After a Day 1A that was thought to be pretty large, Day 1B of the World Poker Tour’s Lucky Hearts Poker Open at the Coconut Creek Casino in Florida blew the doors off the building. Through another ten levels of play on Day 1B, a new overall leader was crowned in the form of Jaime Rubinsteyn, who will lead the survivors into Day 2 today.
There were some new faces in the crowd for the start of play on Saturday as well as some who had already dipped their toes into the water on Friday’s Day 1A. From the Friday crew, such players as Adam Levy, Darryll Fish, David Paredes, Chance Kornuth and Andy Frankenberger were back for another taste of the action. They were joined by newcomers to the tournament such as former WPT champion Shawn Cunix, Aaron Massey, Marsha Wolak and Danny Suied.
The players weren’t wasting any time getting the chips flying, as Levy noted through his Twitter feed. “One orbit into Day 1B, there has already been an all-in and a call on (a) Q-10-9-K (flop and turn) with J-8 versus K-10,” Levy chirped over Twitter. “Another hand had an 8K bluff raise on the river.”
By far the most stunning hand of the day came very early between Kornuth, Wolak and Micah Raskin. On an A-10-7 flop, Kornuth would start the fireworks by pushing out a bet. Raskin just made the call, but Wolak pumped it up to 2500 with a three bet. Kornuth, who had been struggling to this point, moved his remaining chips to the center (14,000) and, after Raskin just called again, Wolak got her final chips in also. The players each turned up a set: Kornuth had pocket Aces, Wolak held pocket tens and Raskin, who obviously thought he was the best after the flop, was actually the worst with his pocket sevens. Once the turn and river blanked, Kornuth tripled up to 42K, Wolak doubled through Raskin to 36K and Raskin was left with only 18K (he would bust to Wolak a few hands later.
Once the re-entry period ended after the dinner break, the 2014 WPT Lucky Hearts Poker Open had vastly outpaced its numbers from last year. After tournament officials crunched the figures, 415 entries had been gathered to create a prize pool of $1,348,750. Only the final 54 finishers would take down a hard earned cash for their efforts in Florida, however, with the min-cash coming in at $6204. The top prize of $271,103, the ticket to the WPT Championship in April and the privilege of being added to the WPT Champions’ Cup await the eventual winner.
Kornuth’s fortune wouldn’t stop after that triple set combination. He would eventually finish the day 123,900 in chips, but that was a good distance back from those who finished in the Top Ten on Day 1B:
1. Jaime Rubinsteyn, 234,600
2. Michael Moreno, 212,000
3. Kishor Bhakta, 180,700
4. Dan Heimiller, 178,900
5. Shelby Standley, 168,500
6. Otto Palacios, 164,500
7. Harrison Gimbel, 163,100
8. Joey Weissman, 158,800
9. Jerry Wong, 148,400
10. Steven Levy, 148,200
Merging the two Day Ones, Rubinsteyn will take the overall lead as Day 2 action begins Sunday afternoon:
1. Jaime Rubinsteyn, 234,600
2. Michael Moreno, 212,000
3. Jordan Cristos, 205,200*
4. Kishor Bhakta, 180,700
5. Dan Heimiller, 178,900
6. James Calderaro, 175,300*
7. Shelby Standley, 168,500
8. Otto Palacios, 164,500
9. Alan Percal, 163,500*
10. Harrison Gimbel, 163,100
* – Day 1A players
As the tournament restarts this afternoon, 167 players remain from the 415 entries that were taken in. Can Cristos add another WPT title to his resume? Will Rubinsteyn go wire-to-wire? Will a veteran such as Heimiller find his way to a WPT championship? Or is our champion lurking down the leaderboard? Those questions will come closer to an answer at the conclusion of today’s play.
