Three days are in the books at the World Poker Tour (WPT) Bellagio Cup V. Faraz “The-Toilet” Jaka holds a commanding lead over the rest of the field. His stack of 3.2 million, or 20% of the chips in play, is nearly three times larger than the second place tally.
The poker gods smiled down upon Jaka for most of Thursday’s play at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. In fact, Jaka made quads to send two players home on back-to-back hands. In the first, Jaka was dealt pocket kings and the flop came K-10-4. Jaka check-called a bet from his opponent with top set to see the turn fall a six. Both players checked and the river brought the case king, giving Jaka four of a kind. Jaka’s opponent shoved all-in and was happily called. Due to the elimination, the tables were redrawn at 36 players. Jaka stayed at his table, but moved one seat over.
On the first hand at his new digs, Jaka was dealt bullets. Poker pro David Levi pushed all-in pre-flop with pocket queens and Jaka called. The flop came A-3-2, once again giving Jaka top set, and the turn was an ace, improving him to quads. The hands ballooned Jaka’s chip stack to 2.8 million. He would end the day strong, piling on 3.2 million chips, which puts him in an ideal position to make a run at the final table. The money bubble will officially burst on Friday when 27 players remain; a total of 31 will start the day.
Anthony “holdplz” Spinella holds the second largest stack in the room at 1.2 million. Spinella sent fellow online poker player Jeremiah Vinsant to the rails after coming out on the winning end of a race with K-Q against pocket jacks. The flop came Q-8-3, sending Spinella out in front in the hand. Needing to hit one of the two remaining jacks in the deck to stay alive, Vinsant watched as the turn came a four and the river came an ace. Spinella also improved his chip stack at the expense of Josh Schlein. On a board of A-K-3-K, Spinella check-called a bet of 68,000 from Schlein. The river came a queen and the action went check-check. Spinella turned over K-Q for a boat, while Schlein mucked.
Here are the top 10 chip stacks entering Day 4 of the WPT Bellagio Cup V on Friday:
1. Faraz Jaka – 3,214,000
2. Anthony Spinella – 1,249,000
3. Ray Taylor – 775,000
4. Christopher Sonesson – 717,000
5. Pavel Reshetov – 710,000
6. Alec Torelli – 703,000
7. Alex Kravchenko – 681,000
8. Justin Smith – 602,000
9. Joshua Schlein – 558,000
10. Samer George – 540,000
The reigning Bellagio Cup champion, Mike “SirWatts” Watson, was sent home during play on Thursday. Watson pushed all-in pre-flop over the top of a raise by Javed Abrahams with pocket sixes. Abrahams called and flipped over A-Q for a race situation. The flop came 10-10-7, keeping Watson out in front, but an ace on the turn improved Abrahams to aces-up. The river was a five, eliminating last year’s winner. Watson defeated David Benyamine in the Bellagio Cup IV to earn $1.6 million. This year, the event will award just less than $1.2 million to its champion.
Other notable poker pros who remain in the hunt include:
11. Erik Seidel – 535,000
13. Jonathan Little – 483,000
15. Mimi Tran – 457,000
17. Freddy Deeb – 413,000
20. Adam Geyer – 313,000
26. Kevin Saul – 196,000
27. Hoyt Corkins – 188,000
29. Vivek Rajkumar – 137,000
The televised six-handed final table will pan out on Sunday at the Bellagio and air on Fox Sports Net as part of Season 8 of the WPT. Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest WPT results.
