May 26 2012, Josh Cahlik

Day 3 of the PokerStars.net LAPT Punta del Este Main Event has officially reached a final table and Brazilian Francisco Baruffi Neto is the man running the show with 1,346,000 chips.

Hot on Neto’s heels is Argentinian Guido Ruffini who is sitting with a solid stack of 1,259,000. Rounding out the top three is the chip leader going into Day 3, Ivan Luca, who is a mere blue T5,000 chip away from Ruffini with 1,254,000. Luca was quiet early on in the day but turned up the aggression as the day pressed on, leading to his retention of his spot among the tournament leaders.

Francisco Baruffi Neto gained a majority of his stack during a fortunate confrontation with Day 1 chip leader Juan Garcia. The two players shot raises back and forth before the flop until Garcia six-bet all-in and Neto made the call for his tournament life. Garcia was ahead with and Neto, who was holding was in need of a miracle. The flop of was of no help to Neto, but the on fourth street most certainly was. Garcia sat motionless, blankly staring at the board as if he could not believe what had happened. The board finished with a and just like that Neto went from having his tournament life on the line to being a dominating chip leader with over 1,500,000.

Saturday’s play saw a slew of competitors hit the rail. Among those who hit the rail were Pedro Komaromi, Julian Menendez, Bolivar Palacios, Luiz Filipe Andrade, and Team PokerStars Pro Nacho Barbero.

The story causing all of the buzz among the tournament room of the Mantra Resort, however, is one about angels; one angel to be exact: Team PokerStars Pro Angel Guillen. Guillen had quite the dramatic day, being seen at both the top and bottom of the chip counts. At one point in the day, Guillen found himself in dire need of a double up, and instead was awarded with a very surprising triple up.

Guillen raised to 16,000 from under the gun and received a call from Vladimir Dobrovolskiy on the cutoff and Leandro Rubinsztain in the small blind. The trio of players saw a flop of . Action checked around to Dobrovolskiy who bet 24,000. Rubinsztain opted to call, but Guillen took this opportunity to move all-in. Much to the chagrin of Guillen, Dobrovolskiy three-bet all-in over the top and Rubinsztain quickly called off his remaining 140,000.

Showdown

Rubinsztain:
Guillen:
Dobrovolskiy:

Guillen was holding the worst hand and Rubinsztain was ready to score a sweet triple up. The came on the river, giving Guillen a set and a few more outs to take down the pot with a full house. The poker gods obliged to satisfy Guillen, as the drilled the river, pairing the board and giving Guillen a winning full house, overcoming a 4 percent chance of taking down the pot when the money was put in on the flop.

Guillen will be coming into the final table as the shortest stack, holding 421,000 in chips, That being said, Guillen has showed a tremendous will to remain in this tournament and spectators should expect no less when the final nine take their seats on Sunday. Guillen is also fueled by the need to seek redemption for his third place finish in this event during the LAPT’s second season.

Final Table Seating Chart

Saturday’s play saw 75 players become nine, and on Sunday, we’ll see nine become one champion. Join our Live Reporting Team at 1300 UYT (0900 PDT) for the exciting conclusion to the LAPT Punta del Este Main Event.

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November 04 2011, Donnie Peters

After completion of both starting days at the 2011 World Poker Tour Amneville, 215 remaining players returned to action on Thursday. At day’s end, 76 were still standing; Urs Kohler claiming the top spot with 498,000 in chips.

Plenty of notable players returned to action on Day 2, including overall chip leader Jean-Francois Rigollet, Jamie Rosen, Ilan Boujenah, Antonin Teisseire, Dominik Nitsche, Liv Boeree, Tristan Clemencon and Roger Hairabedian. What all those players have in common now that Day 2 is over is that all have been eliminated and will go no further in this event.

Joining Kohler in the top five are Scott Baumstein (481,300), Marvin Rettenmaier (454,800), Simon Vitali (433,100) and Nesrine Kourdourli (431,500). Those four players following Kohler were the only part of the pack able to bag up more than 400,000 in chips. Joseph Cheong sits in sixth overall with 380,100.

On a big hand toward the end of the day, Rettenmaier scooped plenty of chips after getting involved in a flush-over-flush confrontation and coming out on top.

According to the WPT Live Update Team, the blinds were 1,000/2,000/300 when Levent Mercan open-limped from middle position. Rettenmaier raised to 5,700 from the cutoff seat, and action folded back to Mercan, who called, and the flop came down . After Mercan checked, Rettenmaier fired 5,200. Mercan check-raised to 17,000. Rettenmaier came back over the top with a reraise to 36,800 that Mercan called.

The turn brought the and paired the top card on board. Mercan checked, Rettenmaier fired 38,200, and Mercan called to see the land on the river. Mercan checked again, and after thinking things over for a bit, Rettenmaier fired 56,200. Mercan quickly called holding . His second nut flush wasn’t good as Rettenmaier tabled the and won the pot.

Other notables still left in the field include Adrien Allain, Bruno Fitoussi, Pierre Canali, Davidi Kitai and Marc Inizan.

Day 3 will take place starting at 1200 CET (0300 PDT) on Friday. The top 36 players are set to be paid out, so the money bubble should break. Be sure to stay tuned to PokerNews for the daily recap of the action.

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