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The World Poker Tour (WPT) LA Poker Classic (LAPC) is on the edge of closing out its 50-day run. With a schedule featuring 69 events right from January 16, the poker fest has been one of the more popular tournament series coming from the WPT stable.
Action has been intense at the series currently underway at the Commerce Casino. Even as poker couple Rainer Kempe and Maria Ho shone on the felts, each taking down a $25K High Roller title, a number of other side events crowned winners. For Ho the win came right on her birthday, adding to the celebrations! All eyes are now on the $10,000 Main Event that is down to its final six players.
Darren Elias commands an overwhelming chip lead over the other competitors with a stack of over 9 Million in his stack, quite a distance ahead of David ‘OBD’ Baker (4,760,000) and Matas Cimbolas (4,675,000). The delayed Main Event final table is slated to play out at the HyperX Esports Arena Las Vegas on March 11, and the winner will take home over $1 Million along with a seat worth $15,000 to the Baccarat Crystal WPT Tournament of Champions, and the Hublot Big Bang Steel watch.
Capping off the series will be the $1,100 NLHE Big Bounty Send Off $100K GTD that kicked off on March 6 and is fast approaching the home stretch.
2019 WPT LAPC Winners
Event Winner Prize Money (USD)
$25K High Roller I Rainer Kempe $270,905
$2,140 Six-Max Cliff Josephy $74,110
$5,250 Eight-Max Anthony Spinella $108,005
$2,140 No-Limit Hold'em Cord Garcia $49,050
$2,140 2-7 Single Draw Peter Neff $21,615
$1,100 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo Dmitry Levin $20,000
$1,100 No-Limit Hold'em Andrew Wisdom $33,470
$1,100 Omaha/Stud Hi-Lo Mix Donald Halpern $20,095
$1,100 Heads-Up No-Limit Hold'em Cody Bell $23,000
$350 Great Wall of Chips Behzad Teranie $71,000
$500,000 Kickoff Event Christopher Haydt $100,000
$25K High Roller II Maria Ho $276,690
$10,000 Main Event – Day 5 Recap
Featuring a buy-in of $10,000, the WPT LAPC Main Event attracted 546 entries, a considerably larger field than the previous year’s count of 493. High participation numbers can be attributed to a renewed satellite push spearheaded by WPT Executive Tour Director Matt Savage that helped generate a $5.1 Million prize pool.
Only 108 players survived through to Day 3, and by the time the chips were bagged, only 35 players were left standing in the field.
The money bubble burst on Day 3 and making it in the 69 ITM finishers were formidable names like Day 1 chip leader Mike Matusow (27th for $31,020), Gordon Vayo (36th for $26,830), Jesse Martin (37th for $26,820), Brian Yoon (38th for $26,830), Champions Club member Mike Del Vecchio (41st for $23,530), Ankush Mandavia (43rd for $23,530), Amit Makhija (57th for $18,850), Amal Bounahra (58th for $18,850) and Blake Bohn (68th for $17,230).
Day 5 started with 12 finalists. Former WPT champion Andy Frankenberger (12th for $78,040) was the first player to exit after he ran his pocket jacks into Steve Yea’s pocket aces.
Elias then played what turned out to be the biggest pot of the tournament so far. On Level 23, Elias put himself at risk when Tony Tran bet 60,000 from the cutoff and Elias responded with a raise of 275,000 from the small blind. Tran made it 720,000 to go, and Elias ripped all in. Tran called it off for 2.5 Million, and the cards were tabled.
Elias
Tran
Elias flopped an ace and rivered a king for two-pair, winning the hand to stack up to 5.4 Million, while Tran was relegated to the rail in 11th place.
James Carroll (7th for $155,900) turned out to be the final table bubble boy after his king-jack was cracked by Elias’ king-queen. Carroll’s elimination narrowed the field down to the six-handed final table.
Darren Elias (9,070,000) carries the largest stack to the final day while Day 3 and Day 4 chip leader David “ODB” Baker (4,760,000) has been pushed to second position. Matas Cimbola (4,675,000) rounds up the top three stacks.
Final Table Chip Counts
Maria Ho Wins $25K High Roller
Poker couple Maria Ho and Rainer Kempe were both in top form this past week. Right after Kempe took down the first $25K High Roller, Ho went on to claim the second $25K High Roller at the stop. Ho bested a 28-entry field to collect the trophy and $276,690 in prize money.
Ho defeated Kristen Bicknell heads-up to bank her second-largest cash till date. Her biggest score remains her runner-up finish in the 2011 WSOP $5,000 NLHE ($540,020).
Final Table Results (USD)
Rainer Kempe Takes Down Series Opener $25K High Roller
The 2019 LAPC kicked off with the first of two $25K High Roller events which attracted 27 entries. German poker champion Rainer Kempe defeated Josh Gordon heads-up to capture the title and banked $270,905 in first-place prize money.
Final Table Results (USD)
Content & Images Courtesy: World Poker Tour /LAPC News
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