Long Time, No See: Chris Karagulleyan Returns to the WPT After 6+ Years

Note:  Scroll down this page to see Amanda Leatherman’s video interviews with the six WPT Final Tablists.

LONG TIME, NO SEE: CHRIS KARAGULLEYAN RETURNS TO THE WPT AFTER 6+ YEARS

By BJ Nemeth 

Day 5 of the WPT L.A. Poker Classic played down from 20 players to six, and when the dust settled, here’s who was left: 

Seat 1:  Chris "Jesus" Ferguson  –  1,565,000
Seat 2:  Cornel Andrew Cimpan  –  1,740,000
Seat 3:  Pat Walsh  –  2,200,000
Seat 4:  Chris Karagulleyan  –  4,080,000
Seat 5:  Mike "SowersUNCC" Sowers  –  2,405,000
Seat 6:  Binh Nguyen  –  1,895,000

There is a former WPT winner on that list, but it’s likely not who you think. 

Everyone reading this is certainly familiar with Chris Ferguson, but you may not know that this is only his second WPT Final Table. Yes, he was part of a small group of players who boycotted the WPT for two years, but he estimates that he has played about 30 WPT tournaments without ever reaching the winner’s circle. Not what you’d expect from one of the greatest no-limit hold’em tournament players in the world. 

The former WPT winner is Chris Karagulleyan, who won the second WPT event ever held, all the way back in Season I (August, 2002). Six-and-a-half years later, he’s made his second WPT final table. Will today’s poker fans recognize him? 

Among the players that were lost along the way today were former WPT winner Nick Schulman (17th place), the uniquely entertaining Teddy "Iceman" Monroe (16th), and Peter "Nordberg" Feldman (14th).

Donnie D’Auria was playing in this event after winning a WPT Season Pass at a WPT Boot Camp; he gets free entry into ten or so WPT tournaments of his choice in the next few years. This is his first cash (of hopefully many), and he’s already up $64,477. One of his final hands was about as painful a beat as you can receive in this game. He was all in preflop with A-K against Pat Walsh’s A-K — and Walsh made a heart flush to double through D’Auria, who was eliminated a short while area. D’Auria impressed everyone with his demeanor as he weathered two beats to bust out of one of the biggest tournaments of the year. 

The unfortunate role of Bubble Boy was played by Blake Cahail, who hit a hot streak early, and carried the momentum to the end of the day. He had an above-average chip stack when he four-bet all in preflop with A-K against Chris Karagulleyan — only to find Karagulleyan sitting on pocket kings. Cahail never improved, and he went home in seventh place with $180,403. 

Action resumes tomorrow (Thursday) at 4:00 pm PT. Return to WorldPokerTour.com for complete live coverage of all the action with constantly-updated chip counts.