Regional Championship
Day 3 Completed
Regional Championship
Day 3 Completed
Our 18 starting players have been successfully trimmed down to the requisite nine, setting the final table and putting a period on this Day 3.
When play begain, Kwinsee Tran had the biggest stack in the room, but the field was littered with potential landmines. One of those, Jesse Martin, was very short on chips to start the day, and he managed just one small double up before succumbing as the first casualty. Behind him went Romik Vartzar, and Todd Terry followed him out the door right at the end of the day's first partial level.
Ali Eslami was on the rise through the early stages of the day, thanks in part to a rush of cards. Eslami used pocket aces to win a decent pot off Dylan Wilkerson, then another pair of aces allowed Eslami to dispatch with the dangerous Scott Montgomery. By that point, Eslami was over 400,000, the first to cross that threshold.
Daniel Negreanu actually came close to 400,000 chips yesterday, tailing off at the end of the day to bag up an average stack. As kind as Day 2 was to Kid Poker, Day 3 was equally frustrating from the looks of it. The beginning of Negreanu's demise came at the hands of Wilkerson. In a medium-sized pot, Wilkerson's flopped the nuts on a board. Negreanu saved himself some chips by checking back the river before mucking, but that pot took a bite out of his stack to drop him down around 40 big blinds. Negreanu fell further in another big tangle with Wilkerson just moments later, cursing his luck as the board ( ) counterfeited his mystery cards on the river to kick him back to 84,000.
Negreanu was relieved of the remainder of his stack when was good enough to ship with on a flop. Tim West called him down with , and he didn't have to wait long to catch up. The turn ended Negreanu's hopes of doubling, and the remaining field could breathe a bit easier as another dangerous player walked out of the room.
The elimination of Negreanu put the field on the bubble with 13 players remaining, and it would take four orbits to make it pop. Kyle Bowker had 72,000 chips left when he took his stand with , running his pair smack into Dana Kellstrom's . Things got a lot better for Bowker on the flop, and Kellstrom couldn't believe he was about to lose nearly all of his own chips. The turn was a blank, but the river was the game changer. The dropped off the deck to Kellstrom's utter disbelief, allowing him to re-suck to the win with his overset.
That sent Bowker out as the last unpaid customer, and the final 12 cashers stuck around to play for three more knockouts. Short stacks Joe Parker and Alejandro Garcia were the next two to fall, cueing the final redraw and putting the field one elimination away from a Regional Championship final table.
That unfortunate elimination came at the expense of Kwinsee Tran, the chip leader when play began today. It wasn't the way he'd envisioned it; two of the shortest stacks doubled up at the final table to prolong the day, and Tran's chip count began going in the wrong direction at the same time. He was responsible for one of those doubles, in fact, when David Peters got his money in with his drawing on a flop. Tran had flopped a set with pocket nines, but Peters found his fifth spade on the river to steal the pot and leave Tran crippled. The rest of Tran's money went to Tim West, tens versus jacks to end the day.
For West, it was just gravy on his already-commanding chip lead. Earlier in ten-handed play, West won the largest pot of the tournament in a tangle with chip leader Dylan Wilkerson. The latter went with , running Big Slick right into West's . The turn was scary for West on the board, but the blank river allowed West to double into a huge chip lead. Wilkerson was crippled, but he managed to limp into the final table with less than 100,000 chips.
The stage is set for tomorrow, and it figures to be a whale of a final table. Tim West is on some kind of heater right now, fresh of a win in the $5,000 Wynn Poker Classic a week ago and a score of well over $300,000. West is looking for an encore victory here in Rincon, but he'll have to dodge the likes of Dwyte Pilgrim, Ali Eslami, and Steve Brecher before he can slip the ring onto his finger.
Here's how the final table will stack up when the final table commences at noon tomorrow:
Seat | Player | Chips |
---|---|---|
1 | Dwyte Pilgrim | 408,000 |
2 | Miller Dao | 99,000 |
3 | David Peters | 437,000 |
4 | Ali Eslami | 395,000 |
5 | D.J. Blanchard | 271,000 |
6 | Tim West | 843,000 |
7 | Dylan Wilkerson | 89,000 |
8 | Steve Brecher | 246,000 |
9 | Dana Kellstrom | 147,000 |
That's all we have for tonight, but we'll be back tomorrow to crown the Western Regional Champion. Until tomorrow then, all that's left is goodnight.
Kwinsee Tran and Tim West got all the money in on the flop of . Tran held the and West the . Without help on the turn or river, the short-stacked Tran would be eliminated from the tournament.
The turn brought the and now Tran was just one card from hitting the rail unless he could find a ten. The river card completed the board with the and that wasn't what Tran needed. Despite starting the day as the chip leader, Tran fell in 10th place as the final table bubble. He took home $19,653 for his finish.
Kwinseee Tran moved all in for 23,000 and action folded to David Peters in the big blind. Peters said, "I'll tell you know, I'm not even going to look," and mucked his hand even though it was only 17,000 more for him to call and he has about 365,000 in chips. Maybe he was feeling bad for the pot he took off Tran earlier when he flushed Tran's set of nines.
Tim West raised to 16,000 from middle position and Dylan Wilkerson reraised to 42,000 from late position. Action moved back to West and he four-bet to 102,000. Wilkerson made it 210,000 with a five-bet and West moved all in for around 300,000. Wilkerson called.
Wilkerson:
West:
Wilkerson was in deep trouble against West's dominating aces and would need a lot of luck if he was going to win this massive 600,000-chip pot.
The board ran out and there was nothing there for Wilkerson. He list the pot, sent over the chips and was left with just 90,000. West now has a little over 600,000 and a big lead on the rest of the table.
Four players paid T14,000 apiece to see a flop, and it came . First to act from the small blind, David Peters shoved all in for 160,000, and Kwinsee Tran wasted no time making the call with the covering stack. The other two players ducked out of the way, and Peters was drawing for his tournament life.
Showdown
Peters:
Tran:
The turn was the wrong color black for Peters, looking for a spade to stay alive. He needed one that didn't pair the board, and the river met those criteria nicely. Peters let out a roaring, "Yes!!!" when his card hit, the river saving his tournament life and doubling him up to about 375,000.
Tran is now quite, quite short with just 40,000 chips left.
Player | Chips | Progress |
---|---|---|
Dwyte Pilgrim
|
450,000 | 40,000 |
Dylan Wilkerson
|
430,000 | -75,000 |
Ali Eslami
|
407,000 | 7,000 |
Tim West | 360,000 | 15,000 |
D.J. Blanchard
|
345,000 | -5,000 |
David Peters
|
235,000 | 109,000 |
Dana Kellstrom | 180,000 | -30,000 |
Kwinsee Tran
|
180,000 | -40,000 |
Steve Brecher
|
165,000 | 15,000 |
Miller Dao
|
145,000 | 15,000 |
Level: 20
Blinds: 3,000/6,000
Ante: 1,000
We're through the 500/2,500/5,000 level with ten players left, and they've been sent out for a 15-minute break. When they return, those pesky gray T500 chips will have been colored up and raced off.
Player | Chips | Progress |
---|---|---|
Dylan Wilkerson
|
505,000 | -10,000 |
Dwyte Pilgrim
|
410,000 | -50,000 |
Ali Eslami
|
400,000 | -20,000 |
D.J. Blanchard
|
350,000 | -2,000 |
Tim West | 345,000 | -35,000 |
Kwinsee Tran
|
220,000 | 5,000 |
Dana Kellstrom | 210,000 | -44,500 |
Steve Brecher
|
150,000 | -30,000 |
Miller Dao
|
130,000 | 31,500 |
David Peters
|
126,000 | -3,000 |