There were many administrative tasks to take care of this morning. Play started a little late while the players filled out bios, took instructions from Tournament Director Mike Ward on what was, and was not, allowed at the final table, posed for a group photo, and did all the other little things that typically take place before an LAPT final table.
When those tasks were done, LAPT President David Carrion introduced each man to the crowd, with a bit about him, his home country and his stack. Ward shook everyone’s hand to congratulate them on making it this far. When he got to Carlos Mironiuk, the two men hugged, a reprise of their Day 3 introduction to each other.
Play finally began. With no super short stacks to start the day, we anticipated that it would be a while until the first elimination occurred. Indeed, for the first 60 minutes of play the final nine players didn’t even see a turn card.
Some players trended upwards; Marcelo Fonseca managed to almost double his starting count of 460,000 with active play. Other trended downwards. Chip leader Francisco Baruffi has had trouble getting out of the gate, and Team PokerStars Pro Angel Guillen didn’t do anything other than fold for the duration of that first hour.
Carlos Mironiuk was one of the more active players in the early-going. His willingness to put all his chips to work eventually backfired, however. In a battle of the blinds, Marcelo Fonseca opened to 58,000.
Several of the players at the final table take ponderously long to make their decisions, but not Mironiuk. He quickly announced that he was all in for 516,000 total. Then he looked dismayed as Fonseca snap-called and slammed over pocket queens.
Fonseca bounded out of his chair and clapped his hands when he saw Mironiuk’s 10♥ 9♥ . Mironiuk paired the flop, A♣ 9♣ 3â™ , but a turn Aâ™ took away some of his outs big giving each player two pair. The river Q♥ gave Fonseca an unnecessary full house and eliminated Mironiuk in 9th place.
Ward wasn’t on hand to give Mironiuk a conciliatory hug, as he was busy on the other side of the room taking care of the High Rollers event. Mironiuk instead settled for handshakes from several of the players, including his executioner Fonseca. Then he departed the stage and was off to collect $15,390 in prize money.
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