The 700-player field of the PokerStars North American Poker Tour (NAPT) Los Angeles stop has been slashed all the way to 19. On Tuesday, the remaining players will return to the felts at 1:00pm PT to play down to a final table.
Christopher Demaci holds a resounding chip lead in NAPT LA after three days of play. Demaci bagged up 3.7 million in chips on Monday night and is well out in front of Micah Raskin’s second place stack of 2.3 million. Demaci fueled his massive chip lead in part by busting online poker pro Mike “goleafsgoeh” Leah with pocket aces against pocket queens on Day 3. He appropriately told his table, “I run decent,” and stood atop the leaderboard when the action concluded. Demaci final tabled a $1,500 No Limit Hold’em tournament during last year’s World Series of Poker (WSOP) for $99,000.
PokerStars sponsored pro Jason Mercier sent Mike Beasley packing with K-J against pocket tens after all of the money went in before the flop. The first three cards came a harmless A-3-4, but a queen on the turn gave Mercier a gutshot straight draw to a 10 in addition to his two overcards. The river was a jack and Beasley hit the rail. Beasley, a strip club owner who finished second in the NAPT Mohegan Sun Main Event to Vanessa Selbst, tried to sway Mercier into partying at his club: “My place is a nice place. You can find some nice girl you can talk to.”
Mercier has already taken down the European Poker Tour (EPT) San Remo Main Event in 2008 and holds a WSOP bracelet. Now, a victory at NAPT LA is within his reach. Text found on the PokerStars Blog details how Mercier found the top three in chips entering Day 4: “He was willing to flip for millions at just about every opportunity. Pocket fours versus Mark Ader’s ace-king. Sure thing. Pocket fives versus Cary Katz’s ace-queen. No problem.” Mercier is fresh off an 11th place finish at the World Poker Tour’s (WPT) Foxwoods World Poker Finals for nearly $50,000.
Team PokerStars Online pro George Lind also made waves on Monday in Los Angeles. Lind 4bet all-in pre-flop with A-9 and was up against Leah’s wired pair of 10s. Lind whiffed on the flop and turn, but an ace on the river secured a double up following the three-outer. He sits in 13th place on the leaderboard after three days of play and can be found perusing the virtual felts under the screen name “Jorj95.”
Here are the 19 survivors in NAPT LA headed into Day 4:
1. Christopher Demaci – 3,783,000
2. Micah Raskin – 2,310,000
3. Jason Mercier – 2,150,000
4. Michael Binger – 2,026,000
5. Jake Toole – 1,881,000
6. Joe Tehan – 1,250,000
7. Jimmie Guinther – 1,098,000
8. Anh Van Nguyen – 834,000
9. Tony Nardi – 800,000
10. Jonathan Gagnon-Villeneuve – 711,000
11. Carlos Watanabe – 678,000
12. Joseph Melancon – 660,000
13. George “Jorj95” Lind – 538,000
14. Matt Affleck – 447,000
15. Al Grimes – 429,000
16. Thomas Young – 390,000
17. Carl Beliveau – 348,000
18. Ray Henson – 326,000
19. Alan Myerson – 317,000
Those who finished in the money included:
30. Mike “SowersUNCC” Sowers – $15,000
33. Tyler “puffinmypurp” Reiman – $13,000
43. Chris “SLOPPYKLOD” Klodnicki – $11,000
49. Bryn Kenney – $11,000
50. Eric “sheets” Haber – $11,000
58. Gavin Griffin – $9,500
59. Phil Laak – $9,500
63. Christina Lindley – $9,500
74. Tom “Kingsofcards” Marchese – $8,500
75. Shane “shaniac” Schleger – $8,500
86. Ronnie Bardah – $8,500
87. Shannon Shorr – $8,500
88. James Van Alstyne – $8,500
89. Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin – $7,500
94. Kristy Gazes – $7,500
98. Brian “SNo0oWMAN” Hawkins – $7,500
The blinds will be 12,000-24,000 with an ante of 2,000 when play resumes. Keep it tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest NAPT headlines.
