The 2013 World Poker Tour L.A. Poker Classic resumed Monday with Day 3 action at the Commerce Casino in Los Angeles, Calif. The day began with 162 players still in contention for the $1,004,090 top prize, and play didn’t end until the money bubble burst and the top 63 players were guaranteed a minimum payday of $18,360. The chip leader at the end of Day 3 was 2012 World Series of Poker October Niner Jeremy Ausmus, who was the first and only player to eclipse 1 million in chips.
2013 WPT LA Poker Classic Day 3 Top 10 Chip Counts
| Place | Player | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jeremy Ausmus | 1,014,000 |
| 2 | Blake Barousse | 815,000 |
| 3 | Eric Froehlich | 755,000 |
| 4 | Galen Hall | 734,000 |
| 5 | David Tuthill | 613,000 |
| 6 | Paul Volpe | 570,000 |
| 7 | Ryan Franklin | 551,000 |
| 8 | Benjamin Zamani | 499,000 |
| 9 | Alexander Venovski | 415,000 |
| 10 | Warwick Mirzikinian | 378,000 |
Ausmus had a shaky start to Day 3, losing a good portion of his 225,000-chip starting stack to chip leader Peter Neff, but he told WPT reporter Jeanine Deeb that he recouped those lost chips when he made a set at the end of the first level. From there, his stack gradually climbed throughout Day 3. Ausmus took the chip lead in the evening and never relinquished control for the remainder of the day.
While Ausmus thrived, many notables hit the rail before reaching the money. Among those who left empty-handed were Jennifer Tilly, Farzad Bonyadi, Maria Ho, Lacey Jones, and Joe Serock, as well as former WPT champs Eli Elezra, Dwyte Pilgrim, Jonathan Roy, Brandon Cantu, Nick Schulman, Prahlad Friedman, Joe Tehan, Victor Ramdin and David Williams.
WPT Champions Club member Phil Laak managed to fend off elimination on money bubble with 65 players left. According to the WPT Live Updates team, Laak was all-in with 
on a flop of 
and was trailing Wartan Jalnakrian’s 
. Laak was still drawing to several outs, and he added a couple more when the 
hit the turn. Laak then completed his flush when the 
peeled off on the river, and he increased his stack to 320,000 — well above the tournament average.
After Daniel Callaghan was sent home in 65th place, Arlo Dotson exited as the official bubble boy after losing a blind-versus-blind battle with Sam Ravazi. With the blinds at 3,000/6,000, action folded to Ravazi in the small blind and he raised enough to put Dotson all-in. Dotson called off his remaining 23,000 in the big blind with 
and discovered that he was ahead of Ravazi’s 
. But no preflop advantage is ever safe in poker, and Dotson found out the hard way when the board fell 
, giving Ravazi a pair on the river. Dotson exited in 64th place, and the remaining 63 players were in the money and done for the day.
Many top pros advanced to Day 4 with healthy stacks. Among those returning will be Galen Hall (734,000), Paul Volpe (570,000), Dan Shak (310,000), Jennifer Harman (304,000), Noah Schwartz (236,000), Scott Clements (185,000), Jesse Sylvia (184,000), Joe Hachem (150,000), Scott Seiver (124,000), and Carlos Mortensen (122,000).
Day 4 begins Tuesday at 12:00 noon PT. Stay tuned to PokerNews.com for a full recap of the day’s action upon the completion of play.
Photo courtesy of WorldPokerTour.com.
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