Eighteen players remain in the World Poker Tour’s (WPT) L.A. Poker Classic. Full Tilt Poker pro Vivek “Psyduck” Rajkumar has a stranglehold on the top spot on the leaderboard with 3.2 million in chips after four days of play. In fact, his stack is 40% larger than the second place tally of 2.3 million belonging to Gregory Burns.
Rajkumar told WPT hostess Kimberly Lansing how he managed to produce such a commanding lead over the competition: “I sucked out in a million-chip pot. I got it in with an open-ender versus top pair. I wasn’t too happy with that, but luckily I binked off the eight on the end.”
Rajkumar also increased his arsenal of chips after doubling through James “croll103” Carroll. Rajkumar had pocket kings against pocket tens all-in pre-flop and the superior wired pair held when the board came A-9-3-Q-J. The hand vaulted his stack to 1.8 million.
In another major pot, Rajkumar pushed all-in for nearly one million in chips on a board of K-J-8-10-5 with three hearts. The clock was inadvertently called while Carroll contemplated a call on the river, but he ultimately decided to release his hand and Rajkumar stacked up 2.5 million in chips. Around the same time, David “Bakes” Baker joked via Twitter, “War has officially been declared between Vivek and Croll.”
Rajkumar won the Season VII WPT Borgata Poker Open for $1.4 million. This year’s L.A. Poker Classic would mark his second WPT final table.
Doubling up twice early on to stamp her ticket to Day 5 of the L.A. Poker Classic was Kathy Liebert. First, the top female poker pro doubled up with K-J against pocket eights after a cowboy fell on the flop. Then, she flopped a set of queens to double up a second time. She stands at 304,000 in chips after four days of play. However, she’ll have her work cut out for her, as she holds the second shortest stack in the room.
The second to last elimination of Monday’s play went to bracelet winner Dan Heimiller. On a board of 5-4-2-2-9, Amir Lehavot moved all-in and had Heimiller covered. Heimiller muttered, “I wish my hand had gotten a little better. I’m not sure what to do. I guess I don’t have enough to fold. Well, there’s another tournament tomorrow, so I guess I call.” He ultimately called all-in with just 4-3 and Lehavot had him trumped with A-2 for trips. Heimiller picked up $43,000 for his 20th place finish.
Also eliminated in the final stages of the day was Tim “Tmay420” West, who moved his final three big blinds in with 10-2, but fell victim to Allen Cunningham’s 9-4. West finished in 21st place for the same $43,000 and Cunningham holds a stack of 1.1 million entering today’s action, just below the chip average.
Here are the 18 players remaining in the WPT L.A. Poker Classic:
1. Vivek Rajkumar – 3,231,000
2. Gregory Brooks – 2,326,000
3. Jason DeWitt – 1,916,000
4. Matt Berkey – 1,614,000
5. Amir Lehavot – 1,595,000
6. Carlos Mortensen – 1,467,000
7. James Carroll – 1,270,000
8. Allen Cunningham – 1,079,000
9. Steve Gross – 964,000
10. Brandon Crawford – 935,000
11. David Baker – 736,000
12. Shannon Shorr – 690,000
13. Jesse Yaginuma – 595,000
14. Darryll Fish – 584,000
15. Jason Senti – 533,000
16. James Dowdy – 363,000
17. Kathy Liebert – 304,000
18. Matt Marafioti – 210,000
The blinds were at 10,000-20,000 with an ante of 3,000 when play wrapped up on Monday night. Today marks the tournament’s play down day, as the field of 18 will shrink to a six-handed final table. Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest WPT headlines.
