bwin.party CEO Jim Ryan discusses online poker legislation in the U.S., player sponsorship strategy post Black Friday, and more.
bwin.party CEO Jim Ryan discusses online poker legislation in the U.S., player sponsorship strategy post Black Friday, and more.
The final table is upon us at the World Poker Tour (WPT) L.A. Poker Classic, as the field was trimmed from 18 to the final six at the Commerce Casino on Tuesday. Yesterday’s starting chip leader, Noah Schwartz is still alive, and while his 3.835 million chips puts him in a great spot, the chip lead now belongs to Bellevue, Washington’s Sean Jazayeri. It’s a close race, though, as with 4.38 million chips, Jazayeri is just slightly ahead of David “Doc” Sands, who has 4.01 million.
All in all, this is as “up for grabs” of a final table as you’ll see. Those top three players are only separated by less than 500,000 chips, which is not much considering the blinds and antes are at 30,000/60,000/10,000 and will go up to 40,000/80,000/10,000 in less than an hour. In addition to those first three players, Dan Kelly is in contention at 2.57 million chips. The only two who have a major uphill battle are Jason Somerville and Jason Burth, who have 840,000 and 835,000 chips, respectively.
While a win would be huge for anyone – it is the World Poker tour after all – it would be especially significant for Sean Jazayeri, as he does not have a recorded live tournament victory (other than satellites), according to the database at TheHendonMob.com. He has a solid list of cashes in smaller events over the last couple years, with his biggest cash coming in last year’s $2,000 No-Limit Hold’em event at the Wynn Classic, where he placed second for $48,051.
Jazayeri’s Tuesday had an inauspicious start. He began Day 5 in sixth place with 1.126 million chips and almost immediately lost more than half his stack by doubling-up Sorel Mizzi. He was able to chip up over the next couple hours, though, and when he used Ah-3h to eliminate short stack Skip Wilson, Jazayeri climbed above what he had when he started the day by about 100,000 chips.
Less than two hours later, Sean Jazayeri looked to be doomed again when he got coolered, losing with K-K all-in pre-flop against Joe Hachem’s A-A. Down but not out, he grew his sub-400,000 chip stack to 825,000 with a little bit (read: A LOT) of luck when his A-6 was saved on the river against Stephen Chidwick’s A-J.
From there, Sean Jazayeri got to work. After having grown his stack some more, he got revenge on Joe Hachem, beating him with 9-9 versus 8-8 when Hachem moved all-in pre-flop. That eliminated Hachem in 12th place and shot Jazayeri up to 2.5 million. Then, with just eight players left, Jazayeri raised to 120,000 pre-flop only to see Allen Carter re-raise to 275,000. Jazayeri made the call and the two saw a flop of Kd-Jd-3s. Carter bet 350,000 and Jazayeri called again. The As on the turn produced a 540,000 bet from Carter and yet another call from Jazayeri. No betting on the river, though, as both players checked the 6h. Carter had 8d-9d for basically nothing – he apparently ran out of bullets in his gun. Jazayeri didn’t have anything great – just Jc-Td – but it was good enough for a pair and to take his stack up to 3.23 million chips.
Sean Jazayeri actually reached up over the 5 million chip mark by eliminating David Pham in 8th place and then eclipsed 6 million a short while later, but eventually gave a big chunk back, losing a hand worth over 1.2 million to Noah Schwartz. Nevertheless, Jazayeri is still the chip leader and has a great chance to win his first WPT title.
The televised final table of the L.A. Poker Classic will commence at 4:00pm Pacific time Wednesday. For those interested in following the proceedings hand for hand, the World Poker Tour will be streaming the final table “semi-live” on just a 30-minute delay starting at 4:30pm. Hole cards will be shown just like on television and Tony Dunst will lead the commentary from the booth.
World Poker Tour L.A. Poker Classic – End of Day 5 Chip Counts
1. Sean Jazayeri – 4,380,000
2. David Sands – 4,010,000
3. Noah Schwartz – 3,835,000
4. Dan Kelly – 2,570,000
5. Jason Somerville – 840,000
6. Jason Burt – 835,000
Phil Ivey didn’t want his picture taken. He didn’t have to say so. His ice-bath stare made it pretty clear. He would’ve probably rather hit the photographer in the face than hear the shutter click one more time. The problem was this: Ivey was the biggest news that day. When he showed up at APPT Macau in November, it was the first time he’d been seen at a live tournament in nearly a year. It was the kind of breaking news that had the photographer on guard for the best shot (and potentially Ivey’s wrath).
Caught in the crossfire was a lesser-known poker player by the name of Tobias Huber. He wasn’t news. He was just in Macau for the tournament. It was something he once did for a living. Nobody pays him to be Ivey’s photo-bomber, but on this day, Huber showed up next to Ivey and was de facto news.
You should know this about Huber: he likes to party. He also likes to relax. The two sort of go hand-in-hand on a Sunday. So, this past weekend, Huber was grinding. Sort of.
“Grinding the TV,” he said with a smile.
Regularly a cash game player, Huber started looking at the PokerStars lobby while he was grinding out the television-watching. He noticed the Red Spade Open was getting bigger, and bigger, and bigger.
“I started the tournament out of boredom, and I guess a little bit because it got so huge,” he said.
It was, indeed, big. Nearly 25,000 people entered. It would take more than half a day to finish.
“I obviously ran super hot, proceeded to hit every board, and won most all-ins,” he said.
Fourteen hours later, Huber (known as crackin_ty) had won the Red Spade Open for $247,000.
“With a hundred left the field, it seemed super-soft with a few exceptions,” he said, “but, again, I continued to run super hot, got awesome table draws. and could really abuse my super-sick nitty competition!”
And so, we now look back to that photo taken in Macau a few months ago and realize there was more than one piece of news we should’ve been keeping an eye on.
So, a personal request: if you plan on winning a big PokerStars event in the near future and you see our photographer, smile for the camera. It will look better on the blog next time.
Congrats to Tobias Huber for his Red Spade Open win. Now, get back to grinding that TV, man.
Federated Sports + Gaming announced they have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
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PokerStars announced the MicroMillions tournament series which offers micro players a chance at $5 million in guarantees across 100 events.
PokerStars announced the MicroMillions tournament series which offers micro players a chance at $5 million in guarantees across 100 events.
The 2012 World Poker Tour L.A. Poker Classic is down to the official televised final table of six. Leading the way is Sean Jazayeri and he’s joined by David “Doc” Sands, Noah Schwartz, Dan Kelly, Jason Somerville and Jason Burt.
The 2012 World Poker Tour L.A. Poker Classic is down to the official televised final table of six. Leading the way is Sean Jazayeri and he’s joined by David “Doc” Sands, Noah Schwartz, Dan Kelly, Jason Somerville and Jason Burt.
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