Tag: LA Poker Classic

Last Updated on March 3, 2012

The World Poker Tour’s Los Angeles Poker Classic has finally come to an end, and one player found themselves standing above the rest when all was said and done.  Sean Jazayeri is one of the more seasoned vets in the poker game today, and he had a tough task at a final table that featured some of the most well-known up and comers out there today.  When the day started, the other five players at the final table included David “Doc” Sands, who was just behind him in terms of chip stack size, Noah Schwartz, Dan Kelly, Jason Somerville, and Jason Burt.  Somerville and Burt both had some work to do as they were the short stacks.

Both of them were not able to last though, as Somerville was sent home on the second hand, and Burt was sent home on the 12th hand.  Jazayeri sent home Somerville, was the knockout of Burt came at the hands of Dan Kelly.  This left four players to duke it out for the championship, and they played for quite a bit before anything else really happened.  Jazayeri then made a raise under the gun, and was called by Kelly.  Schwartz then pushed all in, which led to another all-in from Jazayeri, which couldn’t leave Schwartz feeling too great about his spot.  Indeed he was way behind, as Jazayeri turned over Kings, which held up against the A-J of Schwartz.

So the three final players remaining were Jazayeri with the chip lead of 9.8 million to 4.6 for Kelly, and 2 million for Sands.  Sand started working his way up though and eventually overtook Kelly.  It wasn’t long after that though that he sent Kelly home in 3rd place, and set up a heads up match that actually had Sands as the chip leader to start the action.  He even built his lead even larger (about 2 to 1) pretty quickly as well, but Jazayeri was able to turn it around in one big hand, when he was all-in with A-K against the Queens of Sands.  Jazayeri hit his Ace, and held a nice lead at this point.  Jazayeri got Sands all in, and was holding A-5 against the K-Q of Sands.  Sands hit a King, but Jazayeri also paired his 5.  The turn gave Sands a straight draw, but the river was another dreaded five to give Jazayeri the championship and the first place prize of over $1.3 million.  Sands took home over $860k for his efforts as well.

Last Updated on February 29, 2012

The World Poker Tour’s Los Angeles Poker Classic has had a ton of hype surrounding it, and to this point it has lived up to that hype.  When Day 4 began of the action there were 54 players remaining, but when the day finally wound down we were left with only 18 top players remaining in the action.  These 18 players will head back today to the Commerce Casino to play down to the final table, which should be one of the stronger final tables in recent memory as there are still some heavy hitters left in this event.  The winner of the World Poker Tour’s LA Poker Classic will take home over $1.3 million as well!

A few players that are definitely worth noting that are still in the event are Noah Schwartz (1.77 million chips, first place), Dan Kelly (1.749 million chips, second place), and A.J. Jejelowo (1.57 million chips, third place).  To round out the players who are holding over 1 million chips heading into Day 5, we have Stephen Chidwick in 4th place with 1.42 million, Jason Dewitt in 5th place with 1.18 million, Sean Jazayeri in 6th place with 1.126 million, and well-known poker pro Jason Somerville in 7th place with 1.025 million.  Quite a bit of the hype has surrounded Somerville, as this past week he came out as the first ever openly gay male professional poker player, and it seems that his announcement hasn’t slowed him down at all from playing incredible poker and putting himself in a great spot to make a run.

A few other well-known players still remaining in the action are former World Poker Tour Champions Joe Hachem and Allen Carter, as well as Sorel Mizzi, David Pham, David Sands, and Nick Binger.  All in all, there are quite a few big names remaining, and this final table has the potential to be one of the most talked about out of many recent events as well.  After Somerville who is in 7th place, the above-mentioned Pham, Sands, and Hachem are all sitting in 8th, 9th, and 10th places in that order.  Binger and Mizzi both have a bit of work to do though, as they currently hold 565k chips, and 600k chips respectively.

The action today starts with the blinds at 10k/20k, with an ante of 3k.  The action goes until there are only six players remaining, and then this will set the televised final table.