The money bubble burst late in the day Monday as just 23 players remain in the Season XIII World Poker Tour (WPT) World Championship. Today’s goal is to make it all the way down to the final six players. Asher Conniff appears to have the best chance to reach the final table, as he is the chip leader going into Day 4 with 1.275 million chips. Ray Qartomy follows close behind with 1.176 million.
Though Conniff is the chip leader, it was Qartomy who seemed to be the most active at the end of the day. He was also the center of one of the more entertaining hands of the last couple levels. According to WPT.com, Qartomy raised pre-flop to 20,000 and Matt Berkey three-bet to 50,000. Qartomy made the call, but not before talking it out, saying, “I want to play this hand, and now you’re raising me with jack-rainbow?”
After Qartomy called, Berkey made a request of the dealer. “Dealer, put out Jack-rainbow.”
And what do you know? The flop came down J♥-J♦-6♦, prompting cheers from the players at the table. Both players checked to bring on the turn card 6♣, putting two pair right on the board. Continuing his Carnac the Magnificent impersonation, Qartomy chided the dealer, saying, “Now you give him a full house?”
He checked again, as did Berkey. Of course, Berkey’s reluctance to bet puzzled Qartomy, so he asked him what was up. Berkey responded by saying he thought Qartomy had Quads. They checked again when the K♠ was dealt on the river and Berkey showed not Jack-rainbow, but A♦-8♣ for two pair with an Ace kicker. Qartomy produced pocket Sevens, also giving him two pair, but because his Sevens were better than the Sixes on the board, he took the pot with the higher two pair. That pot took Qartomy over 900,000 chips.
Qartomy added more chips, then proceeded to double-up Berkey during the next level. Shortly thereafter, he knocked out Kyle Bowker in 25th place.
Sitting in third place is Keven Stammen, the WPT World Championship defending champ (that sounds weird). A second former WPT World Championship winner, Carlos Mortensen, is also still alive, sitting in the middle of the pack with 459,000 chips.
It is a rather top-heavy leader board right now, as just seven players find themselves with stacks that are above the average chip count. The spread from first place to tenth is nearly 800,000 chips. As the payouts started at 27th place, it appears that a number of players were just trying to hold on to make it into the money. Going into Tuesday’s action, five players have fewer than 200,000 chips and seven have fewer than 300,000.
2015 World Poker Tour World Championship – Day 3 Chip Leaders
1. Asher Conniff – 1,275,000
2. Ray Qartomy – 1,176,000
3. Keven Stammen – 915,000
4. Alexander Lakhov – 884,000
5. Brock Parker – 865,000
6. Jake Schindler – 792,000
7. Michael Lavoie – 789,000
8. David Tuthill – 625,000
9. Brian Yoon – 603,000
10. Matt Berkey – 489,000
