The March to the Final Table Continues
The final 24 players in the LAPT Season 3 Grand Final will return in less than two hours to play down to a final table and their shot at a $322,280 payday. Yesterday was full of eliminations including a laundry list of poker pros. Maria Mayrinck, Veronica Dabul, Leo Fernandez and Dennis Phillips were just a few of the Team PokerStars Pros who hit the rail short of the money. Likewise, their fellow pro, Jose "Nacho" Barbero, was eliminated midday and his hopes of capturing a third LAPT title came to an abrupt end.
Once the money bubble burst, the eliminations came fast and furious. Team PokerStars Pro Andre Akkari (Brazil) made a deep run and finished in 38th place. Others who made the money but failed to survive the day include Jesper Höög (34th), Jose Nadal (33rd), Eduardo Panno (29th) and Robby Westrom (25th). On the other hand, some familiar faces will return to action today. Nicolas “PKaiser” Fierro, who ended Day 1 as the chip leader with 278,200, held his chip lead throughout much of Day 2; unfortunately, some late night losses saw him drop to just 110,000. Our new chip leader is Francisco de Belaustegui (346,000), but nipping on his heels are a number of players including Bolivar Palacios (342,000), Gerardo Godinez Estrada (331,000), Terrence Chan (324,000) and Angel Guillen (172,000).
Matthias Habernig (272,500), the young Austrian who took down the LAPT Florianopolis title just last month, is still in contention. If Habernig can take down the Grand Final, he will equal Barbero’s feat of claiming back-to-back LAPT titles. The LAPT Grand Final is set to resume at 12:00 ARG to the final table. Stay tuned to PokerNews for up-to-the-mintue news, chip counts and eliminations as players compete for their share of the $1,176,200 prize pool.