Another day is in the books at the 2016 World Poker Tour (WPT) L.A. Poker Classic Main Event, as the field was whittled from 111 players to just 43 heading into Tuesday’s Day 4. Germany’s Dietrich Fast is perched at the head of the class with 1.07 million chips, the only player to crack the million chip mark.
Though Fast is alone above the million chip plateau, it is a close race at the top of the leader board right now. Sam Soverel, the chip leader going into Monday’s action, is hot on Fast’s heels with 979,000 chips. Ty Reiman, who was close behind Soverel to begin Day 3, is in the same spot (except for the fact that Fast is ahead of both of them), looming just 40,000 chips behind Soverel. After those three, the chip counts spread out quickly, with two players each in the 700,000, 600,000, and 500,000 chip ranges.
Dietrich Fast has a long resume of four- and five-digit cashes in live tournaments, adding up to just shy of $600,000 in total earnings. One score of his stands out: a €157,749 ($177,721) cash for winning this past year’s Oktoberfest event at the 2015 World Series of Poker Europe.
The money bubble was burst during Level 17 and while it always hurts to be the “bubble boy” in any event, this one had to sting something fierce for Alon Yehudai. After an hour of hand-for-hand play (which in itself had to have been agonizing), Yehudai got it all-in for 160,000 pre-flop with pure gold: pocket Aces. David Farber, of course not knowing what his opponent had and at no risk of elimination, made a pretty easy call with pocket Kings. The flop had to have crushed Yehudai’s heart: K-Q-Q, giving Farber a full house and leaving Yehudai searching for one of the two remaining Aces. Neither came and he was eliminated from the tournament, making David Farber the hero of the other 62 players, as everyone remaining had now made the money.
It wasn’t all smooth sailing for Fast – he faced elimination in the tournament, as well. Fortunately, shortly after the field made the money, he was able to double through Craig Chait to grow his stack to above the half million chip mark. Shortly thereafter, he doubled through Chait again, this time crippling his opponent. Chait is still hanging in there, though, taking 121,000 chips into Day 4.
Speaking of, Day 4 of the WPT L.A. Poker Classic Main Event will begin at noon local time at the Commerce Casino. Five more 90-minute levels will be contested before wrapping it up for the night.
2016 World Poker Tour L.A. Poker Classic Main Event – Day 3 Chip Leaders
1. Dietrich Fast – 1,070,000
2. Sam Soverel – 979,000
3. Ty Reiman – 937,000
4. Danny Nguyen – 729,000
5. Sam Taylor – 700,000
6. Farid Jattin – 661,000
7. John Hennigan – 658,000
8. Shane Schleger – 542,000
9. Binh Nguyen – 539,000
10. Jesse Yaginuma – 493,000
