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October 20th 2006
WPT Festa al Lago: Day Four
With 18 players left there was no hanging around on Day Four of the Festa al Lago, with the first elimination (3 possibly the tournaments biggest pot to date) occurring inside 15 minutes.
The fatality happened after Brandon Cantu, who began the day fourth in chips, opened a pot from under the gun with a $32,000 raise. Joe Pelton, the Day Three chip leader, called and saw a flop of Td-7h-2h. Cantu then bet $40k, Pelton flat called and did the same after Cantu bet $100k on the turn, the nine of spades. The nine of hearts fell on the river and this time when Cantu bet $100k, Pelton moved all-in. Cantu called with pocket sevens for a full house, but Pelton turned over 9-7 for a better, and very fortunate, full house. Cantu was a 92 percent favourite to win the hand after the flop, and a 95 percent favourite after the turn, but Pelton caught a miracle river and Cantu was out in 18th. Pelton meanwhile, had built his stack to nearly $2 million.
Just fifteen minutes later and another suck-out saw the end of Joe Tehan; he got all his money in the middle with 9-6 on a board showing K-9-9 and Steve Wong hit a two outer after calling with called with K-3.
The first real star to hit the rail was the 2001 WSOP champion Carlos “El Matador” Mortensen. He fell in 14th place when his 6-6 failed to improve against Can Kim Hua’s T-T. He was immediately followed to the rail by Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi, another victime of Kim Hua. This time Mizrachi was racing with A-Q against Hua’s K-K; it was a race too far.
When “Captain” Tom Franklin was eliminated in 11th the ten remaining players redrew for the final table, with Joe Pelton still holding a considerable chip lead. Pelton extended that lead with seven players left, winning a huge pot from Can Kim Hua, when he rivered a flush with 8h-6h after Hua inadvisably slow played a flopped set of queens.
With one player left it fell to Danny Smith to take the unwanted title of bubble boy. Smith had already lost one quarter of his stack when he folded to David Baker after he moved all-in over the top of Smith’s preflop re-raise, and it was the same player who dealt the killer blow a few hands later. This time when Baker raised preflop (to $55,000) Smith didn’t leave himself vulnerable to a re-raise, instead moving all-in for $242,000 more. Baker, put to the test, then made what turned out to be an inspired call with A-8 and was ahead from start to finish (though not by much) against Danny Smith’s K-T.
Below are the chip counts for the final table, and the day’s eliminations and payouts:
Position and chip counts:
1 Joe Pelton $2,923,000
2 David Baker $1,652,000
3 Andreas Walnum $1,374,000
4 Christopher Loveland $1,059,000
5 Steve Wong $886,000
6 Can Kim Hua $765,000
Eliminations and prize money:
7th Danny Smith $75,145
8th Loi Phan $66,795
9th Christopher Cellery $58,445
10th George Mamacas $50,095
11th Tom Franklin $41,745
12th Michael Eckes $41,745
13th Michael Mizrachi $41,745
14th Juan Carlos Mortensen $41,745
15th Ted McNeely $41,745
16th Stan Wasserkrug $33,395
17th Joe Tehan $33,395
18th Brandon Cantu $33,395
Submitted: 20/10/2006 11:50:32
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