Klodnicki Paves the Way to the Final Table
Day 3 is all over but the shouting here at the World Series of Poker Circuit Northeast Regional Championship. Main Event champion Matthew Waxman ran his nines into Chris Bell's pocket queens to burst the final table bubble on just the second hand of ten-handed play. But we're getting a bit ahead of ourselves again as the day began with a stacked field and a lot of action.
Lee Childs began the day with just over 1 big blind and he was, not surprisingly, the first one to exit. A few minutes later, Sorel Mizzi ran his eights into jacks to bust, then Doc Sands ran sixes into nines at the same table an orbit later. Soon after that, Jonathan Little went broke when his sixes couldn't overcome Seth Fischer's two eights, and Dan Kelly followed him right out the door. Other notables who fell short of the final table today included Christian Harder, Eugene Katchalov, and Brett Richey, the latter two leaving with mini-cashes. Victor Ramdin went out in 12th place when his ace-ten couldn't win a flip, and the last lady standing, Beth Shak hung on to her short stack all the way until her 11th-place elimination. When Waxman busted in 10th, the chip bags came out with the players stacked up thusly:
Seat 1: Chris Bell �C 706,000
Seat 2: Micah Raskin �C 594,000
Seat 3: Ketan Pandya �C 377,000
Seat 4: Nick Mitchell �C 332,000
Seat 5: Todd Terry �C 307,000
Seat 6: Andy Frankenberger �C 230,000
Seat 7: Jason Burt �C 579,000
Seat 8: Chris Klodnicki �C 759,000
Seat 9: Seth Fischer �C 219,000
Meet your nine finalists, a group of players you'll see on television tomorrow and again in May for the National Championship. Everyone's guaranteed at least $32,362 to go with that freeroll seat, but there are bigger bucks to be had. First place tomorrow will be worth $358,295 and a piece of diamond-encrusted jewelry, not to mention the bragging rights of winning the Northeast Regional Championship.
Chris Klodnicki is already the owner of some bragging rights in this building. Last week marked the one year anniversary of a Klodnicki title here, his victory in the $4,900 Main Event earning him more than $200,000 and his first gold ring. He'll be the betting favorite to get one for the other hand tomorrow, but nothing will come easily at this table. The players begin with an average stack of more than 75 big blinds, so we should have plenty of poker throughout the day.
The green and gold Regional Championship stage is under construction in the room next door, and we'll move over there tomorrow to play it out under the bright lights of the television set. You can join us right back here to follow along with the action as it unfolds, and we hope to see you then!