Nothing Slow at the LAPC
by Court on 02.21.09, 5:38 pm
The Los Angeles Poker Classic at the Commerce casino is a premier series of events, in many eyes second only to the World Series of Poker itself. The preliminary events at Commerce had turnouts that surprised everyone with their size, and the main event at the LAPC has already reached more entrants than last years event, even in an economy that is slowing and has caused concern for the future of large buy in poker tournaments. So far 666 players have found $10,000 to pony up to get into the LAPC Main Event, with late registration staying open for a while longer that number is expected to increase a bit, but even if it stays put there will still be more players in the event this year than the 665 that competed in the 2008 LAPC.
Even with the large number of entrants, the full field is playing today. The large room upstairs at the Commerce can accommodate the size of the field so tournament director Matt Savage has everyone starting today. Savage has earned respect over the years as one of the absolute best tournament directors in poker. His structures are second to none, he is always looking to improve and make things better and takes all suggestions and criticisms into consideration. Already in the first hour of play today I have heard multiple people comment on how impressed they are with how Matt has run this series of tournaments, and for those players that have been around for a few years it is just another top notch series put on by Savage.
Across the room there are over 60 tables full of players, but even with the quantity of tables some interesting early round matchups have emerged. Phil Ivey and John Phan are seated at the same table, while Isaac “Mr. Menlo” Baron and Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi also managed to draw the same starting table. Tim “Tmay420″ West, Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin, and Adam “A_Junglen” Junglen all pulled table 60 as their starting assignment, while David “DavidP18″ Peters, Jimmy “gobboboy” Fricke and Jeff “ActionJeff” Garza are in the 7, 8, and 9 seats respectively at table 26.
Phil “USCPhildo” Collins paid off JJ Liu on a rivered straight. On a K
5
3
8 turn Collins check called an 800 chip bet from JJ, and then again check called her 2,500 bet on the 2 river. Liu showed the A
4 for a gutshot straight that got there on the river and Collins mucked his hand. Jared “TheWacoKidd” Hamby (right) was able to pick up some chips after flopping two pair. The board ended up reading A-J-5-4-8 and Hamby’s AJ was good enough to take the pot, including the 1,075 chip river bet that his opponent called. Christian “charder” Harder was also able to grab a few chips when his A3 turned into a full house on a board of A-x-2-2-2. The pot was small but Harder was able to get 175 chips from his opponent on the turn and another 500 on the river.
