Andras Koroknai Becomes WPT LA Poker Classic 1.7 Million Winner

Always one of the most popular stops on each season of the World Poker Tour, the L.A. Poker Classic at Commerce Casino on the West Coast did not disappoint. With Matt Savage running the tournaments that began in January, the $10K buy-in Main Event finally arrived on February 26 and would prove to be recession-proof and one of the most successful LAPC events in recent years.

There was only one starting day for the WPT tournament, and it attracted 745 players, which made for a $7,152,000 prize pool and payouts of more than $1 million for each of the top two spots. Many big names mixed with some amateurs made it a well-founded field, which dwindled throughout the day to leave only 477 players when play ceased, and Masa Kagawa held the chip lead with 124,575 chips, followed by Mark Seif.

The second day of action took the field down to 186 players, and Taylor Paur sat atop the leaderboard with 318,400, but he was followed closely by Daniel Negreanu. But it was on Day 3 that the action played down to the money, and near the end of the night, hand-for-hand action led to Thomas Fuller moving all-in with against the pocket aces of an opponent. The board came , and Fuller busted on the bubble in 73rd place. Play ended with 72 players, all guaranteed at least $18,595 for finishing in the money, and Mark Newhouse was the chip leader with 498,000 chips, while Chris Moore came in second.

On the fourth day, some of the notable eliminations included Robert Mizrachi in 70th place, Jon Turner in 67th, Daniel Negreanu in 66th, Hoyt Corkins in 60th, Vanessa Rousso in 59th, Prahlad Friedman in 49th, Erica Schoenberg in 42nd, Vivek Rajkumar in 32nd, and Brett Richey in 26th. When Michael Woo exited in 23rd, play stopped for the night with Carlos Mortensen in first place holding 1,669,000 in chips, followed by Mark Newhouse.

Day 5 saw more big names eliminated, as Annie Duke left in 19th place, Mark Newhouse in 13th, Johnny Chan in 12th, Carlos Mortensen in ninth, and Steve Sung in eighth. Ultimately, after many hours of little action and as dawn drew nearer, it was Jim Casement who pushed all-in with against the of Andras Koroknai. The board ran out , and Casement bubbled the final table, taking home $185,952 for the seventh place finish.

The final table was then set to take a day off and proceed to a winner on March 4 as follows:

Seat 1:    Jean-Claude Moussa        1,360,000
Seat 2:    Gevork Kasabyan        2,000,000
Seat 3:    Tri Huynh            2,565,000
Seat 4:    Raymond Dolan            3,300,000
Seat 5:    Michael Kamran           680,000
Seat 6:    Andras Koroknai        4,995,000

Action began almost as soon as the players took their seats, as the tenth hand of the final table found a player at risk. It was short-stacked Michael Kamran, who pushed his 490K stack all-in with against the of Kasabyan. The board came to river the best pair for Kasabyan, and Kamran was gone in sixth place with $246,740.

Four hands later, J.C. Moussa and his short stack pushed all-in with , but Huynh called with , which was the better hand and only got better when it was made into a flush on the board. That left Moussa out in fifth place with $321,840.

Play then moved forward with four players but found many double-ups and large pots. It wasn’t until Gevork Kasabyan got very short-stacked that action led to another elimination. Though Kasabyan doubled once through Huynh, the two tangled again, this time to see a flop. Huynh bet, Kasabyan check-raised, and Huynh pushed all-in with , which brought a call from Kasabyan with . The turn was the and the river the , and Huynh ended with a full house. Kasabyan was sent home in fourth place with $450,580.

Though Dolan was the short-stack after a double-through by Koroknai, it was Tri Huynh who moved next, putting his tournament life at risk with pocket jacks. But Koroknai was there with , and the race ended when the flop came . The turn and river brought and , which eliminated Huynh in third place with $665,140.

The final two players began heads-up play with the following chip counts:

Andras Koroknai    13,450,000
Raymond Dolan          1,450,000

And the battle lasted one hand. Koroknai made the push with , and Dolan decided to go for the possible double-up with . It looked good for him when the flop came , but the turn and river made a flush for Koroknai and eliminated Raymond Dolan in second place with $1,002,710 in prize money.

Hungarian Andras Koroknai won $1,788,040 for claiming victory at the WPT L.A. Poker Classic. He also took home a WPT bracelet, Commerce Casino trophy, watch, and $25K entry into the WPT World Championship at the Bellagio in April.