WPT LA Poker Classic Update

The LA Poker Classic, a $10,000 buy-in No Limit Hold’em tournament which is televised by the World Poker Tour, got underway on Friday in California’s Commerce Casino. The prestigious event has attracted 745 participants, including some of poker’s biggest stars, all bidding for a share of a $7,152,000 prize fund.

The most talked about action on the opening day was a bizarre last longer bet involving Jeff Madsen, Joe Sebok and Gavin Smith, where the first player to bust out had to have the faces of the other two tattooed on their body. The next out would only have one tattoo, the face of the last man standing. Smith eventually proved the winner, with Sebok first out after seeing his aces cracked. Ink-redibly unlucky for Joe…

The day ended with Masa Kagawa top of the pile with 124,575 in chips, with Mark Seif close behind on 122,025. Big names to bust out included Peter Eastgate, Andy Bloch, Scott Seiver and last year’s winner, Cornel Andrew Cimpan.

Day two saw a couple of Team PokerStars pros snatch the spotlight, with Taylor “tramp$d0pray” Paur ending the day as chip leader with 318,400 and Daniel Negreanu not far off on 316,500. They were the only players to break the 300,000 mark on the second day’s play and headed a remaining group of 186.

Notable names to drop out on the second day included 2005 World Series of Poker champion Joe Hachem, Ben “xthesteinx” Zamani and Faraz “The-Toilet” Jaka.

Day three played down to 72 remaining players, the first of the payout spots and Thomas Fuller was the unlucky player to finish on the bubble, failing to add to his career total of $760,000 in live tournament earnings by the narrowest of margins. The hand itself was fairly comprehensive, as Fuller ran his suited AK into pocket aces.

Many big names started the day and many survived, including the likes of Annie Duke, Hoyt Corkins, Johnny Chan and Carlos Mortensen. Those who didn’t make it through day three included Howard Lederer, Barry Greenstein, Paul Wasicka and Jennifer Tilly.

Mark Newhouse, winner of a WPT event in Atlantic City back in 2006, finished day three with 498,000 and the chip lead. Day one chip leader Masa Kagawa was still very much in contention with 432,000 and Chris Moore, winner of the Heads Up event last week, sat on 489,000 going into day four.

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