World Poker Tour Championship Completes Day 4 while Poker Road’s Doyle Brunson Challenges Patrik Antonius

Only 17 poker players remain in the competition for the $3.38 million dollar prize money and Brunson and Antonius may duke it out on the golf course.

2008-04-24, PokerRoad.com

Posted by semltd 259 days ago (1)
Category: Gaming & Casinos | Tags: poker news poker newswire poker buzz

Day 4 of the World Poker Tour Championships started at the Bellagio with 55 poker players but ended with only 17 hopefuls. With nowhere to hide, the play was aggressive and the action was hot. The day started out with Gus Hansen in the chip lead however, that would change. Zvi Shiff found himself out in 55th place on the first hand of the day. Mats Rahmn hit the rail quickly as his ace-queen did not hold up to Mark Newhouse’s pocket kings. Also leaving yesterday was J.C. Tran (in 46th place) and Day 2 second place chip leader Jayde Tran (in 45th place).

But, other Trans were sitting pretty as David Tran found himself in fourth place at the end of Day 4. He doubled up on Martin de Knijff, ending the day with a little over two and a half million chips. Kenny Tran was in ninth place at the end of Day 4 with 1,442,000 in chips.

The last remaining female in the field, Isabelle Mercier, was out in 41st place, taking home a prize of $52,765. Carlos Mortensen saw his chance to repeat the World Poker Tour Championship title dissolve as he went home in 38th place. He was put out by Jeff “Happy” Shulman when Mortensen went all in with his pocket jacks versus Shulman’s pocket aces.

It must be the Chiquita hat that is bringing Tom Dwan good luck. He finds himself in third place with 2.874,000 in chips, including all of Noah Schwartz’s chips, who Dwan put out in 37th place. Dwan also took out David Grey in 22nd place when Grey’s pocket aces fell to Dwan’s pocket nines when another nine came on the flop.

Also hitting the rail yesterday was Matt Giannetti, Poker Hall of Famer T.J. Cloutier, John Hoang, Tom McCormick, Steve Wong, and Danny Wong. Jonathan Little found himself winning the WPT Player of the Year honors after he defeated Danny Wong. Steve Billirakis, the youngest WSOP bracelet winner ever, found himself out in 23rd place when his ace-nine did not hold up against David Tran’s pocket tens.

With Tom Dwan in third and David Tran in fourth, the end of the day also found Jeff King in fifth with almost two million in chips. Day 3 leader Gus Hansen found himself in second place, a little less than one million chips behind the leader Amir Vahedi, who won a huge pot off Day 2 chip leader Robert Mizrachi, who ended the day in 12th place with a little over one million in chips.

Each of the 17 remaining poker players is guaranteed at least $105,000 in prize money. Today the field will narrow down to six, with the final table seeing play on April 26th.

In other poker news, Doyle Brunson has issued a challenge to Patrik “The Flying Finn” Antonius – on the golf course? Yes, the “Texas Dolly” has said in his Poker Road poker blog that he wants a golf match with Antonius – for $100,000 a hole. This comes after Antonius took up Brunson’s challenge of playing “anyone, for any amount at any variety of poker.” Will Antonius take the golf bait? Only time will tell.