Day 3 of the 2015 World Poker Tour (WPT) L.A. Poker Classic Main Event is in the books and with just 43 players remaining, things should be a bit tense at the Commerce Casino on Tuesday as the final table is within reach. Peter Tran leads the survivors going into Day 4 with 1.369 million chips, making him one of three players to have eclipsed the million chip mark.
Yesterday was also the day during which the money bubble burst. The tournament pays to 63 places, so nearly half the Day 3 field had to be eliminated before checks could start being cut, making it a day of short fingernails and cold sweats for some of the shorter stacks trying to hang on. Mike Leah was the hero of the day, as he was the one to clinch the hand that got rid of the bubble boy, Matt Berkey. Berkey was all-in pre-flop for 100,000 chips with A-9 and Leah called him with A-T. Nothing dramatic happened as the kicker held up and everyone still holding chips could now count on at least a $19,050 pay day.
That hand appeared to slingshot Mike Leah up the leader board to allow him to finish second on the day. He had 410,000 chips at that point (thank you, WPT.com, for the updates) and soon thereafter doubled through Ken Aldridge. It was a hell of an action hand, as Leah had flopped a full house and Aldridge had turned the second nut flush. Leah was up to nearly 800,000 at that point, while Aldridge fell to 77,000.
From there, Leah had fun knocking out some of the smaller stacks to end up with over 1.1 million chips, while Aldridge held on for dear life, surviving all-ins to finish the day with 231,000 chips. That is well below the average stack of about 375,000, but all things considered, not too shabby.
Five World Poker Tour title holders are still alive in the tournament: Daniel Negreanu, who is just below the chip average, Erick Seidel, Scott Seiver, Shawn Buchanan, and Anthony Zinno, who recently won the WPT Fallsview Poker Classic and is currently the leader in the Season XIII Player of the Year Race.
Also still in the hunt is Brent Hart, who entered Day 3 as the chip leader. He didn’t add a ton of chips to his stack yesterday, but his pile of 596,000 is still good for seventh place overall.
2015 World Poker Tour L.A. Poker Classic Main Event – Day 3 Chip Leaders
1. Peter Tran – 1,369,000
2. Mike Leah – 1,185,000
3. Peter Neff – 1,034,000
4. Curt Kohlberg – 990,000
5. Edward Ochana – 831,000
6. Greg Mueller – 695,000
7. Brent Hart – 596,000
8. Kyle Johnson – 584,000
9. Yegor Tsurikov – 549,000
10. Eddy Sabat – 460,000
