The money bubble at the 2012 World Poker Tour (WPT) LA Poker Classic was popped at the end of the day last night when David Baker (the other one) eliminated Phil Ivey in 55th place, ending the poker legend’s run at the LAPC title, and guaranteeing the remaining players at least a $20,000 payday.

With the elimination of Ivey the focus will now shift the other developing story-lines, including Jason Somerville, who recently came-out, and who finished the day in the #2 spot on the leader-board with 860,000 chips. Somerville, who has been rolling since the beginning of the event, would make for a very interesting story should he win the LAPC considering he is the only openly gay male poker player in the game.

Three former WPT Champions are also still in the hunt for the title, Allen Carter, Joe Tehan, and 2005 WSOP Champion Joe Hachem. But the chances are that it will be one or more of the rising stars that will land at the final table, considering a score of talented young players are still in the running including, Christian Harder, Amit Makhija, Sorel Mizzi, Matt Marafioti, Stephen Chidwick, Dan Kelly, Tyson Marks, David Sands, Tom Marchese, Noah Schwartz, and the aforementioned Somerville.

The chip-leader heading into Day 4 will be poker pro Tuan Phan, who was the only person to crack the million-chip mark on Day 3, ending the night with a stack of 1,140,000 chips, well ahead of Somerville’s 860,000. Here is a look at the Top 10 chip-counts heading into Day 4 of the LAPC:

1. Tuan Phan — 1,140,000

2. Jason Somerville — 860,000

3. Joe Tehan — 831,500

4. Casey Stewart — 791,000

5. Larry Greenberg — 707,000

6. Noah Schwartz — 678,000

7. Larry Lipman — 571,000

8. Tom Marchese — 535,000

9. Badih Bounahra — 469,500

10. David Sands — 463,500

A number of big names fell by the wayside on Day 3 including Phil Ivey, Phil Hellmuth, San Barnhart, Scott Seiver, Justin Young, Dan O’Brien, Todd Terry, Jennifer Harman, and Liv Boeree to name just a few.

Day 4 of the 2012 LA Poker Classic will once again kick-off at Noon local time, and the field is expected to play down to just three tables before calling it a night. When the 54 remaining players return to the Commerce Casino on Monday the blinds will be at 2,500/5,000 with a 500 chip ante; the average chip-stack is currently 305,000.

Even though all of the remaining players have made the money (earning at least $21,080), the over $1.3 million first-place prize-money is starting to look like a real possibility at this point, and the for the younger players there is also the possibility of a WPT LA Poker Classic victory, which will look awful good on their resume.

Tags: Allen Carter, Barnhart, Casey Stewart, David Baker, David Sands, Jennifer Harman, Joe Hachem, Joe Tehan, LAPC, Larry Greenberg, Larry Lipman, Leader Board, marchese, O Brien, phil hellmuth, Phil Ivey, Poker Player, Sorel Mizzi, World Poker Tour, WPT

This entry was posted on Monday, February 27th, 2012 at 7:54 am and is filed under Poker News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.