It was a fairly short day at the inaugural World Poker Tour (WPT) Maryland Live! Main Event as only fourteen eliminations were needed to determine the composition of the final table. Leading the charge into Tuesday’s action is the chip leader entering Monday, 2012 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event Champion Greg Merson. With 3.28 million chips, he has a sizable million chip buffer over second place Aaron Mermelstein and third place Xin Wang.
The final table looks a bit like the “haves and have-nots.” After Merson (3.28 million), Mermelstein (2.295 million), and Wang (2.26 million), there is a huge drop-off to the bottom half of the final table. In fourth place is Andjelko Andrejevic with 775,000 chips, followed by Cate Hall with 695,000, and Ken Holmes with 685,000. Those three combined don’t even have as many chips as the third place Wang. On the bright side, they all have more than 20 big blinds, which while not a ton, is enough to not necessarily have to shove all-in immediately with any two cards. Plus, one double-up puts any of them back in the game.
Today is likely extra-special for Merson. Though winning the WSOP Main Event was obviously a day he will never forget, this is his first World Poker tour final table appearance. But on top of that, he went to the University of Maryland and is originally from Laurel, Maryland, so coming home and making the final table at the first WPT event at Maryland Live! must be a blast.
Despite entering Monday with the chip lead, Merson might not have ended up in that same position at the end of the day were it not for the final hand. According to WPT.com, after the action folded around, Joe Cashen raised pre-flop to 65,000. Merson re-raised him to 180,000, after which Cashen decided to not delay the proceedings any longer and move all-in for 900,000 chips. Merson called and watched his A-K hold up on a board of T-5-3-8-T to eliminated Cashen. WPT.com’s report is a slightly incomplete, as it only notes that Cashen held a Queen, but considering he was ousted, we know the other card wasn’t a Queen. He likely held Q-J, A-Q, or Q-K, none of which would have beaten Merson given the community cards.
The six-handed final table of the WPT Maryland Live! Main Event is about to get underway, as the cards are scheduled to be in the air at noon ET. We’ll be back tomorrow with a report on the conclusion of the tournament.
2015 World Poker Tour Maryland Live! Main Event – Final Table Chip Counts
1. Greg Merson – 3,280,000
2. Aaron Mermelstein – 2,295,000
3. Xin Wang – 2,260,000
4. Andjelko Andrejevic – 775,000
5. Cate Hall – 695,000
6. Ken Holmes – 685,000
