I feel Leo Fernandez’ pain. He came into today’s final table as the chip leader, but his stack of 56 big blinds was definitely vulnerable. The vulnerability was on full display early after he doubled up Victor Sbrissa, cutting his stack in half.
Still, the Team PokerStars Pro could draw on his LAPT5 Grand Final experience and grind things back. He was trying to do that on the hand that crippled him and ultimately provided for his departure from the tournament in 7th place. He saw Rafa Pardo, relatively quiet so far, open a pot from late position. Sitting in the small blind, Fernandez squeezed out A♦ 7♠and decided to apply some pressure. He moved all in.
Daniel Murta was behind Fernandez in the big blind. He had been dealt pocket jacks and also moved in, putting Pardo in a tough spot. He eyeballed the stacks of both of his opponents, pointed at Fernandez and said… something. Then he folded his hand.
Whatever those words were, they were lost when Fernandez and Murta opened their hands and Fernandez saw the bad news. Murta shouted in triumph when the flop came 7♥ 8♣ J♣ to give him top set. Fernandez, like Thiago Grigoletti before him, was drawing about as thin as you can draw on the flop without drawing dead. He caught one of the runners that he needed for a miracle when the turn fell 7♣ . But the river was not the 7♦ . It was a harmless 9♥ .
The stacks of Fernandez and Murta were close in chips. The dealer counted Murta down at 1,105,000. After paying that off, Fernandez was left with just 145,000. He folded his button, then moved all in the next hand for 125,000 from the cutoff.
Murta went for the kill and called from the button, as did big blind Marcos Paulo Ximenes. The two men checked the board all the way down, 10♣ 4♥ A♦ 8♣ 8♥ . Fernandez was hopeful at showdown with 9♣ 9♦ , but Murta’s 8♦ 6♦ made trip 8s to send the Team Pro to the rail in 7th place.
Fernandez is likely disappointed that he couldn’t hold the chip lead for a deeper finish, but he can’t fault himself for his play. With the stacks shallow because of last night’s extended final table bubble, it doesn’t take much to wind up on the outside looking in.
Dave Behr is a freelance contributor to the PokerStars Blog.
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