February 29 2012, Donnie Peters

The final 18 players returned to action for Day 5 of the 2012 World Poker Tour L.A. Poker Classic at the Commerce Casino on Tuesday to play down to the final table. When the final six remained, Sean Jazayeri was on top with 4.38 million in chips.

When the day began, Noah Schwartz was the man to catch, followed closely by Dan Kelly. Both went on to the final table, sitting third and fourth in chips, respectively.

Shahen Martirosian, the first player eliminated, left in 18th place. He was followed out the door by Nick Binger (17th), Daniel Idema (16th), Skip Wilson (15th) and A.J. Jejelowo (14th). After that batch of players fell to the rail, Elvis Huynh headed out the door in 13th, Joe Hachem in 12th, Jason DeWitt in 11th and Sorel Mizzi in 10th to set the final nine-handed table.

Former WPT champion Hachem went out in Level 26 with the blinds at 20,000/40,000/5,000. According to the WPT Live Updates Team, Hachem moved all-in from the button for his last 710,000 and Sean Jazayeri called from the big blind with . Hachem was just barely outdone holding . After the board ran out , Hachem was eliminated and earned a $60,610 payday.

When the final nine-handed table began, Jason Somerville held the chip lead. He wound up losing that lead to Kelly on the 12th hand of the final table, but hung on to make the official WPT televised final table.

Falling in ninth place for $79,060 was Stephen Chidwick. During Level 27 with the blinds up to 25,000/50,000/5,000, Chidwick was all-in with against Jason Burt’s . No help came for Chidwick, who was eliminated.

Falling in eighth place was David Pham. During the same level that Chidwick went out, Jazayeri raised to 100,000 from middle position. Pham three-bet to 350,000 from the big blind and action fell back on Jazayeri. He four-bet and made it 950,000 to go. Pham took some time and then moved all-in for approximately 2.1 million. Jazayeri snap-called with . Pham turned over to reveal the cooler. The flop, turn and river ran out and Pham was eliminated. He earned $110,680 for his finish.

With seven people left, it was time for the official final-table bubble. Allen Carter has had some great success on the WPT, including a win at the 2009 WPT Southern Poker Championship for $1 million and a third-place finish in the 2011 version of the same event for $218,471. This time around, he’d have to settle for a seventh-place finish because he became the final-table bubble boy.

In Level 28 with the blinds at 30,000/60,000/10,000, David “Doc” Sands raised from the button to 120,000. Carter reraised all-in from the big blind for about 1.2 million. Sands made the call and rolled over . Carter was at risk holding . After no help on the board, Carter’s chips were added to Sands’ stack. For his finish, Carter collected $155,480 in prize money.

2012 WPT L.A. Poker Classic Final Table Chip Counts

The final table will commence on Wednesday at 1600 PST (0000 GMT) and will last until a winner is crowned. First place is worth nearly $1.4 million, but each player has already secured at least $202,910. It’s still anybody’s game, and you won’t want to miss finding out who walked away with the title. Be sure to check back here on PokerNews for the final table recap.

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