WSOP-C Eastern Regional Championship Day 3: Klodnicki and Bell Headline the Final Table
The final 27 players returned to Harrah’s Atlantic City on Tuesday to battle it out on Day 3 of the $10,000 World Series of Poker Circuit Northeast Regional Championship. Among the many subplots regarding the players returning today was Chris Klodnicki's attempt at winning the biggest buy-in event for the second consecutive year at Harrah’s Atlantic City, having won the $4,900 Main Event in 2009 for his first gold ring. Also still in the hunt was Matthew Waxman who, just a week ago, captured the $1,650 Main Event title. It took about seven hours, but the televised final table of nine was reached, setting the stage for Wednesday.
Though he began the day ninth in chips, two big hands vaulted Klodnicki to the chip lead. At the 1,500/3,000/400 level, Eugene Katchalov raised to 7,000 in middle position. He found calls from Dan Kelly in the hijack and Klodnicki in the cutoff. The three of them saw a K♥Q♥8♥ flop and Katchalov continued out with a bet of 15,500. Kelly folded, but Klodnicki raised to 37,500. Katchalov called and the J♠ hit the turn. Katchalov check-called a bet of 47,000, leading to the A♦ river. Katchalov checked and Klodnicki fired 94,000, getting a call after about a minute. Klodnicki's A♥J♥ bested Katchalov’s 7♥5♥, boosting his stack to about 450,000. With 14 players remaining, it was déjà vu for Klodnicki. Yesterday, he five-bet shoved 8♦7♦ into Vanessa Selbst’s pocket kings and survived. Tuesday, he five-bet shoved A♣5♣ into Frank Calo's A♠K♦. The board ran out Q♦8♥5♥2♦Q♠ to continue Klodnicki’s heater. He will be begin the final table in the chip lead with 759,000.
Chris Bell began Day 3 as the chip leader and was holding steady near his starting stack of 434,500, but after winning a huge pot to break the final table bubble, Bell rocketed to second place with 706,000. With the blinds and antes at the 3,000/6,000/1,000 level, Matthew Waxman opened to 14,000 from middle position. Action folded to Bell and he three-bet to 44,000 from the button. The blinds folded and Waxman called, leading to a J♠4♦3♣ flop. Waxman checked and Bell bet about 100,000. After about two minutes Waxman moved all in for roughly 275,000, and Bell made the call to put him at risk. The Main Event winner was in awfully bad shape with 9♦9♠ against Bell’s Q♦Q♥. The 10♠ turn card and K♠ river card were no help to Waxman, out in tenth place.
Among those that returned to action on Tuesday that did not make it to the final table were Beth Shak, Victor Ramdin, Christian Harder, Dave Sands, Eugene Katchalov and Dan Kelly.
The seating assignments and chip counts for the final table are as follows:
| Seat | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chris Bell | 706,000 |
| 2 | Micah Raskin | 594,000 |
| 3 | Ketan Pandya | 377,000 |
| 4 | Nick Mitchell | 332,000 |
| 5 | Todd Terry | 307,000 |
| 6 | Andy Frankenberger | 230,000 |
| 7 | Jason Burt | 579,000 |
| 8 | Chris Klodnicki | 759,000 |
| 9 | Seth Fischer | 219,000 |
Play resumes at 12 p.m. local time on Wednesday with the remaining nine players playing down to a champion. Our Live Reporting team has a front-row seat for all the action, and you can follow the play-by-play updates right here.
Have you seen our new $40,000 Freeroll Series from Lock Poker? Lock Pro Supremacy not only has four $7,500 Freerolls but it also has 25 $100 Lock Pro Bounties in each tournament, so you can boost your bankroll even if you don't make the money.
