LA Poker Classic Main Event Day 4: Chris Ferguson Surges to Front
With only 63 players remaining in the Main Event of the LA Poker Classic, Day 4 was a wild ride for former chip leaders, internet superstars and world champions. With no former LAPC champs in the field and the bubble bursting late on Day 3, the way was open for someone to charge to the top of the leader board. Enter Chris Ferguson, who supplanted Kofi Farkye as the chip leader and put himself into good position to make a final-table run. Joining Ferguson and Farkye on Day 4 were other notables, such as Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier, Jeff "ActionJeff" Garza, Erica Schoenberg, Hoyt Corkins and Paul Wasicka.
All 63 players who made it to Day 4 were guaranteed cash, so several short stacks found the exit early. After catching trips to octuple up on the last hand of Day 3, David Daneshgar ran out of steam early on Day 4 and busted in 63rd place ($23,052). He was joined in the payout line in short order by Paul Darden, Dan Shak, David Pham and Nick Binger. The eliminations came quickly to start the day, and the field quickly thinned to the final four tables. Men "The Master" Nguyen picked up $38,085 for his 36th-place finish, and Shawn "sprstoner" Glines busted shortly after in 34th. Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier's shot at another WPT title ended when he busted in 32nd place ($38,085). All the money went in preflop as Grospellier was all in with J♣J♦ against Binh Nguyen's A♦Q♠. The flop was pretty safe for Grospellier as it came down 3♦2♠9♦, but the 5♦ on the turn gave Nguyen flush and straight outs to go with his overcards. The 7♦ river gave Nguyen the flush and sent Grospellier packing.
Kofi Farkye's debut on the major stage was impressive, as he held the chip lead for much of the first three days of play. An unfortunate huge hand with Chris Ferguson decimated his stack on Day 4, and he was sent to the rail in 31st place. Farkye picked up $38,085 for his tournament. Paul Wasicka was another late elimination on Day 4, busting in 28th place to set up the final table redraw of the night. With three tables remaining, a flurry of bustouts sent Ben Sarnoff, Hoyt Corkins and Greg Mueller all home within moments of each other, thinning the field to 24 in the blink of an eye.
The last elimination of Day 4 was also the last woman in the field. As time wound down on the day, Nancy Todd Tyner ran afoul of Mike Sowers in one big final hand. Sowers raised preflop, and Tyner called from the button to see a flop of K♦7♠3♥. Tyner moved all in when Sowers checked the flop, and her A♦6♦ was in deep trouble when the young man from North Carolina tabled A♥K♣. Tyner picked up a few outs on the 4♣ turn, but the 9♦ river was no help, and she collected $44,433 for 21st place.
With 20 players remaining and the final table looming near, the survivors bagged their chips on Day 4. Chris Ferguson leads the final 20 players, with the complete chip counts as follows:
Chris Ferguson — 1,721,000
Payman Arjang -- 1,488,000
Chris Karagulleyan -- 1,146,000
Xuan Nguyen -- 1,130,000
Binh Nguyen -- 1,040,000
Nick Schulman -- 850,000
Matt Woodward -- 771,000
Pat Walsh -- 760,000
Dan Lu -- 662,000
Mike Sowers -- 626,000
Jeremy Kottler -- 614,000
Tam Ly -- 603,000
Mark Bryan -- 561,000
Peter Feldman -- 423,000
Zach Hyman -- 320,000
Blake Cahail -- 310,000
Teddy Monroe -- 264,000
Donnie D'Auria -- 242,000
Billy Pilossoph -- 188,000
Cornel Andrew Cimpan -- 164,000
Join PokerNews at noon local time on Wednesday for all the live updates from the Commerce Casino as the final table is set on Day 5.
