WPT: Fireworks On Day 4

Published on 28 Aug 08 12:50 by Drakhor

27 participants battled it out other on Day 4 of the WPT Main Event of the 'Legends of Poker' in the Bicycle Casino for a seat at the final table.

Early Out for Weinraub

At 2PM local time, the race went off. About 20 minutes later, Adam Weinraub and Benjamin Fineman already had to join the rails. Weinraub was eliminated by Zach Clark. Neither of them raised pre-flop. The flop came with, and Weinraub checked to Clark who bet 30,000. Weinraub check-raised all-in for 191,000, Clark called. Weinraub flipped over for the bluff. Clark held for a top pair and some backdoor draws. The turn gave Clark the trips and not the king which Weinraub needed. The on the river was meaningless and Weinraub had to join the rails on rank 26 - $21,125 for the chip leader of Day 2.

17 Eliminations in the first 4 Hours
But the fireworks had only started. If you expected a slow start and a tenacious tournament day, you would have been disabused. Within the first four hours, 17 eliminations took place.

A prominent victim was also Allen Cunningham amongst others. With he went all-in pre-flop against Gary Najaryan who held . Najaryan decided the race for himself as the board was no use to either of them. Cunningham was only left with rank 24. A bit later, Maria Ho was next to drop out. She had to submit with to the pockets for Kyle Wilson who hit a full house on the turn. Rank 23 for Ho. Both Ho and Cunningham received a prize money of $21,125.

Phillip Stark had to bow out a bit later, same as Rodeen Talebi and also Gary Najarian, whose kings were busted by a set of fours for Zachary Clark. Lee Markholt dropped out short stacked with A-K against John Phan's pocket fives. Markholt did hit an ace on the turn, but the river gave Phan the set of fives. Shortly before the break, Jinyun Lin and Sirous Baghchehsaraie were also eliminated, and the last ten players had been determined.

Final Six
Afterwards, the game calmed down considerably, which was probably due to a particularity of the Bicycle Casino: When only ten players are left at two tables, the game continues in hand-to-hand mode until one player gets eliminated and the remaining nine players (instead of 10 for the WPT usually) are gathered at one table for the first time.

In this case, Denny Lee delivered the stressed players, running with jacks into Trong Nguyen's kings. The board gave him no help, and thus Lee dropped out on rank 10 for $42,250.

This was followed up by the eliminations of Raymond Voskanian on rank 9, Layne Flack on rank 8 and Matt Keikoan on rank 7.

Below the final table including the chip counts:

Final Table WPT Legends of Poker $10.000 Main Event
Seat	Name	Chips
1	Trong Nguyen	980,000
2	Amit Makhija	3,225,000
3	Paul Smith	1,130,000
4	John Phan	2,415,000
5	Zachary Clark	2,025,000
6	Kyle Wilson	1,425,000