Jacobo Fernandez
On a board of , JC Tran checks, Jacobo Fernandez (pictured right) bets 10,000, and JC Tran makes it 30,000 almost immediately. Fernandez min raises right back to 60,000. JC Tran calls. The turn is the , putting a flush out there. JC Tran checks, and Jacobo takes about 5 full minutes before checking. The river is the , and JC bets out enough to put Jacobo all in. Jacobo goes in the tank for another long time, but eventually calls. JC turns up , and Jacobo flips over for the winner.
The pot is close to 400,000. JC Tran is down to about 350,000, and Jacobo is the chip leader.
On a board of , Steven Dannenmann moves all-in and gets the smaller all-in move from Daniel Alaei the big stack folds and Steve shows for the flush draw and Daniel tables for top pair. The takes Steve down to 13K.
Richard Tatalovich tried not to look too smug as he pondered the board; his all-in button in the pot and his cards exposed. Tatalovich held to his opponent's AQ. Tatalovich had rivered a magical third ten to best his opponent's flopped pair of aces.
Tatalovich started the day with a shorter stack of 48,300, but now is feeling comfortably average.
Bill Edler playing on table 12 called me over and pointed to the next table, which is table 9.
"OK, tell me who is the third best player at that table."
Table nine as we pointed out below has this lineup.
Barry Greenstein Seat 6
Lee Markholt Seat 7
Michael Mizrachi Seat 1
Nam Le Seat 2
Greg Duros Seat 5
Lester Naquin Seat 9
Francois Norpetlain Seat 3
David Slan Seat 4
Van Zakarain Seat 8
I told Bill I couldn't even tell him who the fourth best player at that table was.
He replied: "The problem is, whomever you pick as the third best player at the table, might also be the best player in the world."
Vinny Procopio busted Francis Cipriano. If you switch "busted" with "whacked" you have a storyline from The Sopranos. Vinny P had A-J and Frankie C had Q-J. Both players flopped trip Jacks and thats when all the money went into the pot worth over 100K. Vinny P now has over 105K.
Sean McCabe came by before the start of Day Three and told us he only got about five hours sleep, he wanted more but: "My brain just wouldn't let me sleep, something about a poker tournament."
Sean entered today with 272,600 in 5th chip position.
The Great Wall
Chipleader JC Tran arrived during hand one and began stacking his chips and stacking his chips aaaaaaaaaaand stacking this chips. Slowly a pier of stacks began creeping further and further out into the center of the table. Now we are not sure this was an intimidation play by JC but during hand #5 JC casually a 15K raise out while he kept to the task of stacking. After two very long thoughtful folds, Loi Phan in seat one looks to the dealer and says: "Give me that blue button." The dealers here at LAPC have a big blue ALL-IN button they those out for every all-in bet.
JC thought for a moment and folded his hand and went back to stacking his 545 chips, down a few to the Big Blue Button.