[user75032]
Top pair wasn't good enough for Andy Le. We came to his table with the board showing . Le led out for 25,000 before Donald D'Auria raised all in. D'Auria had Le covered, putting him to a tough decision. He elected to call all in with ; D'Auria turned over .
"Ahhh, good hand," said Le. Then he turned to the dealer, "Five!" asking for a five on the river for a chop. The river fell , sending Le out of the tournament in 55th place.
[user75032]
Dan Shak made a play at the pot. In lots of scenarios, his play would have worked. But today he made his move at the wrong time.
Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier opened the preflop action with a button raise to 9,000. Shak, sitting in the big blind, was the only caller. On a flop of , Shak checked to Grospellier, who bet 12,500. Shak immediately announced, "I'm all in." Grospellier snap-called and tabled for a set of sixes, prompting Shak to glumly add, "I'm all gone." He showed , which was drawing dead after the turn . The river cemented Shak's loss.
When the stacks were counted down, Grospellier had Shak covered by a single blue (500) chip. Shak stood up, grabbed his belongings, and headed to the payout counter. Grospellier now has 292,000.
[user38449]
Alberto Cerdeiro
Short stacks are... or were... aplenty over on Table 35, but Mark Bryan was able to take care of that problem, landing one seriously fatal blow that knocked out three of them.
Paul Smith opened the pot with an all-in raise from early position for about 17,000. Sitting to Smith's immediate left was fellow short stack Ray Qurtomy who made the call for all of his chips -- approximately 8,000. Action then folded to Alberto Cerdeiro, Commerce's last remaining First Steps qualifier, who made the call. Two more folds brought the action to Poker Battle's Nenad Medic, who considered a call but eventually folded. Next to act was Bryan, who opted for a reraise, making it 60,000 to go. No newcomers joined in, so the action returned to Cerdeiro who decided to move all in for about 110,000. Bryan made the call, setting the stage for the following four-way preflop showdown:
Smith:
Qurtomy:
Cerdeiro:
Bryan:
The board then ran out and Bryan's aces held strong to take down the pot, sending Smith, Qurtomy and Cerdeiro to the rail. The win shot Bryan a little further up the leaderboard as he now sits with approximately 340,000 in chips. Cerdiero, Smith and Qurtomy finished in 59th, 60th and 61st place respectively and each will take home $23,052 in prize money.
As a participant in Commerce's First Steps promotion, Cerdeiro also won a $10,000 seat into the 2010 L.A. Poker Classic for being the last First Steps qualifier standing. Were he to have gone on to win the championship, he would've received an additional $50,000 from Commerce, in addition to the seat. After the buzz from the hand simmered down, Tournament Director Matt Savage informed the room that Cerdeiro is officially the first player registered for the 2010 L.A.P.C.
[user38449]
Paul Darden and short stack David Daneshgar have been eliminated from the tournament in 62nd and 63rd place respectively. Each will take home $23,052 in prize money.
[user75032]
You would think, with all of the short stacks in the field, that somebody would have busted by now. And you'd be wrong. Every short stack that's been all in -- including the shortest of them all, David Daneshgar -- has survived. David Pham and Men Nguyen were both all in in the same hand against Andre Akkari. Akkari held pocket threes; Nguyen tabled pocket kings; and Pham, the shortest of the three stacks, showed . Pham won the main pot by connecting hard with a board of ; Nguyen took the side pot with unimproved kings against Akkari's unimproved threes.
Over on Table 35, the table where not a single player is even close to the average chip stack, preflop action moved to Cody Slaubaugh, who raised 51,000 over the top of a preflop raise from Nenad Medic. With 60,000 chips in the pot, Medic visibly deliberated Slaubaugh's range and the chips up for grabs before moving all in for 31,500 more. Slaubaugh called with ; Medic showed for a race. Medic won the race by flopping top pair, , and runner-runnering the nuts, and for an ace-high straight. He doubled to 216,000 (which is still below par); Slaubaugh is down to just 39,000.
TD Matt Savage has announced that play will stop after five full levels or when 18 players remain -- whichever comes first. It seems unlikely that we'll reach 18 remaining tonight (my personal over/under line is 24) but it's good to know there's a plan in place in the event that things move faster than expected.
[user75032]
It's Day 4 at the 2009 L.A. Poker Classic Main Event. Sixty-three players have survived three grueling days and 16 levels of poker to make it to this point. With a guaranteed payday secured, they'll now be jockeying for a deep run and more prize money.
Antonio Esfandiari was the last remaining former LAPC WPT champion in the field. He started Day 3 with the chip lead, but wound up bubbling just off the money in 65th place. With his elimination, we are assured of crowning a new champion on Thursday evening.
The top three players in the chip counts -- Kofi Farkye (837,500), Mike Sowers (741,500) and Donald D'Auria (666,500) -- have a leg up on the field, but it's a long row to hoe from here to the six-handed final table. There are still two full days of poker to play before we get there and as Antonio Esfandiari can freshly attest, anything can happen between now and then.
Cards will be in the air in 20 minutes. Despite running about 15 minutes into Level 17 last night, the tournament clock is currently set for a full 90 minutes of Level 17 to start the day. Keep your browser pointed to PokerNews throughout the day for live updates from the tournament floor!
![[user75032]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
. Le led out for 25,000 before Donald D'Auria raised all in. D'Auria had Le covered, putting him to a tough decision. He elected to call all in with 
; D'Auria turned over 
.
, sending Le out of the tournament in 55th place.
, Shak checked to Grospellier, who bet 12,500. Shak immediately announced, "I'm all in." Grospellier snap-called and tabled 
for a set of sixes, prompting Shak to glumly add, "I'm all gone." He showed 
, which was drawing dead after the turn 
. The river 
cemented Shak's loss.
. Pham won the main pot by connecting hard with a board of 
; Medic showed 
for a race. Medic won the race by flopping top pair, 
, and runner-runnering the nuts, 
and 
