Newhouse has 498,000 chips

This year’s LA Poker Classic has retro feel to it. So far, each day has ended with a poker pro from televised poker’s heyday at or near the top of the chip counts. First it was Mark Seif, then Daniel Negreanu, and now it is Mark Newhouse. Newhouse had a huge day at the Commerce Casino in LA and ended Day 3 play at the top of the chip counts with 498,000 chips. Newhouse won a couple of big pots to end the day on top, most notably a big hand in which he five-bet all-in with A-K, ran into another player’s pocket kings and spiked an ace on the turn to double up to the chip lead.

As Newhouse was chipping up, Negreanu was chipping down. He may have begun the day as one of the chip leaders, but Negreanu ran into a number of problems during Day 3 and dipped down as low as 125,000. He rallied to end the day just above the 210,000 chip average. Negreanu survived to make the money, but former big stack Seif did not. He was one of the more than 100 players who hit the rail on Sunday, along with BLUFF Player of the Year Jason Mercier, Gavin Griffin, Chau Giang, David Singer and Barry Greenstein.

The unfortunate bubble boy was Thomas Fuller, who you may remember as the 7th place finisher in last week’s North American Poker Tour (NAPT) Venetian Main Event. His A-K failed to crack another player’s pocket aces to end play for the night with 72 players remaining. All of those players are now officially in the money and are guaranteed at least $18,000 for their efforts. Tomorrow they will return at 12PM to play down from 72 players to the final three tables.

Some of the other big stacks returning for Day 4 tomorrow include Chris Moore, Timothy “BegsClutch” Begley, Dan “Wretchy” Martin and Taylor “taypaur” Paur. Here are the top ten chip counts from the end of Day 3:

1. Mark Newhouse – 498,000
2 Chris Moore – 489,000
3 Masa Kagawa – 432,000
4 John Cautela – 417,000
5 Shawn Pilot – 400,500
6 Millad Jorshari – 386,000
7 Gevork Kasabyan – 378,000
8 Tim Begley – 369,500
9 Tri Huynh – 353,000
10 Dan Martin – 335,000
* Jessica Welman | March 1, 2010  From news. bluffmagazine.com

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