$10,000 No Limit Hold'em Championship Day 2 | 2009 L.A. Poker Classic

Level: 9

Blinds: 300/600

Ante: 75

02-22-2009 16:34 UTC-7

Play Resumes

[user75032]

Cards are back in the air. The presumed chip leader is Antonio Esfandiari, who has 230,000.

02-22-2009 16:28 UTC-7

Act Like You've Been There Before

[user75032]

At a tournament like the L.A. Poker Classic, in a field that is stocked with poker talent, it's easy to overlook the lesser-known players. But sometimes, a hand goes down that's so interesting it makes it's way into the blog. This is one of those hands.

At Todd Brunson's table, a player opened with a preflop raise to 1,600. The player immediately behind him reraised to 4,500; the player immediately behind that player made it 14,500. Everyone folded back to the first reraiser. He thought things over, then moved all in for roughly 35,000.

His opponent stood up and took three steps away from the table to call out to a friend. "Hey! Hey!" he shouted. "I have aces and he puts me all in." He then came back to the table and announced a call. He waited until his opponent turned over pocket kings before showing {A-Spades}

.

It was at that point that Todd Brunson started calling for a king. It didn't come. The board ran out {5-?}

to eliminate the player with pocket kings.

After the hand, Mr. Aces asked Brunson why he was looking for a king to hit the board.

"Because you slowrolled him," Brunson replied. "You walked away from the table. You should have a dead hand."

Tournament Director Matt Savage appeared at the table. He listened to Brunson's story and assessed a one-orbit penalty on Mr. Aces for leaving the table during the hand. The player with kings brought a friend of his own to the table, who asked Savage why the hand wasn't dead. He wanted to know what the ruling was.

"I made my ruling," said Savage. "It's not changing. The hand's over. Now you're just angling to win the pot."

Savage stacked Mr. Aces' chips while he was cooling his heels on the rail. All told, they added up to 108,000. When the players come back from the break, we'll try to get his name.

02-22-2009 16:22 UTC-7

PokerNews Exclusive Video: Hevad Khan

[user38449]

The last time our Melissa Castello hooked up with Team PokerStars Pro Hevad Khan, they played a friendly game of war in Macau — the loser forced to eat a handful of freeze dried squid shred, aka 'Cuttle Fish.' This time around the conversation centered primarily around poker and the LAPC, although a brief discussion about playing Wii Tennis for money snuck into the interview.

Tags: Hevad Khan

02-22-2009 16:18 UTC-7

Break Time

[user75032]

Players are on a fourteen-minute break.

02-22-2009 16:02 UTC-7

Pham Motoring!

[user75032]

David Pham had yet another opponent all in. His pocket nines were in the lead against his opponent's {A-?}

. Pham's opponent made a pair on the flop, but a pair of fours -- {4-?}

. He never improved from there, as the turn and river blanked {J-?}

. Pham raked in the pot, improving his count to 114,000.

Tags: David Pham

02-22-2009 15:53 UTC-7

"The Oracle" Can't Foresee His Own Fate

[user75032]

After a few quick words with Tournament Director Matt Savage, Roy Winston exited the tournament room. The word on the floor is that his pocket aces were overcome by an opponent's ace-four.

Tags: Roy Winston

02-22-2009 15:45 UTC-7

Top Ten Chip Counts

[user38449]

Here's a look at your current top ten, courtesy of www.worldpokertour.com:

Antonio Esfandiari - 186,000
K.J. Nam - 185,000
Kofi Farkye - 126,000
Anthony Venturini - 125,000
Dan O'Brien - 115,000
Danny Wong - 102,000
John Phan - 97,000
Kevin Schaffel - 95,350
David Pham - 95,000
Jeff Madsen - 92,000

** A note about our chip count page: Until the field reaches double digit status, the media restrictions in place make it virtually impossible for us to keep up with the counts of the 300+ remaining players in the field. Therefore, the counts you'll find on the chip count page at the moment are from the beginning of Day 2. If you're interested in a particular player, let us know in the Shout Box and we'll do our best to provide an update.

Tags: Antonio Esfandiari

02-22-2009 15:30 UTC-7

Sexton Lives On

[user75032]

Mike Sexton is best known to poker-television watchers across the country as the voice of the WPT. He's in today's field, seated at the same table as Al "Sugar Bear" Barbieri and Jimmy Fricke. The three got tangled in a big pot preflop. Barbieri opened with a raise to 1,800 that Fricke called. Sexton reraised to 8,000, about 40% of his stack.

Barbieri wasn't happy to see that raise; he mucked his hand. Fricke responded by immediately moving all in. He had Sexton well-covered.

Sexton commented that he thought his problem would be getting by Barbieri. He took a swig from a bottle of Pepsi on a service tray by the table, then moved his chips in. He showed {A-Clubs}

to Fricke's {9-Diamonds}

.

"Well, I'm in about as good a shape as I can be," Sexton remarked. His shape was significantly better on a flop of {2-Hearts}

. The turn {5-Clubs}

and river

both missed Fricke. He cut 20,700 chips off his stack and passed them to Sexton, who now has about 44,000 chips.

Tags: Al Barbieri Jimmy Fricke Mike Sexton

02-22-2009 15:19 UTC-7

Khan Artist

[user38449]

Hevad Khan was recently involved in a heads-up pot that left him shaking his head.

Khan and his opponent saw a {Q-Clubs}

flop after a preflop min-raise and call. The action was checked to Khan in position and he fired a 1,500 bet; his opponent made the call.

The dealer then burned and turned the {4-Spades}