13th place. The star power took another serious hit right after that when 10-time WSOP bracelet holder Johnny Chan hit the rail. After Mari Lou Morelli, the last female in the tournament, was eliminated, the players combined to form the final table of 10.
Tim “BegsClutch” Begley went first, but there was a long stretch of time before the next player busted. Finally, after being blinded down to his last 290,000, Carlos Mortensen made his move with A
4, only to run into Jim Casement’s pocket tens. The pair held, and Mortensen went out in ninth place.
Steve Sung then moved all in on an eight-high flop with pocket queens, only to discover Andras Koroknai was holding pocket kings. The turn and river were blanks, and yet another former WPT final-tablist was eliminated.
It wasn’t until nearly 3 a.m. that the final player was eliminated. Jim Casement made a move at the wrong time with a dominated ace, and Koroknai scored his final knockout of the evening to end the day with the chip lead.
Here’s a look at the chip counts:
Seat 1 — J.C. Moussa — 1,360,000
Seat 2 — Gevork Kasabyan — 2,000,000
Seat 3 — Tri Huyhn — 2,565,000
Seat 4 — Raymond Dolan — 3,300,000
Seat 5 — Michael Kamran — 680,000
Seat 6 — Andras Koroknai — 4,995,000
Copyright © 2001-2024
CardPlayer.com. All rights reserved.
