WPT World Championship: Curt Kohlberg Leads After Day 3
Players were allowed to enter the season-ending tournament until the end of Level 10 and a number of well-known players took advantage of the extra late registration but arguably the best-known of them all will probably wish he did not bother because he lasted mere minutes!
The World Poker Tour World Championship at the Bellagio has seen the third day of play completed and it is Curt Kohlberg who is the man the surviving 45 players have to catch if they are to walk away with the $1,196,858 first place prize at the end of the working week.
Whilst Kohlberg may not be a household name he is a talented poker player in his own right and one who is a regular in some of the biggest poker tournaments in the United States of America. In his career so far he has amassed almost $2,200,000 in live tournament winnings and is now in pole position to add almost $1,200,000 to that figure.
Kohlberg ended the day by bagging up 918,300 chips, around 150,000 more than his nearest rival Nick Schulman on 768,000. He was propelled to the top of the chip counts after he sent the dangerous Isaac Haxton to the rail with just minutes left of the day. Tony Ruberto had opened to 10,000 and Kohlberg made the call. The action then passed around to Haxton in the small blind and he raised to 36,000 which folded out Ruberto but Kohlberg thought he smelled a rat and moved all-in. Haxton called off his last 185,000 with pocket eights and found he was in relatively good shape against the ace-five of his sole opponent. Haxton stayed in front up to the river but the fifth community card completed an ace-high straight for Kohlberg and a dejected Haxton exited the tournament.
Players were allowed to enter the season-ending tournament until the end of Level 10 and a number of well-known players took advantage of the extra late registration but arguably the best-known of them all will probably wish he did not bother because he lasted mere minutes! Phil Hellmuth took his a 1525 and was given a full 100,000 stack, which with blinds of 1,000/2,000/200a was still a decent stack considering he missed two day's play. The very first hand he saw Randy Dorfman open to 4,000 and Hellmuth clicked it back and made it 8,000 to play. Dorfman called and the pair shared a flop reading 9h-8c-5c. Dorfman initially checked, Hellmuth bet 11,000 but quickly folded when Dorfman check-raised to 25,000.
Then according to the WPT Live Reporting team Hellmuth was all-in on three consecutive hands. The first saw him three-bet over the top of Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi's opening raise then he did the same to Nicolas Fraioli but when Hafiz Khan opened the pot Hellmuth opted to make a standard three-bet of 11,500. Kahn called and the dealer out the five-four-three flop. Khan checked, Hellmuth bet 18,000 then snap-called when Khan check-raised all-in. Hellmuth proudly showed a pair of kings, which were crushing the queens of Khan but only until a third queen landed on the turn to send "The Poker Brat" to the rail.
By the time play came to an end the television screens in the Bellagio were showing 152 entrants and just 45 players and these survivors will return to their seats today with the goal of making it through to at least the top 18 finishing places where the money is paid out. However makes it that far will lock up $40,266 for their efforts and will be one step closer to that first place prize of almost $1,200,000. Who will make it to the money and who will leave the Bellagio $25,500 lighter than when they arrived? Tune in tomorrow to find out!
WPT World Championship Top 10 Chip Counts
1st: Curt Kohlberg - 918,300
2nd: Nick Schulman - 768,000
3rd: Guillaume Darcourt - 641,000
4th: Antonio Esfandiari - 632,000
5th: Rinat Bogdanov - 624,000
6th: David Steicke - 589,700
7th: Tony Ruberto - 581,400
8th: Viacheslav Igin - 567,000
9th: Farzad Bonyadi - 519,900
10th: Nicolas Fraioli - 501,600
Prices quoted in copy are correct at time of publication but liable to change.
