Alex Massman Wins Los Angeles Poker Open ($136,610)
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The Los Angeles Poker Open (LAPO) wrapped up at Commerce Casino on Sunday, and it ended with Alex Massman claiming victory in the Main Event. Massman earned himself the top prize of $136,000, a trophy and a $10K entry into the upcoming 2019 LAPC WPT Main Event Championship for outlasting the field of 773 entries.
The festival featured 18 events from Nov. 2-18 and the $500K guaranteed LAPO $1,100 Main Event gathered a prize pool of $773,000. With three starting flights and a best stack forward structure, 62 players made it through to Day 2, all in the money for at least $2,400.
Eventual winner Alex Massman had a healthy 14th-place stack with 513,000 and was able to close it out for his biggest live cash to date, despite heading into the final table of nine with the second shortest stack (1,050,000).
2018 LAPO Main Event Official Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Payout |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Alex Massman | $136,610 |
| 2nd | Adam Demersseman | $90,340 |
| 3rd | Robert Schmidt | $66,570 |
| 4th | Antonio Mallol Heredia | $49,610 |
| 5th | Thomas Zanot | $37,390 |
| 6th | Cody Bell | $28,510 |
| 7th | Nikhil Gera | $21,990 |
| 8th | Elvis Toomas | $17,160 |
| 9th | Abbas Dehaghi | $13,550 |
LAPO Final Table Action
The short stack to start the final table was the first one eliminated. Abbas Dehaghi finished in ninth place after running ace-queen into Antonio Mallol Heredia’s kings.
Massman won some key pots to climb up the counts during the final table, including scoring a big double early on after flopping a set of queens against Nikhil Gera’s ace-jack, all in preflop.
Elvis Toomas hit the rail in eighth after his pocket aces were cracked by Adam Demersseman, whose ace-king suited flopped a flush draw, turned a gutshot and rivered a flush. Soon after, Massman got another key double when he got the last of it in with pocket sevens against Demersseman’s ace-queen, only to flop a set of sevens and hold.
Gera got his stack in with king-jack and couldn’t win the race against Massman’s pocket eights. He was out in seventh while Massman led the final six players. He extended that lead when he eliminated Cody Bell blind vs. blind with queen-ten against Bell’s ace-nine. Bell made a pair of nines on the flop but runner queens sealed it for Massman.
Massman took a hit, doubling up Demersseman when his ace-eight couldn’t hold against king-jack, and Robert Schmidt had crept up into the chip lead. Thomas Zanot would be the fifth-place finisher, losing a race with pocket sevens against Demersseman’s ace-king.
Heredia got it in good with ace-jack suited against the ace-three suited of Massman, but Massman flopped a gutshot and rivered it to send Heredia packing. Massman began three-handed play out in front with Demersseman not far behind and Schmidt trailing.
Three-Handed Play
A rollercoaster ensued for Schmidt, who lost a chunk to Massman, got a bunch back doubling with queen-jack suited against Massman’s jack-nine all in preflop, but then busted the next hand. He shoved with jack-seven suited over Massman’s raise, and got looked up with ace-nine suited, which held to send Schmidt out in third.
Massman started heads up with a 3:1 chip advantage and soon closed it out, winning yet another flip with queen-jack suited against Demersseman’s pocket sixes, catching a jack on the flop.
Demersseman’s $90,340 payday more than doubled his lifetime earnings. Massman locked up his biggest career cash as well to bring his career cashes up over $500K.
Also cashing in the event were Sohale Khalili (24th place - $5,000), Barry Greenstein (37th place - $3,670), Jared Griener (41st place - $3,210), and Eli Loewenthal (43rd place - $3,210),
2019 LAPC Coming Soon
Details on the soon to be announced LAPC schedule are forthcoming, and you can follow tournament directors Matt Savage @SavagePoker and Justin Hammer @TheJustinHammer for details.
Photo courtesy of Commerce Casino.
