Daily Rewind: LAPC Final Table Set, Griffin's Grind, Hellmuth Wins

Today we look forward to the final table of the WPT LA Poker Classic. We reflect on a candid account from Triple Crown winner Gavin Griffin and hear about Ryan Lang's guilty plea following conspiracy charges.

The Daily Rewind is your one-stop-shop for a sharp review of the day in poker. Join us here for a mix of the latest news and a more irreverent insight into the poker world. Today we discovered the following topics for you:

LA Poker Classic final table

After five days of action the WPT LA Poker Classic Main Event has reached its final table.

549 players have been whittled down to six and it's Sean Jazayeri who leads a star studded final table into tonight's finale where the winner will take home $1,370,240.

Jazayeri faces a tough task to win his maiden WPT title, with the likes of Sands, Kelly, Schwartz and Somerville all lurking in the pack.

You can follow the WPT Live Stream from 16:30 PT with hole cards and commentary for what should be a great spectacle.

Here's how the final table lines up. 
 

LA Poker Classic Main Event Final Table
Place	Name	Chipcount
1st	Sean Jazayeri	4,380,000
2nd	David "Doc" Sands	4,010,000
3rd	Noah Schwartz	3,835,000
4th	Dan Kelly	2,570,000
5th	Jason Somerville	840,000
6th	Jason Burt	835,000
Players: 549 | Prize pool: $5,011,200 |  Average 2,745,000

Ryan Lang pleads guilty

News broke yesterday that Canadian Ryan Lang, one of the individuals targeted for illegal payment processng in the Black Friday indictments, has pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges.

Lang appeared in a federal court in Manhattan on Tuesday, and could face upto 30 years imprisonment. A sentence this long is unlikely however, based on his willingness to co-operate with the authorities.

Read our full report on Lang and the whereabouts of the other 10 indicted individuals here.

Meanwhile, in Los Angeles

The LAPC is not just the Main Event. In fact there are dozens of other events with buy-ins from $500 to $25,000. So, while David Sands and Jason Somerville were battling their way to the Main Event final table, it was a rather more famous face winning the $2,000 8-Game event.

Yes, Phil Hellmuth, who proved his poker prowess outside of Hold'em at the WSOP last year, defeated the field of 72 players to pick up $22,000 after a four-way deal. Not only that, but 25 players entered a $1,000 last longer bet which Hellmuth chopped for $10,700.

Despite Hellmuth's ego and brags, this is actually his first live tournament victory since 2007.

Phil Hellmuth, around $30k and one horse richer.

Back to basics for Gavin Griffin

US pro Gavin Griffin is one of the most revered tournament players of his generation.

Throughout the latter half of the last decade, Griffin put together an incredible run which saw him become the first player to win poker's holy grail, the Triple Crown.

It appears however that the past few years haven't been so kind to Griffin, as he explains in his blog this week on Cardplayer, admitting that "2011 shattered many of my dreams and most of my ego" and that he has reverted to "drop down in limits, fix my game, and rebuild."

It's a candid account from Griffin which clearly depicts the volatile nature of playing poker for a living.

Griffin - "It's humbling to be where I'm at"

High stakes corner

It was a profitable day for high stakes grinder Phil "takechip" D'Auteuil at the NL tables yesterday, after he banked just shy of $100,000 on the day according to HighStakesDB.

Ben "Sauce123" Sulsky and Justin "ZeeJustin" Bonomo were the players who suffered most yesterday, after dropping close to $200,000 between them. 

Meanwhile, the games over in Macau seem to be hotting up, with Andrew Feldman and Ole Kristian Nergard's Twitter accounts alluding to some juicy high stakes action.

It seems that Tom Dwan is the man in form, with Feldman tweeting: "Game broke, Tom Dwan just kills everybody. What a player."

Nergard Tweets : "meh should have went to bali yesterday. Played 5k/10k with 20k mandatory straddle. lost a 3.6 mill pot v durrrr the first hand he sits down". Ouch.

Gavin Cochrane's year in review

It may be a little late considering that we're now at the end of February, but Gavin "gavz101" Cochrane has blogged this week about his past year in poker.

The high stakes PLO specialist has enjoyed mixed fortunes over the past 12 months, winning at an absurd rate to start the year and starting 2012 in the midst of a fairly brutal downswing.

Vegas 2011 was one of Cochrane's highlights, clearly demonstrated by his collection of chips in the picture below. You can read his latest entry here.

MBN to wake up with these on your bedside

Daily Signoff

We continue our poker villains theme, where we cast aspersions on some of poker's more colourful characters.

Today we take a look at a classic hand between the ever-vocal Tony G and an unwitting Ralph Perry. Bike time, Mr Perry...