Watanabe Forced to Fold

donpeters

We haven't had much action since moving to one table left in play, but here's something for your reading eyes.

From middle position, Carlos Watanabe raised to 75,000. Action then folded to Engelberth Varela in the big blind and he reraised all in for over a million in chips. Varela had Watanabe well covered for his 500,000 or so. Watanabe took a minute to think and then mucked his hand, dropped back to 430,000 on chips.

This may be Watanabe's first LAPT cash, but it's not his first deep run in a PokerStars-sponsored tournament. In November 2010, Watanabe placed 15th out of 701 players in the NAPT Los Angeles Main Event. For that finish he earned $21,000. In order to get a larger sum of money here, Watanabe will have to finish in seventh place or higher. Right now, he's doing what he can to stay alive, albeit at the bottom of the pack. Still, he's just one double up from being right back in the middle of things.