Carlos Mortensen Looking to Win Third WPT Title at LA Poker Classic

Published on March 2nd, 2010 3:28 am EST

Day 4 of the WPT LAPC (L.A. Poker Classic) main event has drawn to a close, with Carlos Mortensen leading the event heading into the fifth day of play on Tuesday.

21 players currently stand between Carlos Mortensen and his third World Poker Tour title. Mortensen's previous two WPT titles came at the 2004 Doyle Brunson North American Poker Championship ($1,000,000) and the WPT Championship in 2007 ($3,970,415). "El Matador" also has two World Series of Poker bracelets, one of which came in the 2001 main event, so you know that he will be comfortable heading into the final two days of the LAPC main event.

Mark Newhouse, also known as "newhizzle" online, is currently sitting second in chips heading into Day 5. Newhouse has quite the story - he won a WPT event (Borgata Poker Open) in 2006 for over $1.5 million, only to lose his bankroll due to a variety of different reasons. In late December, "newhizzle" took down the Sunday Million on Pokerstars for over $245k. Newhouse now has an opportunity to come all the way back with a strong showing at the LAPC main event.

One other interesting story heading into Day 5 - Johnny Chan, the man with 10 World Series of Poker bracelets, is still alive in this event. Chan is one of the smaller stacks heading into Day 5, but you can bet that he'll be fighting hard to take down his first WPT championship.

Here are the current chip counts, courtesy of LAPCnews.com:

1 Carlos Mortensen Henderson, NV 1,669,000 2 1
2 Mark Newhouse Chapel Hill, NC 1,308,000 3 7
3 Raymond Dolan Fountain Valley, CA 1,229,000 2 6
4 Masa Kagawa Tokyo, Japan 1,129,000 3 5
5 Andras Koroknai Hungary Debrecen 1,002,000 1 2
6 Tri Huynh Vancouver, BC 942,000 1 4
7 Dan Martin Klamath Falls, OR 684,000 3 8
8 Jean-Claude Moussa Toronto, ON 672,000 3 9
9 Steve Sung Torrance, CA 671,000 2 5
10 Jim Casement St. Charles, IL 609,000 3 6
11 Tim Begley Freehold, NJ 603,000 3 4
12 Gevork Kasabyan Hollywood, CA 594,000 1 3
13 Jamie Brown Kent, England 552,000 2 8
14 Mari Lou Morelli Long Beach, CA 456,000 1 1
15 Dylan Linde Coer D'Alene, ID 447,000 1 9
16 Bob Kairnes Natiek, MA 421,000 2 3
17 Johnny Chan Las Vegas, NV 406,000 2 7
18 Danny Fuhs Long Beach, CA 379,000 2 4
19 Michael Kamran Los Angeles, CA 327,000 1 8
20 Connor Allisen Vancouver, BC, Canada 324,000 1 5
21 Annie Duke Los Angeles, CA 241,000 3 2
22 John Cautela Marlboro, MA 219,000 3 1

All of the remaining 22 players are guaranteed at least $45,773 for making it this far, with the eventual winner taking home just under $1.8 million.

A few of the prominent names to hit the rail on Day 4:

Brett Richey, 26th place, $45,770
Vivek Rajkumar, 32nd place, $39,340
Erica Schoenberg, 42nd place, $33,610
Prahlad Friedman, 49th place, $28,610
Vanessa Rousso, 59th place, $23,600
Hoyt Corkins, 60th place, $23,600
Daniel Negreanu, 66th place, $19,310

Play is set to resume on Tuesday afternoon at 12 pm local time.

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Filed Under: Tournament Results