Most of the United States has been going through a bit of a cold snap the last few days. Hollywood, Florida is one of the few exceptions, with the daytime high Sunday still a wonderful 61 degrees. It was similarly toasty inside the Seminole Hard Rock Casino and Hotel as the field of the World Poker Tour (WPT) Seminole Hard Rock Lucky Hearts Poker Open was whittled down from 112 to just 34 players. In what has come to be a very rare occurrence in any major tournament, the player that entered Day 2 as the chip leader will also begin Day 3 in that same position. With 805,000 chips and the big blind about to increase to just 5,000, Matt Juttelstad is virtually assured of making the money, which begins with the 27th place finisher.
The top of the WPT Lucky Hearts leaderboard is interesting, not so much because of who populates it, but because of the chip spreads between players. Nobody in the top five is in the same 100,000 chip tier. You have Juttelstad at 805,000, followed by Gigi Gagne at 725,000, Uri Kadosh at 685,000, then a big drop down to Angelo Miele at 570,000, and another steep slide down to Harrison Gimbel at 456,000. After Gimbel it starts leveling out a bit with four more players above 400,000.
What seems to be a certain tournament cash for Matt Juttelstad today would be just the sixth in his live tournament career. He has not finished in the money since 2010, something he did twice that year. The first was his biggest-ever score, an 82nd place finish in the $10,000 Main Event of the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure for $23,500. The second was a small $3,516 cash for a 130th place finish in one of the $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em events at the World Series of Poker. Juttelstad has won $42,244 on the live tournament circuit and stands to at least double that if he makes the six-handed final table this week.
One of the funnier stories of Day 2 belonged to Noah Schwartz. Playing in the WPT Lucky Hearts despite being on the hook for jury duty on Monday, Schwartz decided to play very aggressively, figuring if he made some bad plays and busts, he wouldn’t have to worry about what to do about jury duty. If he accumulated chips then maybe he could at least make the money before he had to leave. As it turned out, he survived to Day 3, sitting almost exactly at the chip average. Early in the day, he called a post-flop all-in with an open ended straight draw, hit the straight on the turn to eliminate his opponent, and just knew the poker gods were messing with him, saying, “I’m winning every pot because I have jury duty tomorrow.”
Day 3 action at the WPT Lucky Hearts will pick up on Monday at noon EST as the remaining 34 players arrange their seats on the money bubble.
WPT Seminole Hard Rock Lucky Hearts Poker Open – End of Day 2 Chip Leaders
1. Matt Juttelstad – 805,000
2. Gigi Gagne – 725,000
3. Uri Kadosh – 685,000
4. Angelo Miele – 570,000
5. Harrison Gimbel – 456,000
6. Raj Vohra – 447,500
7. Omar Sider – 434,500
8. Sharon Levin – 421,000
9. Roger Goindoo – 412,000
10. Keith Ferrera – 321,000
