Patrick Mahoney is not a vacuum salesman. We know this because moments ago when filling out a bio questionnaire, Mahoney wrote "vacuum salesman" down as his profession. And then he scratched it out. In its place, he wrote "Zamboni driver."
"No one but me is going to know what that is," he said with a smirk.
That is the kind of dry humor afforded the man taking the chip lead to tomorrow's LAPT final table. Mahoney--probably not a zamboni driver, by the way--is taking 1,714,000 in chips to Sunday's championship final.
Mahoney lists his home country as "Mexico" but his fair skin and northern American accent give him away. He's undeterred by the questioning.
"Hay blancos Mexicanos!" he declared.
It's up to you to decide. While Mahoney plays games with his identity, his chip count is clear. He's the leader and has around 25% of the chips left in play.
Though Mahoney may know a bit of Spanish, when it comes time to talk to Team PokerStars Pro Leo Fernandez, Mahoney switches right back to English. That's because Fernandez is less than one big blind behind Mahoney in the chip counts. Fernandez is sitting on 1,692,000 and aiming to be the first Team PokerStar Pro since Nacho Barbero to win an LAPT title. This is Fernandez's second LAPT final table, the first coming in Season 2 when he placed six in Mar del Plata, Argentina for $63,520.
Together, Mahoney and Fernandez have half the chips on the eight-handed final table. While they're in very good shape right now, they will still have to knock off the six others, including big-stacked Brazilian Marco Cheida (1,170,000) and last month's APPT Melbourne champion Sam Razavi (323,000). Here's how the final table stacks up at 12,000/24,000 blinds:
Seat 1 - Sam Razavi (UK) 323,000
Seat 2 - Walid Mubarak (Peru) 243,000
Seat 3 - Leo Fernandez (Argentina) 1,692,000
Seat 4 - Diego Sanchez (Mexico) 277,000
Seat 5 - Marco Cheida (Brazil) 1,170,000
Seat 6 - Johnny Sandoval (Costa Rica) 768,000
Seat 7 - Issac Malca (Panama) 698,000
Seat 8 - Patrick Mahoney (Mexico) 1,714,000
Tomorrow's final table kicks off at noon CT. Join us then as we crown the first ever LAPT Panama champion.
Previous coverage from Day 3
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Brad Willis is the PokerStars Head of Blogging