Tuesday night marked the end of Day 3 of the World Poker Tour’s Legends of Poker event from the Bicycle Casino in Los Angeles, California. The tournament played down to 27 of poker’s finest. Among them were a handful of PocketFivers, each eyeing the $1.1 million first place prize. Pacing the online poker contingent was Amit Amak316 Makhija (pictured at right), who has the second largest chip stack in the room at The Bike with 842,000; chip leader Paul Smith has 946,000. Also making the final 27 are Zachary CrazyZachary Clark, Marco CrazyMarco Johnson, and Ben bfineman Fineman. The entire Legends of Poker event is being tracked on location by PocketFivesLive.com, your home for WPT coverage.
At the end of the day, Amit Amak316 Makhija doubled up after flopping a straight on a board of 8-9-10 rainbow. He was all in against Trong Nguyen after the flop and his straight held, boosting his chip stack to 842,000. For much of the day, Makhija was lumped at a table that featured Erik Seidel, Erick Lindgren, and John Phan. He made the final table and finished fifth in Event #1 of the 2008 World Series of Poker, the $10,000 buy-in Pot-Limit Hold'em World Championship. For his efforts, he received a healthy $198,528 payday and some face time on ESPN.
PocketFivesLive.com Tournament Reporter Court Harrington, who has been in the fray at the WPT Legends of Poker event since Day 1A, commented on Makhija’s impressive run through the star-studded field: “Makhija will be coming into Day 4 on a huge high after winning a massive pot on the very last hand of the day to jump to the top of the chip counts. His momentum, confidence, and chip stack have all peaked at the same time and he is in an excellent position to make a final table run.”
Zachary CrazyZachary Clark (pictured at right) ended the day with 388,000 chips, the 13th largest stack overall and slightly below the average chip stack of 413,000. Clark won a big hand against Italian poker pro Max Pescatori holding pocket jacks against Pescatori’s pocket eights. His hand held and he doubled up to 440,000 chips, propelling him into Day 4. Clark has seven WSOP cashes to his name, including a 116th place in the 2007 Main Event, which was good for $58,570.
For much of the end of play on Day 3, Clark was seated next to Marco CrazyMarco Johnson. The Crazy contingent both made the final 27, as Johnson ended the day with a 310,000 chip stack, good for 15th. Johnson took 27th in the Bellagio Five Diamond World Poker Classic in Season V of the World Poker Tour, cashing for $50,745. He made the final table of a $3,000 buy-in limit event during the 2007 WSOP, banking $20,424. His largest score occurred this year at the World Series of Poker, where he finished second in the $2,000 no limit tournament, taking home nearly half a million dollars.
Harrington comments on Clark and Johnson’s play during Day 3: “Sitting beside one of your best friends deep in a major poker tournament can be distracting. It can take a lot of players off their game. Both Johnson and Clark were able to keep things going in the right direction, but I am sure both of them would be more than happy not to be at the same table again until there is only one left. Johnson was a little bit handcuffed by the deep stacks and position at his table, but he stayed patient and came out in good shape. Clark was able to be a little more aggressive and also finished the day solidly.”
Ben bfineman Fineman (pictured at right) also made the final 27 at the Legends of Poker. He enters Day 4 as one of the short stacks in the room, holding 159,000 chips. In April, he won a $1,060 buy-in no limit tournament at the WSOP Circuit Event stop at Caesars Palace. Eight days later, he took second in the Main Event to Allen Cunningham, cashing for $257,637. Fineman recently took down FTOPS Event #12 on Full Tilt Poker, pocketing $300,000.
Here’s a look at the final 27 players who will battle it out on Day 4 along with their chip stacks:
Paul Smith - 946,000
Amit Makhija - 842,000
Layne Flack - 807,000
Lee Markholt - 779,000
Matt Keikoan - 744,000
Ron Jenkins - 740,000
Kyle Wilson - 619,000
Denny Lee - 481,000
Takashi Shiono - 461,000
Trong Nguyen - 457,000
Allen Cunningham - 420,000
Kirk Conrad - 416,000
Zachary Clark - 388,000
Jinyun Lin - 363,000
Marco Johnson - 310,000
Philip Stark - 307,000
Tan Le - 294,000
John Phan - 244,000
Rodeen Talebi - 230,000
Samuel Ngai - 220,000
Gary Najaryan - 211,000
Jim Hof - 201,000
Sirous Baghchehsaraie - 176,000
Adam Weinraub - 161,000
Ben Fineman - 159,000
Maria Ho - 158,000
Raymond Voskanian - 16,000
PocketFivers who were knocked out on Day 3 included:
Matt Mattg1983 Graham (28th place for $14,085)
Josh pbdrunks VanDuyn (32nd place for $14,085)
Barry barryg1 Greenstein
Jared TheWacoKidd Hamby
Matt All In At 420 Stout
Day 4 begins at 2:15pm PT today. Check out PocketFivesLive.com, your home for online poker players in the biggest live tournaments.
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