Achieving one of his long sought goals, the United Kingdom’s Chris Moorman came out of the gate fast and defeated Glenn Lafaye in heads up play to take down the championship of the World Poker Tour’s L. A. Poker Classic early Friday morning.
Coming to the final table, Moorman was second in chips behind Michael Rocco by more than 2.5 million chips. Rocco, who had used a knockout of Dan O’Brien on Thursday afternoon (on a 10♠ 9♦ 8♦ K♣ flop and turn, Rocco snap-called an O’Brien all in with K♦ Q♦ against O’Brien’s pocket Aces and saw a 6♦ hit the river for a miracle flush) to take his lead, sat at 5.615 million in chips. Moorman, with 3.19 million, was on his immediate left in prime position to work Rocco’s stack, while French actor/poker player Patrick Bruel (2.28 million), Josh Neufeld (1.93 million), Lafaye (1.855 million) and a short stacked Adam Friedman (1.15 million) rounded out the final table.
From the start, Moorman was on the offensive. He would take six of the first nine hands to creep closer to Rocco, but those chips would all go away in one hand. On Hand 10, Rocco made an initial bet and saw Moorman three bet the pot to 185K. Rocco made the call to see an A-J-6 flop, where he would check-call a half million chip bet out of Moorman. Another Ace on the turn brought a bet out of Rocco for a half million chips, which a reluctant Moorman called. On a trey river, Rocco upped the price to over 1 million chips and, after some deliberation, Moorman dropped his hand into the muck. That one hand saw 1.8 million chips head into Rocco’s stack and sent Moorman under his start-of-day stack.
Moorman settled back after that defeat and the rest of the players would get in on the action. Lafaye made a raise on Hand 19 and Friedman placed his remaining stack in the center, which Lafaye called. Friedman was the favorite pre-flop with his pocket fours over Lafaye’s A-J off suit, but an Ace on the flop flipped the fortunes. Looking for a two-outer, Friedman instead saw a deuce and a five complete the board to send him to the exit of the Commerce Casino in sixth place.
Even after his setback, Moorman wasn’t afraid to mix it up. He took a couple of small pots before clashing once again with Rocco, this time with a different outcome and a bit of controversy. After limping in from early position, Rocco saw Moorman pump it up to 130K and Lafaye make the call. Rocco decided to put some pressure on, three betting the action to 460K, but an undaunted Moorman made it 930K to go when the action reached him. Lafaye got out of the way, Rocco called and the duo would check down a 10-3-3 flop. A deuce on the turn brought a 450K bet from Rocco that Moorman would call, but the fireworks wouldn’t start until the river King had been dealt.
With all five cards on the table, Rocco machine-gunned a 930K bet into a pot of almost three million and watched for Moorman’s action. After only a brief amount of time (estimates range in the 30-second timeframe), Rocco requested that the clock be called on Moorman. Tournament Director Matt Savage refused the request and, a couple of minutes later, he pushed all in on the chip leader. After Rocco asked for a count (and an astute audience member shouted, “Clock!” on Rocco), he decided to lay his hand down and Moorman scooped up the pot and the chip lead.
Rocco seemed a bit rattled by the dispute (and the loss) against Moorman, but he wouldn’t let it affect him. Although he would lose another pot to Moorman soon after their huge clash (and Moorman would eliminate Neufeld in fifth with those chips), the twosome would square off once again. On Hand 51, Rocco raised from the button only to face a three bet out of Moorman in the small blind. After checking the 10-7-3 flop, a nine appeared on the turn that drew a bet out of Moorman. Pushing out 455K in chips, Moorman saw Rocco make it 1.5 million to go and made the call. On a river Ace, Moorman checked and Rocco pushed out virtually all of his chips (he only had 370K left) on a 2.1 million bet. Moorman would mull it over for a bit but eventually folded, allowing Rocco to slip back into the lead by less than 300K in chips.
Moorman would slip some more after this, doubling up Bruel in a race (Moorman’s A-K failing to catch Bruel’s pocket fours), but a third challenger would emerge during this time. After Moorman was able to cut some chips out of Rocco’s stack, Lafaye would take over the lead after beating Bruel in a pot. With 75 hands in the books, the four players were within two million chips of each other, so it was truly anyone’s tournament to take.
Over 35 hands later, the quartet was cut to a trio. Moorman popped the bet up to 215K and saw both Bruel and Lafaye come along for the ride. A J-8-2 flop saw Moorman fire another bullet, this time for 265K, but Bruel (who had been quiet for most of the final table) suddenly awoke by moving all in. Lafaye speedily mucked his cards and Moorman called. Showing his A-J, Moorman was ahead of Bruel’s K-8, which held up on the nine turn and Queen river to send Bruel out in fourth place and solidify Moorman’s position behind Lafaye and over Rocco.
Fifteen hands later, Lafaye would reach his apex in the tournament. After taking a pot against Moorman, Lafaye held 11.345 million of the chips in play, with both Moorman (2.475 million) and Rocco (2.2 million) holding the scraps. Three hands later, a stunning three-way all in changed the course of the tournament.
After Lafaye made an initial raise, Rocco would move all in after his bet. Moorman, not stymied by the action in front of him, moved all in over Rocco’s stack and, stunningly, Lafaye made the call of both players. Turning up their hands, the trio looked at their possibilities:
Lafaye: Q♦ J♦
Moorman: 10♣ 10♠
Rocco: A♣ 8♦
The K-Q-J flop immediately pushed Lafaye to the lead, looking to end a WPT event as it had never been finished before. Moorman was looking for an Ace to catch up with Broadway and Rocco could draw ahead with a ten for his own straight, but neither was helped by the trey on the turn. On the river, though, lightning struck…the Ace of spades hit on the river to give Moorman the hand. Lafaye cut some chips from his stack as Rocco was eliminated in third place in the process and Moorman moved on to heads up action against Lafaye (8.27 million) with a miraculous 7.75 million chips.
After that Lazarus-like recovery, Moorman wasn’t going to be denied the championship. He won six of the next ten hands against Rocco to take over the lead and continued to apply pressure until Moorman eventually worked out to a more than 4:1 lead. Although a valiant opponent, Lafaye could never recapture the magic, falling on the last hand to Moorman when he couldn’t catch Moorman’s pocket Aces on a J-7-6-Q-5 board with his 5-4.
1. Chris Moorman, $1,015,460
2. Glenn Lafaye, $662,840
3. Michael Russo, $423,440
4. Patrick Bruel, $332,190
5. Josh Neufeld, $264,520
6. Adam Friedman, $200,440
The victory by Moorman is but the latest statement on what is an outstanding poker resume. Long respected as the top online tournament pro in the game (more than $10 million in career earnings and currently the #1 ranked online player in the world on PocketFives.com), this victory pushes him up to almost $4 million in live tournament earnings. It is also his first major tournament championship, something he no doubt will relish.
There’s no rest for the WPT team after the conclusion of action at the Commerce Casino. There is not one but two stops upcoming for the series, with Europeans stepping up for the Gioco Digitale WPT Venice and U. S. poker players settling in at the Bay 101 Casino in San Jose for the Bay 101 Shooting Star. Both tournaments begin on March 10, which doesn’t give Chris Moorman the opportunity to celebrate his well-deserved victory!
