2009 L.A. Poker Classic

Andy Bloch got things started preflop by raising to 425. He was called by two players in late position to a flop of . Bloch followed through on his preflop raise with a flop bet of 700. Only one of his opponents called.

Both players checked the turn. When the river fell , Bloch made what he must have thought was a value bet of 1,200. We can only imagine his surprise when his opponent called and turned over a very soft-played , which bested Bloch's , queens and tens.

Bloch is struggling with 9,000 chips.

Now that late registration is officially closed, we have the final numbers for the 2009 L.A. Poker Classic Main Event. 696 players entered this tournament for $10,000 each, creating a prize pool of $6,681,600. 63 players will be paid, with the winner of the tournament taking home the lion's share of the money -- $1,686,760.

John Juanda had a quick and brutal day here at the L.A. Poker Classic Main Event. It started out, as these things often do, innocently enough with a preflop raise by Juanda to 400. Action folded to Jeff Manthe in the big blind. He called to a flop of , where he check-called another bet of 425 from Juanda.

The turn fell . Upon seeing that card, Manthe bet into Juanda for 900. Juanda called, bringing the two men to the river . Manthe went back into his shell, checking the action to Juanda. He made a huge overbet, moving all in for 8,500. Manthe quickly called.

"You got the straight?" Juanda asked.

"I have a full house," Manthe replied. He showed . Juanda mucked his own hand, collected his things and left the table.

Two members of the November Nine (Chino Rheem and Scott Montgomery) are already out. Another had to hit a miracle river to stay in the tournament. Dennis Phillips started the hand in question with roughly 7,000 of his original 20,000 chips. He called a preflop raise to 400 made by Robert Mizrachi. Action folded to Chau Giang in the big blind, who reraised enough to fold Mizrachi. Phillips made that his cue to push his whole stack in the middle. Giang called.

Phillips:
Giang:

Phillips found no joy on the flop. The on the turn left him looking for a miracle card on the river. He hit it; a spiked to make a full house for Phillips. He doubled up to about 14,500 in chips.

Cards are back in the air.

Daniel Negreanu - 26,000
Phil Hellmuth - 20,500
Kenny Tran - 26,000
Phil Ivey - 18,000
John Phan - 27,500
Michael Binger - 18,000
Ryan Young - 36,000

Young's count is notable for the fact that he was all in on the turn and waaaaaaay behind. He was one of four players that took a raised flop of . Young raised after the big blind opened the betting. Everyone else got out of the way; the big blind called. When the turn blanked , all of the rest of the chips were in. Young showed for two pair; his opponent had a better two pair with . A nine spiked on the river to give Young a full house and an improbable victory.

Players are on a fifteen-minute break.

Hevad Khan is quietly doing his thing here at the LAPC. Yes, we said quietly. Ever since he burst onto the scene at the 2007 World Series of Poker with some crazy antics, Khan has been a model poker player, routinely taking and giving beats in relative quiet.

Khan is up to 42,500 today after sending a player to the rail. We don't know how the two of them got to the river, but on the river of a board, Khan moved all in and was called. Khan showed , having flopped a double belly-buster draw that filled on the river to give him the nuts. His opponent showed pocket sixes for a flopped set, 666. It was an incredibly unlucky number for him; his day is over.

Jean-Robert Bellande is out of the tournament. Again, details are sparse. We're sending an operative to the heads-up PLO tables downstairs with an offer of spotting Bellande an extra card every hand if he'll give us the story of his elimination.

No sooner had Bellande left the room than Vivek Rajkumar turned up and took his seat. Rajkumar was the winner very late last night of the $10,000 Heads-Up Championship and there was some idle speculation as to whether he would skip the Main Event as a result.