A total of 22 players remain in the L.A. Poker Classic, a stop on the World Poker Tour (WPT). 2001 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event champ Carlos Mortensen leads the way with 1.67 million chips.
Mortensen sent Michael Woo to the rails in 23rd place. Woo pushed all-in on a board of J-8-4-3 with three clubs, flipping over pocket queens. Mortensen made the call and showed pocket jacks for top set. Needing to catch one of the two remaining queens in the deck on the river to stay alive, Woo watched as an ace hit, sealing his exit. He picked up $45,000 for his efforts in the $10,000 buy-in poker tournament.
Thirty minutes prior, Mortensen had doubled up through Raymond Dolan. Mortensen held pocket aces in the hand and Dolan held jacks. The hand boosted Mortensen to 960,000 in chips, kicking off “The Matador’s” last–minute surge to the top of the pack. Mortensen has two WPT titles under his belt. He won the Season 3 Doyle Brunson North American Poker Championship for $1 million and also came out on top in the Season 5 WPT Championship for nearly $4 million. He’s second all-time to Daniel Negreanu with $5.26 million in WPT earnings and would become just the second three-time WPT event winner, the other being Gus Hansen.
Mark Newhouse, who held the chip lead entering Day 4 on Monday, finished with the second largest stack at 1.31 million. Newhouse doubled up through Dan “Wretchy” Martin late in the day. On a board of 7-5-3-J-Q, Newhouse pushed all-in for 561,000, nearly the size of the pot, and Martin made the call, flipping up pocket kings for an overpair. Newhouse, however, showed J-7 of spades for a turned two pair, pushing his chip stack to 1.5 million. Martin, meanwhile, dropped to 500,000 after his aces were cracked, but finished the day with 684,000, good for seventh place on the leaderboard.
Also doubling up late in the day was UB.com pro and Poker News Daily Guest Columnist Annie Duke. The top female pro picked a prime spot to shove with A-K pre-flop, as Masa Kagawa called and showed A-Q. The flop came ace-high and no queen came for Kagawa, doubling Duke to 266,000 in chips. She ended the day at 241,000, the second shortest stack in the room next to John Cautela’s 219,000.
Ten-time WSOP bracelet winner Johnny Chan remains in contention and doubled up on Monday with pocket aces against DoylesRoom pro Hoyt Corkins’ pocket kings. The board came 7-7-6-9-8 and Chan moved to 450,000 in chips. He ultimately ended with 406,000, the 17th largest stack entering Day 5. Chan and Doyle Brunson are tied with 10 bracelets each, trailing only Phil Hellmuth’s tally of 11 for most all-time.
When play resumes today at Noon PT at the Commerce Casino in Los Angeles, the blinds will be 6,000-12,000 with an ante of 2,000. The following 22 players remain in the hunt for the top prize of $1.8 million:
1. Carlos Mortensen – 1,669,000
2. Mark Newhouse – 1,308,000
3. Raymond Dolan – 1,229,000
4. Masa Kagawa – 1,129,000
5. Andras Koroknai – 1,002,000
6. Tri Huynh – 942,000
7. Dan “Wretchy” Martin – 684,000
8. Jean-Claude Moussa – 672,000
9. Steve Sung – 671,000
10. Jim Casement – 609,000
11. Tim Begley – 603,000
12. Gevork Kasabyan – 594,000
13. Jamie Brown – 552,000
14. Mari Lou Morelli – 456,000
15. Dylan Linde – 447,000
16. Bob Kairnes – 421,000
17. Johnny Chan – 406,000
18. Danny Fuhs – 379,000
19. Michael Kamran – 327,000
20. Connor Allisen – 324,000
21. Annie Duke – 241,000
22. John Cautela – 219,000
Each player left is assured a $45,000 payday, while the top nine will take home at least $100,000. Despite the tournament already being down to 22 runners, the final table will not take place until Thursday. Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest WPT coverage.
