World Poker Tour LA Poker Classic Day 5: Koroknai Heads The Final Table
It was a grueling Day 5 of the World Poker Tour LA Poker Classic for the six players who made it through to the TV final table. Play began Tuesday just after noon at the Commerce Casino with 22 players remaining. It took nearly 15 hours and nine levels, but all is set for Thursday's final table. The unfortunate TV bubble boy was Jim Casement. The short stack, he made his move with A♣4♣. Casement was looked up by Andras Koroknai, the chip leader, holding A♠9♥. The board did not help Casement, adding to Koroknai's chip lead heading into the TV final table.
On his way to becoming the chip leader, Koroknai eliminated two very dangerous players. He eliminated Johnny Chan in 12th place when his pocket sixes held up against Chan's ace-queen. At the final table, he also eliminated Steve Sung. Sung raised to 130,000 from the cutoff and Koroknai popped it to 320,000 from the small blind. Sung called and the flop came 8♣2♣2♥. Sung's tournament life would soon be at stake with Q♣Q♥ against Andras Koroknai's K♣K♠. No queen came for Sung, and he was out in eighth place.
Carlos Mortensen came into Day 5 with the chip lead, but bowed out in ninth place. His day started off on the wrong foot when he lost a race with J♣J♠ to Jamie Brown's A♣Q♦ when an ace hit the flop. From that point on, Mortensen was unable to get on a rush like he did the previous day. He made his final push for less than ten big blinds with A♣4♣, but ran into Jim Casement's 10♣10♥. The board ran out 9♥6♦5♥Q♦K♠ and he was out, shy of the TV final table.
Play will resume Thursday afternoon. The chip counts heading into the final table are the following:
1. Andras Koroknai - 4,995,000
2. Raymond Dolan - 3,300,000
3. Tri Huynh - 2,565,000
4. Gevork Kasabyan - 2,000,000
5. Jean-Claude Moussa - 1,360,000
6. Michael Kamran - 680,000
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