2009 L.A. Poker Classic
$10,000 No Limit Hold'em Championship
Day: 5
Sowers Tough with Two
Another 100K Hit for Ferguson
Billy Pilossoph Eliminated in 20th Place ($44,433)
Ferguson's Chip Lead Evaporates
When the stacks were counted down, Bryan had 503,000 chips. He doubled to just over one million; that 503,000-chip hit knocked Ferguson back to 1,218,000.
Cahail Doubles through Nguyen
Nguyen:
Cahail:
The flop fell , no help to either player but giving Nguyen a gutshot draw. That draw filled when the hit the turn, but Cahail made a bigger straight with the that hit the river to double up to 576,000. Nguyen took the hit to 842,000.
Level: 23
Blinds: 8,000/16,000
Ante: 2,000
Shuffle Up and Deal!
The Final Push
The odds-on favorite at the start of play today has to be Chris Ferguson. The grizzled veteran and member of Team Full Tilt is known for his patient tournament style and his ability to steadily accumulate chips. He's at the top of the leaderboard to start the day, leading all runners with 1,721,000 chips, more than double the 696,000 average stack. Ferguson is not a "blaster", so don't expect him to dust off those chips any time short of the last table.
But any one of the remaining twenty players could be the next champion. As long as they have chips, they're not out of the tournament yet. We'll be paying special attention to short-stacked Teddy "the Iceman" Monroe, who had the rail in stitches yesterday with his unique brand of poker commentary.
When play kicks off in fifteen minutes, players will be at the same tables as they were at when Day 4 concluded. That table draw is as follows:
Table 1
Seat 1: Xuan Nguyen (1,130,000)
Seat 2: Blake Cahail (310,000)
Seat 3: Nick Schulman (850,000)
Seat 4: Donnie D'Auria (242,000)
Seat 5: Binh Nguyen (1,040,000)
Seat 7: Danny Lu (662,000)
Seat 8: Payman Arjang (1,488,000)
Table 2
Seat 1: Tam Ly (603,000)
Seat 2: Chris Ferguson (1,721,000)
Seat 3: Pat Walsh (760,000)
Seat 4: Cornel Andrew Cimpan (164,000)
Seat 5: Jeremy Kottler (614,000)
Seat 8: Mark Bryan (561,000)
Seat 9: Zach Hyman (320,000)
Table 3
Seat 2: Chris Karagulleyan (1,146,000)
Seat 3: Mike Sowers (626,000)
Seat 4: Peter Feldman (423,000)
Seat 5: Billy Pilossoph (188,000)
Seat 6: Teddy Monroe (264,000)
Seat 9: Matt Woodward (771,000)
PokerNews will have all the action throughout the day. Feel free to follow along.