If you've got a way of deja vu, you are not alone. Three hundred and sixty five days and two days ago, Vanessa Selbst ended Day 3 of the NAPT Mohegan Sun with the chip lead. 48 hours later, she went directly to win the tournament. This year, it looks as if we're doing all of it another time as Selbst is again atop the Day 3 leaderboard, with 1,406,000 in chips, an almost 400,000-chip lead over her closest competitor, Vincent Rubianes. We've never seen a player win the similar event in back-to-back years at the EPT, NAPT, LAPT or some other tour ending in "PT." But after today, the 26 year-old law student-turned Team PokerStars Pro is in pole position to do exactly that.
74 players returned to the felt for Day 3, 18 of them unfortunately departing and not using a penny to turn for his or her work. Among them were Todd Terry, Greg Dyer, David Robinson, Ronnie Bardah, last season's 12th-place finisher Alan Sternberg, and Team Online's Andrew Brokos, whose pocket jacks fell to Andrew Weisner's ace-king. The bubble burst just a few minutes into Level 16. Nick Binger had already seen his pocket aces snapped off when four spades appeared at the board, making Adam Junglen the nut flush with A♠Q♦. The 2 tangoed again within the bubble hand, Binger getting his stack in before the flop with Q♠Q♥ against Junglen's A♣J♥. Everything looked fine for Binger until an ace spiked at the river to crack his queens.
"Bubbling builds character," Binger told us after the dust had settled. "I'VE this reserve of character that just keeps growing and growing." We would like we shared his zen attitude, as a minimum of one in every of us has the tendency to hurl objects and punch walls in that very situation.
Three Team Pros survived the bubble-- Greg DeBora, Victor Ramdin, and defending champion Selbst. Our blonde Canadian friend was the primary of them to depart, DeBora losing a race with pocket sixes against Christopher Kirkwood's ace-queen to head out in 49th place. Ramdin, after a hallmark up-and-down day followed him out the door a little while later. Following an 18,000 under-the-gun raise from Joseph Gibbons, Adam Geyer called at the button and Ramdin put the squeeze on from the small blind, moving all-in for his last 53,500. Nenad Medic tanked for an age within the big blind before four-bet shoving for 206,000, a move that folded out both Gibbons and Geyer. Ramdin's T♣T♦ couldn't catch Medic's J♦J♠ and he exited in 31st place.
Aside from Vanessa Selbst's remarkable run at back-to-back titles, another some of the day's headlines belonged to Steve O'Dwyer. Right down to only 10,000 in chips with an hour left to play on Day 2, O'Dwyer managed to grind his stack back as much as the 108,700 he bagged up on the end of the night. Today, nothing could stop him. He started the day by doubling up through mega-stacked Aaron Overton with pocket aces again A♥K♣. He knocked out Jesse Kremer when he flopped a collection of sevens against A♥Q♥ and did the similar to Michael Quibble when he picked up pocket aces and Quibble shoved with sevens. With 36 players remaining, O'Dwyer lead the pack with 770,000 and finished Day 3 with a powerful 507,000.
O'Dwyer's reign on the top didn't last long. The bullet train that may be Vanessa Selbst vaulted to 833,000 in chips upon getting maximum value when she turned a straight with 7♦8♦ against Jean-Phillippe Matte's pocket jacks. It wasn't quite the OMG she did WHAT moment like last night's five-bet shove with 4♦8♦, however it sure did the job.
For some time there, we thought the Day 3 chip lead will surely belong to Vincent Rubianes, a person with a traffic-stopping head of hair who cashed this event last season in 71st place. Rubianes arrived this morning with a typical stack and steadily built all of it afternoon, reaching a high-water mark of 1.4 million after eliminating Ruben Costa in a million-chip pot. He'd play another one by night's end, this one a game-changer involving our defending champion.
Olivier Busquet led off the action with a raise to 21,000. Rubianes three-bet to 55,000 before Selbst four-bet to 109,000 at the button. Busquet folded and Rubianes called. The flop fell T♣5♦2♣ and Rubianes checked to Selbst, who bet 129,000. He made the decision they usually went to the turn which landed the J♣. Both players checked. The river was a fourth club, the 3♣ and Rubianes checked a 3rd time, leaving the door open for Selbst to bet 296,000. After a long, tortured tank, he made the decision. Selbst turned over K♣K♠ for the second-nut flush and Rubianes mucked. The pot gave Selbst the chip lead with 1,406,000 while Rubianes slipped to 1,023,000, still good for second place.
We'll be back tomorrow at Noon when our 24 contenders play right down to a last table of eight. If you happen to missed any of the action today (or would identical to to re-live it), click either of the links below.
Level 15-16 updatesLevel 17-19 updates
For a glance at how much everyone bagged up tonight, take a look at the NAPT Mohegan Sun chip count page. To peer where our dearly departed cash finishers ended their tournament, head over to the NAPT Mohegan Sun prizes and winners page. Multimedia nuts, look no further than PokerStars.tv for your entire video needs. For a sneak peek of tomorrow's table draw, click over to the Day 4 seating assignments.
That's enthusiastic about now. There's some Chinese food and a karaoke bar looking ahead to us.
All photography © Joe Giron/www.joegironphotography.com
Read More... [Source: PokerStarsBlog.com :: North American Poker Tour]
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