Nine players took to the felts of the World Poker Tour’s (WPT) Hollywood Poker Open on Tuesday to play down to a final table of six. After the short day, William Reynolds leads a rock solid final table into battle with a stack of 1.17 million. The action resumes this afternoon at 4:00pm ET from Lawrenceburg, Indiana.
Terry Jacobs was the first casualty of the day. Jacobs 3bet all-in before the flop and Mike Scarborough, the original raiser in the hand, called and showed pocket queens. Jacobs tabled A-K for a classic race situation and the board ran out five cards 10 or lower. Jacobs collected $31,000 for his four-day run in the $10,000 buy-in WPT tournament. Scarborough sits in second place entering today’s final table at 654,000.
Also falling by the wayside on Tuesday was Allen Kessler, who is affectionately dubbed “Chainsaw” in poker circles. Kessler called for his tournament life with A-K of hearts on a board of K-Q-9-J-7 for top pair, but Scarborough had him trumped with Q-10 for a king-high straight. His eighth place exit was worth $39,000.
The final elimination of Tuesday’s play in the WPT Hollywood Poker Open belonged to Steve “Illini213” Barshak. The online poker pro 6bet all-in pre-flop with A-K offsuit and received a taker in Reynolds, who showed pocket queens. Once again, a race would decide matters. This time, the J-J-5 flop helped no one and a 10 fell on the turn. A queen filled out the board, giving Barshak Broadway, but also giving Reynolds a boat. Barshak picked up $44,000 and, just like that, we had our six-handed televised final table.
Erik Seidel and Tom Marchese also reached today’s finale. Seidel has been on a tear in 2011, having already piled up more than $4 million in live tournament cashes this year, and is the only player to have cashed in all nine seasons of the WPT.
On that superlative, Seidel told WPT Executive Tour Director Matt Savage on Tuesday, “It’s always nice to do something no one else has done, especially on the World Poker Tour because the tournaments are so big, but it’s great. I’m happy about it.”
What drives Seidel given all of his success, which includes two High Roller titles and a win in the National Heads-Up Poker Championship this year? Seidel told Savage, “I enjoy the challenge. I really like getting up and trying to figure things out, trying to understand what plays people are making.” According to the Hendon Mob, Seidel is poker’s all-time money leader with $14.7 million in earnings.
Marchese is no slouch, either, having taken down the 2010 CardPlayer Player of the Year title. Marchese final tabled last year’s WPT Foxwoods World Poker Finals for $211,000 and won the NAPT Venetian Main Event in February for over $800,000. Seidel and Marchese sit at third and fifth, respectively, on the WPT Hollywood Poker Open leaderboard entering today’s finale.
Here’s how the final six stack up:
1. William Reynolds – 1,169,000
2. Mike Scarborough – 654,500
3. Erik Seidel – 645,000
4. Ali Eslami – 213,000
5. Tom Marchese – 175,000
6. Andy Whetstone – 80,500
The group will cash out as follows:
1st Place: $273,664
2nd Place: $155,103
3rd Place: $110,788
4th Place: $77,551
5th Place: $62,041
6th Place: $50,962
We’ll have full results for you on Thursday right here on Poker News Daily.
