December 16 2011, Donnie Peters

The Epic Poker League continued on with Day 3 of the third Main Event as 25 players returned for play. The plan for the day was to play down until the money bubble broke and 12 players were left. The end came just about five hours after the first cards were dealt and leading the way was Joe Tehan with 1.142 million in chips.

Tehan got his chips thanks to a big double knockout on the last hand of the day to burst the bubble. His closest competitor is Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi with 627,500 and then Scott Clements rounds out the top three with 496,000.

Matt Graham was the first to go on the day. According to the EPL Live Update Team, Graham moved his last 31,500 into the middle during Level 10 with the blinds at 1,200/2,400/400. He was called by Brock Parker holding the . Graham held the , but the ladies couldn’t hold up after the board ran out .

From there, Hasan Habib fell in 24th, Yevgeniy Timoshenko was eliminated in 23rd, Eric Froehlich headed out the door in 22nd and Dan O’Brien hit the rail in 21st.

Sam Stein fell in 20th place after his failed to fend of Amnon Filippi’s and Justin Smith’s couldn’t beat Tehan’s , which sent him out the door in 19th.

After the eliminations of Marco Johnson in 18th, Randal Flowers in 17th, Eric Baldwin in 16th and Parker in 15th, just 14 players remained. Now just two places away from the money and a $51,920 payday, the unthinkable happened.

Faraz Jaka was nursing the short stack of the tournament when he raised all-in from under the gun for 68,000 with the blinds at 2,000/4,000/500. Action moved to Vanessa Rousso and she reraised to 120,000 with around 180,000 behind. When play got over to Tehan, he requested a count on Rousso’s stack and then reraised all-in. After some thinking, Rousso called and put herself at risk along with Jaka.

Jaka was fortunate enough to pick up at this very key moment. He was looking for the triple up against Rousso’s and Tehan’s . Wait, what? That’s right, Tehan held the ol’ deuce-four offsuit. What happened from there, we can’t really put into words.

What we can tell you is that the flop, turn and river ran out and Tehan had spiked trip fours to miraculously win the hand and bust both Jaka and Rousso on the bubble to end the day. Stunned, both players headed to the rail while the other 12 remained to bag up their chips for the day.

Day 4 Chip Counts

The final 12 players will return on Saturday at 1200 PST (2100 CET) and continue with three four-handed tables of action. PokerNews will have the recap from play, so be sure to check right back here for it on Sunday.

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Follow Donnie Peters on Twitter – @Donnie_Peters

August 05 2011, Mickey Doft

The PokerStars Latin American Poker Tour returned to Punta del Este, Uruguay, on Thursday for the 2011 PokerStars.net LAPT Punta del Este. The Mantra Resort is host to the LAPT for a fourth consecutive season and this year had the biggest turnout of all. A field of 422 showed up to play, creating a prize pool of $941,480 and first-place prize of $244,720. Only 188 remain, and at the top of the counts after eight levels on Day 1 is Juan Jose Perez with 197,500.

For much of the day, Perez quietly amassed a stack in the back of the main room. It was not until Team PokerStars Pro Leo Fernandez arrived at his table during the final level of the day when the rest of the room took notice. The two tangled in a pot, and although it was by no means the biggest pot, it sure was a good way for Perez to head into Day 2. He limped in from early position and another played involved shoved for 15,100. Fernandez, short-stacked and in the small blind, called all-in for 6,700. Perez also called, putting both players at risk, but was behind with against Fernandez’s and the other player’s . Perez was happy to see the board roll out to score the double knockout.

Fernandez was not the only member of Team PokerStars to have a tough go of it on Day 1. All six of the Team PokerStars Pros failed to reach Day 2. Defending Champion Jose “Nacho” Barbero was the first to bust. Barbero never gained traction on Day 1 and eventually succumbed when a race situation did not go in his favor. With , Barbero found himself all-in against . It was about as bad as it could get for the Season 3 LAPT Punta del Este Champion when the flop came out . Barbero needed running queens of kings to survive, but that was not the case when the turn and river fell.

Angel Guillén was another member of Team PokerStars to hit the rail on Day 1. With pocket tens, Guillén nailed a flop, getting his chips into the middle against . The landed on the turn and it was at this point when another player at the table commented that he laid down the preflop. The , though, popped off on the river to end Guillén’s tournament with a brutal one-outer. Christian de León, Gualter Salles, and Greg DeBora were the other Team PokerStars Pros to make the trip Uruguay, but won’t be back for Day 2.

Play resumes at 1200 UYT (0800 PDT) on Friday and the goal of the day will be to reach the final 24 players. Our Live Reporting Team will be back on the floor to keep you up to date on everything that happens.

Follow us on Twitter for up-to-the-minute news.[/I]