L.A. Poker Classic Won By Cornel Cimpan

Cimpan comes from behind to win the L.A. Poker Classic. The final 6 players, and their starting stacks, at the L.A. Poker classic was:

1.Chris Karagulleyan — 4,080,000
2.Mike Sowers — 2,405,000
3.Pat Walsh — 2,200,000
4.Binh Nguyen — 1,895,000
5.Cornel Cimpan — 1,740,000
6.Chris Ferguson — 1,565,000

The first player to go down was Chris Ferguson, who went out in 6th place ($240,538) after 66 hands of play. Pat Walsh doubled up on his chips a couple of times before going out in 5th place ($310,694). After that the pace quickened as the blinds went up and after that
Chris Karagulleyan went out in 4th place ($430,963) and Mike Sowers went out in 3rd place ($654,797).

Leading into the heads up match Binh Nguyen had the chip lead. The heads up match lasted 5 hours long, as Ngyyen had the advantage over Cimpan at the beginning, but then Cimpan flopped a 2-pair to stay along even though Nguyen had him beat before the flop. This happened 3 more times, as Cimpan kept doubling up his chips until he eventually became the chip leader. At the end of the heads up match Cimpan won the poker tournament a little before 3 in the morning. With the win at the L.A. Poker Classic Cimpan won $1,686,760 and Nguyen won $935,424 for placing second.