|
Day Three of the 2006 LA Poker Classic main event was the turning point in the
evolution of the tournament, the day on which we all learned who would make
the money, who would fall short, and who would carry momentum into the home
stretch before the final table. After two long, grueling days of tournament
action there were 97 players remaining. The early action would determine just
how things shaped up. At the start of the day, tournament director Cheri
Dokken announced that play would go for 6 levels or until the players hit the
money, whichever was longer. That set the stage for the day as the cards got
into the air.
One of the biggest stories of the day was Fabrice Soulier, who came into Day
Three as the chip leader and played well throughout most of the day. Things
were going well for him until he ran into a confrontation with Hollywood actor
James Woods just before 10 PM. Soulier raised in early position and Woods
re-raised. When the action came back to Soulier he moved all-in, putting Woods
to a big test. The Hollywood superstar went deep into the tank, and as he
thought longer and longer about the decision a crowd gathered around the
table. Woods studied Soulier patiently, trying to figure out whether he was
ahead, before finally making the decision to call after about five minutes. He
turned over Q-Q, putting him far ahead of Soulier's Q-J of spades. The board
brought no help for Soulier and he was taken down to about 140K in chips,
whereas Woods finally found himself with over $600,000 in chips and a 3rd
place position.
When Woods won his hand against Soulier, his excitement was impossible to
ignore. "Yes!" he shouted. "That's poker! I'm going to win this thing, God
damn it!" His ebullient enthusiasm infected the entire room, and when Woods
stood on top of his chair and pumped his fists in victory, the entire ballroom
exploded into a frenzy of applause and cheering for the local favorite. It was
a remarkable display of spontaneity and excitement after a mostly quiet day of
progressing toward the money.
On the very next hand, Soulier moved all-in before the flop - a huge overbet
on his part - and was called by Daniel Quach. Soulier showed A-6 and Quach
showed A-J. Without any improvement, Soulier exited the tournament on the
money bubble. He had gone from solid chip position to out of the tournament in
two hands and sent everyone else into the money. n a stretch of about 10
minutes, everything in the tournament had changed
Other noteworthy stories on the day included Alan Goehring holding on to a
top-5 spot for the third consecutive day, despite a roller-coaster run
throughout Day Three. There was also the matter of Juha Helppi's remarkable
run after coming into Day Two with just a touch over $20,000 to his name. Jon
Luu came storming out of nowhere at the end of the night to take the chip lead
thanks to some good timing. Then there was Jon Kelley, a journalist who works
for television's Extra, who found himself in 6th place at the end of the day
after making some great plays - not a bad performance for someone who has been
playing poker for 9 months. Between Kelley and Woods, the celebrity factor at
the LA Poker Classic has definitely been hard to ignore.
Play is set to resume Sunday at 3 PM PST, with the final 27 players playing
down to the final TV table a day ahead of schedule. With big money and glory
on the line, it should be another fantastic day of poker.
End of Day Three Standings
1 Jon Luu $ 1,111,000
2 Per Ummer $ 1,022,000
3 Brian McCann $ 939,000
4 Alan Goehring $ 916,000
5 Juha Helppi $ 804,000
6 Jon Kelley $ 751,000
7 David Chiu $ 749,000
8 Daniel Quach $ 739,000
9 Michael McClain $ 737,000
10 Kevan Casey $ 685,000
11 Michael Woo $ 670,000
12 John Gale $ 549,000
13 Steven Simmons $ 494,000
14 Anahit Galajian $ 458,000
15 J.C. Tran $ 441,000
16 James Woods $ 438,000
17 Rodeen Talebi $ 414,000
18 Chris Bigler $ 413,000
19 Mark Weidmann $ 327,000
20 Bill Gazes $ 258,000
21 Danny Noam $ 253,000
22 Tom Macey $ 242,000
23 Kelly Kim $ 173,000
24 Damon Ahmadi $ 135,000
25 Bruce Parker $ 106,000
26 Genefredo Legaspi $ 68,000
27 Roy Winston $ 45,000
|
