A journey all the way throughout the Panama Canal -- from the time a boat gets in line from one ocean to the time it empties out on its way toward another -- generally takes around eight to ten hours, although actually this kind of voyage is basically a day-long proposition.
It's a bit of like a given day in a poker tournament just like the LAPT Panama Main Event -- for example, this year's Day 3. A COMPLETE of 47 players came today, all having paid the initial toll and survived from an original starting field of 550 entries. They'd play all the way all the way down to a last eight, and subtracting the dinner break it actually took greater than 10 hours' worth of poker to take action. And it will be another day before people who survived will finally get to finish their tourney journeys.
The Panama Canal could be the world's most famed short cut. But because the final eight already well know -- especially current chip leader Fabian Ortiz, who already has one LAPT title to his credit -- there is not any short cut to becoming an LAPT champion.
The day began with everyone chasing Derek Ecenarro, the one player to have bagged 1,000,000 chips on Day 2. A manic first hour then saw 16 players sent railward, Team PokerStars Pro Leo Fernandez among them (in 35th).
Carter Gill (31st) and Brian England (28th) were early afternoon knockouts in addition to LAPT2 Chile champion Ortiz started to challenge Ecenarro after which grab the chip lead.
Play continued, with another former LAPT champion, Alex Manzano, going out in 20th.
Then another spate of eliminations trimmed the sphere further as Nick Russo and Hugo Suarez rose to the highest of the counts.
Peter Nigh would then fall in 13th after a well-nigh impossible hand -- nearly impossible to break out from, anyway -- wherein he had pocket aces and Suarez flopped quads. A short-stacked Ecenarro would follow in 12th, Luis Perez in 11th, and Alex Brenes in 10th, thereby trimming the sector to ten.
After knocking out Brenes, Javier Rios had the chip result in start nine-handed play with greater than 2.5 million while Ortiz had become the table's short stack.
The final table bubble would prove especially hard to burst, however, lasting nearly three hours and carrying play right up until midnight.
Guillermo Olvera enjoyed two double-ups to transport up near the highest of the counts for some time. Nick Russo became short but doubled up to boot when his pocket nines held against Alexander Haber's A♥K♥. Then Hugo Suarez enjoyed a large double to greater than 2 million when his K♦K♣ held against Ariel Scaparro's 4♠4♦, catapulting him into the lead.
Meanwhile Ortiz kept chipped up. Scaparro then fell under 250,000 before doubling through Ortiz. Then Ortiz would double through Antonio Hogaza. And on it went.
Finally Scaparro would push his last 480,000 -- eight big blinds -- and after some thought Ortiz made the decision. It was Scaparro's A♠T♥ versus Ortiz's 8♥8♠, and a 4♣5♣K♥Q♠8♠ board knocked out Scaparro in ninth for $13,980.
That pot carried Ortiz -- shortest to begin the nine-handed table -- into the chip lead at night's end. Here's how the overall eight will stack as much as start Day 4:
1. Fabian Ortiz (Argentina) -- 2,060,0002. Hugo Suarez (Mexico) -- 1,940,0003. Nick Russo (Australia) -- 1,915,0004. Javier Rios (Colombia) -- 1,730,0005. Guillermo Olvera (Mexico) -- 1,035,0006. Alexander Haber (Jamaica) -- 905,0007. Hugo Lemaire (Malta) -- 755,0008. Antonio Hogaza (Mexico) -- 495,000
Ortiz sits primed to make a run at joining his fellow countryman and Team PokerStars Pro Nacho Barbero as a two-time LAPT Main Event champion.
The Day 4 ship sets sail at 12 noon tomorrow local time (Central). Join us again then as we gradually move from an ocean of doubt to a different of certainty in regards to the LAPT7 Panama Main Event.
Photography from LAPT7 Panama by Carlos Monti. Click here for live updates in Spanish, and here for live updates in Portuguese. Also take a look at the start-to-finish live streaming coverage (in both Spanish and Portuguese) at PokerStars.tv.
Martin Harris is Freelance Contributor to the PokerStars Blog.
Read More... [Source: PokerStarsBlog.com :: Latin American Poker Tour]
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