Corwin Cole Leads WPT Festa al Lago After Day 3

Day 4 of the 2009 World Poker Tour (WPT) Festa al Lago will play out on Saturday. Heading into play today, Corwin Cole leads the pack with 996,000 chips, one of two players to own more than 900,000.

Saturday marks the play down day at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, the site of the annual Festa al Lago. A total of 37 players remain entering Day 4, which kicks off at Noon Pacific Time from the storied Las Vegas casino, and in the end, 27 will make the money. Cole has played in four WPT tournaments, but has yet to record a cash, making Saturday an especially important day for the youngster. He told WPT Live Updates Hostess Amanda Leatherman about his ride through play on Friday in the $15,000 buy-in tournament: “I was playing pretty well and I was running really well. I drew a decent table and sucked out on Justin Bonomo in a big pot and busted him. I called with sevens and he had jacks and I spiked a seven on the flop.”

Jonas Entin holds the second largest stack entering the play down day with 985,500. With pocket eights, Entin hit quads early on Day 3 to send Russell Rosenblum packing. Up against kings, Entin watched as an eight hit on the flop and turn, giving him the nuts and the win in the hand. Entin final tabled the $10,000 buy-in World Championship of Pot Limit Omaha during the 2007 World Series of Poker (WSOP) for $69,000. All told, he has $170,000 in career WSOP earnings.

The top 10 on the leaderboard features a trio of brand name pros, Mark Seif, Dutch Boyd, and Chris Ferguson. Seif is a sponsored pro of Absolute Poker and owns two WSOP bracelets. The first came in 2005 by virtue of winning a $1,500 buy-in Limit Hold’em Shootout, while the second occurred seven tournaments later in a $1,500 buy-in No Limit Hold’em event. Seif’s two pieces of hardware were worth a combined $792,000.

Ferguson and Boyd own a combined six bracelets, with the former boasting five of them. Ferguson had a series of double ups on Friday to remain in contention. He doubled through Lee Markholt with A-J against K-Q and then rivered a higher two pair to double up again. Ferguson was among the group of 30 late registrants at the Festa al Lago, which accepted buy-ins through five hours into play on Day 2.

Here are the top 10 chip counts at the Bellagio as play begins on Saturday:

1. Corwin Cole – 996,000
2. Jonas Entin – 985,500
3. Jason Lavallee – 833,500
4. Dee Luong – 771,500
5. Mark Seif – 759,000
6. Jason “JCarver” Somerville – 669,000
7. Dutch Boyd – 616,500
8. Freddy Deeb – 588,000
9. Tommy Vedes – 579,000
10. Chris Ferguson – 535,000

Other notable names that remain include:

15. Brandon Cantu – 414,000
16. Kido Pham – 401,000
18. Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy – 385,000
22. Steve Brecher – 360,000
27. Andy Bloch – 320,500
28. Chad “lilholdem954” Batista – 315,000
29. Chau Giang – 293,500
32. Vivek “Psyduck” Rajkumar – 253,000
35. Prahlad Friedman – 188,000

When play wrapped up late Friday night, blinds were 4,000-8,000 with a 500 chip ante. Only one woman survived the five levels of play, Luong, who sits in fourth place. Luong has a pair of cashes on the WPT circuit, but has not finished in the money since 2004. She also has two cashes on WSOP felts, but, likewise, has not made the money in five years.

Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest WPT coverage from Sin City.

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Useful poker terms:

FULL HOUSE - A hand consisting of 3-of-a-kind and a (different) pair.
POT - The total amount of money bet so far in a hand.
QUARTER - [1] Twenty-five dollars, often symbolized by a green casino chip. [2] To divide half a pot between two tying hands. In split pot games, a player who "ties" another player for their half of the pot is said to be "quartered". One might say "I didn't bet my A-2 because I figured I'd get quartered".
FULL OF - Describes a full house. "Fives full of queens" is 5-5-5-Q-Q.
REPRESENT - Implying, by one's betting style, that one has a particular hand.
FLOORMAN - The casino representative in charge of the card room or a section of a card room. Arbitrates disputes when unusual events happen.

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