$10,000 No Limit Hold'em Championship Day 4 | 2009 L.A. Poker Classic

02-24-2009 20:02 UTC-7

Play Resumes

Cards are back in the air. It seems that Matt Savage has made the decision to play down to 18 tonight, regardless of how long that takes. Given that 31 players are still in the field, he thinks one extra level will be necessary.

Level: 21

Blinds: 5,000/10,000

Ante: 1,000

02-24-2009 19:48 UTC-7

Break Time

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The players are on a fifteen-minute break. It's the last break of the night.

02-24-2009 19:43 UTC-7

Bertrand Grospellier Eliminated in 32nd Place ($38,085)

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Binh Nguyen put in the first raise, which cleared out half the table; Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier put in the second raise, which cleared out the other half. Nguyen gave his decision some deliberation before moving all in. He had Grospellier covered. ElkY quickly called all in and the cards were on their backs:

Nguyen: {A-Diamonds}

Grospellier: {J-Clubs}

Grospellier ducked Nguyen's overcard outs with a flop of {3-Diamonds}

, but the

was just about the worst possible non-overcard to hit the turn, as it gave Nguyen a pile of additional outs. The {7-Diamonds}

that fell on the river was one of them, as it made a flush for each player. Nguyen's was the best flush, and as a result Grospellier was eliminated in 32nd place.

Tags: Bertrand Grospellier Binh Nguyen

02-24-2009 19:42 UTC-7

A New Chip Leader Emerges

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Chris Ferguson is the new chip leader with 1.14 million in chips. Judging by Kofi Farkye's decimated stack of approximately 270,000, it's easy to deduce where Ferguson found his chips.

02-24-2009 19:42 UTC-7

Dan O'Brien Sprinting Up the Leaderboard

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No, not this Dan O'Brien; we're referring to the Dan O'Brien pictured here. Not long ago, O'Brien was sitting with around 110,000 in chips and we recently counted him at 650,000. It only takes a few hands of watching him play to understand how he's able to accumulate so many chips so fast. A recent flyby of his table produced back-to-back hands in which he came over the top of preflop raisers, winning both.

Notably, O'Brien finished 33rd in the 2008 Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic back in December, scoring a $36,000 payday.

Tags: Dan O'Brien

02-24-2009 19:15 UTC-7

D'Auria and Arjang Trade Places

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Donnie D'Auria, meet Payman Arjang. Payman Arjang, meet Donnie D'Auria. Arjang led out for 100,000 on a flop of {9-Spades}

. D'Auria checked how much Arjang was playing (about 400,000), then moved all in. Arjang quickly called and tabled {10-Clubs}

for top two pair. D'Auria showed {K-Clubs}

for two overcards and a gutshot draw. When the {2-Diamonds}

hit the turn, D'Auria was down to only a jack to squeeze out the victory and eliminate Arjang. The river was a face card, but it was a useless {K-Diamonds}

.

After the chips were shipped to Arjang, he stacked up at roughly 800,000. D'Auria, the WPT Boot Camp freeroller, is down to 425,000.

Tags: Donnie D'Auria Payman Arjang

02-24-2009 18:53 UTC-7

Top Ten Chip Counts

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After three full levels of play, the field seems to have leveled out significantly, as there are currently no million-dollar stacks in the field. Once more, your top ten, courtesy of www.worldpokertour.com:

Donnie D'Auria - 922,000
Kofi Farkye - 765,000
Tom Braband - 740,000
Dan Lu - 725,000
Pat Walsh - 680,000
Chris Karagulleyan - 670,000
Peter Feldman - 660,000
Mike Sowers - 650,000
Nick Schulman - 610,000
Mark Bryan - 535,000

02-24-2009 18:35 UTC-7