NAPT Los Angeles: Jason Mercier Among the Final Eight
Last night the Day 4 of the NAPT Los Angeles concluded and the final eight players are now set. PokerStars Pro Jason Mercier is still in; Chris DeMaci is the chip leader.
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| Chris DeMaci talks about his full house Photo source: Pokernews.com |
19 players returned to the tables at the Bicycle Casino in Los Angeles on Day 4 and after just four hours of play, 11 of them had packed their bags. The remaining players will now form the final table of the NAPT Los Angeles Main Event, where a total of $3,229,857 is at stake.
All players still left in the tournament will receive at least $60,000, with the winner taking home a cash prize of $725,000.
Chris DeMaci, a local player from Stanton, a suburb of Los Angeles, has the best shot at this major payday. He came into the day as the chip leader with a stack of 3.7 million chips and could then take out his closest rival in one of the first few hands of the day.
Full House for the chip leader
Micah Raskin, second in chips at that point, raised preflop and DeMaci got back at him with a 3-bet. Raskin called and both saw a flop with 
. Raskin checked, DeMaci leader out with a bet of 181,000 chips and Raskin raised it up to a total of 400,000. His opponent remained unimpressed and put in another raise, now to a 725,000. Raskin called.
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| Standard: Mercier building a chip castle Photo source: Pokernews.com |
The turn brought the 
and Raskin didn't waste any time and shoved his remaining 1.36 million chips into the pot which was a bit more than 1.5 million.
Even at that point the pot had already earned the title of being the biggest one in NAPT Los Angeles and Chris DeMaci started tanking. While thinking, he apologized for the fact that his behaviour might look like a slowroll, but the pot's size was even staggering for the chip leader.
He eventually called after a bit of pondering and turned over 
for a Full House. "Sorry it took me so long, but I only had the third nuts. Aces full or Jacks full would beat me," he explained.
Raskin had neither of these two hands and tabled 
, which left him drawing dead on the river. He exited the tournament in 19th place, being the first player of the day to leave The Bike. From (second) hero to zero - that was the story of Micah Raskin on that day.
The arguably most notable player in the field, Jason Mercier, had a better run. Coming into the day with a top 5 stack, he managed to increase it steadily and also scooped a 2.5 million chips pot at the of the day when he won a preflop all in against a shorter stack.
Mercier had 
and hit the on the turn to take down his opponent's 
. With a stack of 3.8 million, Mercier is now second in chips, but he is still significantly behind Chris DeMaci who has a commanding lead of 6.283 million.
The final table will start at 14:00 Los Angeles local time (22:00 GMT). Here are the final table chip counts:
| NAPT Los Angeles - Final Table | ||
| Place | Name | Chip count |
| 1 | Chris DeMaci | 6,283,000 |
| 2 | Jason Mercier | 3,800,000 |
| 3 | Ray Henson | 3,268,000 |
| 4 | Jacob Toole | 1,975,000 |
| 5 | Joe Tehan | 1,907,000 |
| 6 | Michael Binger | 1,670,000 |
| 7 | Anh Van Nguyen | 1,058,000 |
| 8 | Al Grimes | 982,000 |
| Level Information | |
| Blind level | 24 |
| Blinds | 20,000 / 40,000 |
| Ante | 4,000 |
| Participant Information | |
| Remaining Players | 8 |
| Participants | 701 |
