There will be no back to back championship for Ryan Chua. After a battle of the big stacks it was Fritz Barnes who came out on top. Chua raised to 440,000 from under the gun and Fritz Barnes called from the big blind. The dealer spread the flop of {jc}{2c}{7d} and Barnes checked. Chua slid out a bet of 300,000 and was quickly check raised by Barnes to 800,000.
Chua thought about it for a bit and moved all in for 2,300,000 total. Barnes called and Chua tabled the {kh}{jh} for top pair but he was in bad shape as Barnes held {jd}{7s} for top two pair. The turn brought the {7h} and Barnes improved to a full house. The {4h} completed the board and last years champion will be our 9th place finisher collecting $1,882 for his efforts.
After being crippled by Fritz Barnes when he ran his top pair of aces into Barnes’ set of threes. Terrence O’Connor was all in blind for his last 30,000 in the small blind. Mario Lisojo raised to 260,000 from under the gun and the rest of the tabled mucked their hands.
Lisojo: {jc}{jh}
O’Connor: {ac}{2d}
The board ran out clean for Lisojo {10h}{3h}{6c}{5d}{7d} although O’Connor did turn a gutshot straight draw he couldn’t get there on the river. O’Connor will be our 10th place finisher collecting $1,238 for his efforts.
We apologize for any inconvenience but the final table restart has been pushed back to 6 pm. We will resume updates and the live stream as soon as play resumes.
Our Championship event is now down to the Final Table of 10https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DuZb918Q1lc players. The players are on a short break and play will resume at 5 pm eastern time. If you wish to watch the live stream it can be seen here below.
With the recent elimination of our last player our final table is set here in the Championship Event. Ryan Chua of the Eastern Poker Tour who won this event last year is in the lead. Can Ryan win back to back Championships? We will have to wait and see. The players are now on a break and the final table will resume play at 5pm.
Final Table Chip Counts and seating assignments.
(Seat 5): Ryan Chua (EPT)- 2,470,000
(Seat 10): Leonard Miller (Riverchasers)- 2,040,000
(Seat 6): Terence O’Connor (Riverchasers)- 1,920,000
(Seat 1): Jimmy Guenther (Steel City Poker)- 1,895,000
(Seat 3): Jorge Baptista (EPT)- 1,795,000
(Seat 4): Fritz Barnes (Riverchasers)-1,540,000
(Seat 9): Ron Lemmerman (Riverchasers)- 1,530,000
(Seat 2): Michael Diaco (NYFP)- 1,525,000
(Seat 8): Mario Lisojo (NYFP)- 1,425,000
(Seat 7): Gus Pasquella (Riverchasers)- 530,000
The action folds around to the player on the button and he moves all in for 455,000. The small blind folds and Ryan Chua snap calls from the big blind tabling his {ad}{kd}. The button player shows {8c}{8h} and they’ll see a flop. The {ah} appears right in the window followed by the {4s}{6h}.
The turn brings the {qc} and the river is the {3c}. Chua earns the pot and the elimination and with that our final table is set. Ryan Chua leads the final 10 and is looking to repeat his Championship performance of last year.
Dan Casiere moves all in from early position for his last 87,000 chips. Gus Pasquella makes the call and the action folds around to Lee Jaffe in the small blind. Jaffe reshoves all in for 259,000. After some thought Pasquella slides his hand into the muck and the hands are revealed.
Casiere- {8c}{8s}
Jaffe- {jh}{jc}
The {kc}{3h}{9d} flop keeps Jaffe in great shape to score the elimination. The {ah} turn is no help to Casiere and he will need one of the last two eights in the deck on the river. The {8h} spikes on the river and Casiere’s rail explodes in excitement. Jaffe is now crippled and the Day 2 chip leader is now down to less than 4 big blinds.
Shortly before the break we saw Tony Silva (EPT) get involved in a hand with chip leader Ron Burke. In a preflop raising war tony got his stack of 280,00 all in holding pocket ace. Burke held pocket queens and Silva’s aces held up. Silva is now playing upwards of 600,000 while Burke still leads the field with over 1,300,000.
It looks like the Eastern Poker Tour is putting on a very strong showing here in the Championship Event. Five players have crossed the million chip mark and 4 of the 5 are EPT players. Here is a list of the players that have crossed the 1,000,000 chip mark
Ron Burke (EPT)-1,365,000
Ryan Chua (EPT)- 1,350,000
Gus Pasquella (Riverchasers)- 1,200,000
Sam Ho (EPT)- 1,055,000
Mike Klingerman (EPT)- 1,050,000
