T.K. Miles is the pace setter at the 2019 World Poker Tour (WPT) Five Diamond World Poker Classic after Day 2, finishing Tuesday with 688,500 chips. Two other players – Mike Vanier and Alex Papazian – have over 600,000, while another four players eclipsed the half-million chip mark.
After registration closed at the end of Level 12, the total field amounted to 1,035, which the World Poker Tour says is “a new all-time high for most entries in a $10,000 buy-in event.”
We assume this means for a $10,000 buy-in event on the World Poker Tour, as we know that the World Series of Poker Main Event has beaten that for the past decade and a half. Of course, the number is also artificially inflated by the fact that unlimited re-entries were permitted, but that’s the norm now, so shrug.
The prize pool just cracked the $10 million barrier and the first prize is $1,694,995.
Miles has more than $3.7 million in lifetime live tournament earnings, with a top cash of $383,399, coming from a second place finish in the 2018 WPT Borgata Poker Open. He has 14 cashes on the World Poker Tour overall.
“It’s a long tournament still,” Miles told WPT.com afterward. “I was super lucky all day. I got crazy hands, all kinds of setups, easy. I was flopping sets against overpairs and draws, and the draws missed. I busted two people at once. It was a lot of luck, a lot of luck.”
WPT.com doesn’t have much in the way of hands to relate for Miles, so we can’t quite verify his claim that he got lucky on Day 2. We’ll take his word for it though; to win a big poker tournament, players need a lot of luck to go their way. And it’s not always just hitting a fortuitous river card or having that gutshot draw come through on the turn. Being dealt pocket Aces is luck. Getting A-K when your opponent has A-Q is lucky. Having an opponent not get there, as Miles said, is lucky.
And of course, when you do get lucky, you still have to make something out of that luck. Part of the skill of poker is maximizing pots when you do hit your hands.
Just 224 remain after Day 2. A total of 130 players will make the money, so I would expect the money bubble to pop on Wednesday. Stay tuned as the remaining competitors try to close out the decade in style.
2019 World Poker Tour Five Diamond World Poker Classic – Day 2 Chip Leaders
- T.K. Miles – 688,500
- Mike Vanier – 631,000
- Alex Papazian – 601,000
- Qi Hu – 568,500
- Isaac Baron – 557,000
- Roland Rokita – 553,500
- Jerry Wong – 503,500
- Raul Martinez – 489,000
- Tony Sinishtaj – 487,500
- Matthew Stone – 484,500