Day Four of the World Poker Tour Seminole Hard Rock Showdown is in the books, knocking slightly more than half of the players out who came back for Saturday’s action.
32 players were in their seats in the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino’s arena at noon on Saturday, faced with a task that is one of the most difficult in tournament poker. With only 27 players receiving a payday for their efforts over the tournament, five of the competitors would not earn anything for their return on Saturday. Within thirty minutes of the opening bell, Joanne Dorin, Michael Zuckerman and Ashton Griffin would be three of those unfortunate players.
It would take another two hours for the final two players to be eliminated and the money bubble to burst. Day Two chip leader Clyde Hinton would knock out one of those players, Gordon Vayo, when Vayo’s off suit Q-7 couldn’t catch up to Hinton’s A-6. Over an hour later, Jason Koon would administer the “bubble boy” knockout to Allie Prescott when Koon’s pocket Jacks held up over Prescott’s pocket nines.
Following Prescott’s elimination, the remaining 27 players were guaranteed a payday of $27,056, but everyone still had their eyes on the big prize of slightly more than $770,000. It was at this time that Joe Serock went on the attack, first knocking out Daryl Jace in 26th place and then taking a nice pot off of Hinton. Up near the 900K mark and holding the chip lead, Serock continued to punish his opponents and, after taking some chips from Day Three chip leader William Brown, became the first player to eclipse the one million chip mark.
As the players continued to grind into the late afternoon hours, Serock would face few challenges. His closest competitor was Robert Georato, but some of the notable names in the field were priming their games to make a run at Serock. Tommy Vedes – who made the final table of this tournament last year – knocked out Michael Lind in 22nd place to get back up to the 500K mark, and John Dolan’s excellent run continued as he took some chips from Serock.
Georato would join Serock over the million chip mark in a big hand against Brown. After Brown raised and Georato and Hinton came along to see a 6-5-2 monochrome flop (all diamonds), Brown put out a continuation bet after a Hinton check. Georato pushed the action up to 100K and, after Hinton waved the white flag, Brown made the call.
Another five came on the turn and, after Brown checked again, Georato put the price at 140K in chips. Brown would call to see a three come on the river and checked for a third time while Georato fired a third bullet worth 200K. A quick call came from Brown, but it was the wrong move; Georato turned up pocket sixes for the flopped set and turned boat to move over the one million mark and knock Brown down to only 140,000 in chips. Brown would be eliminated soon afterwards in nineteenth place.
Down to two tables, the players would knock out three more players before the end of action for the day. Hinton would be knocked out by Georato in eighteenth place while Kyle Bowker dumped Scott Zakheim in seventeenth. Once Jimmy Tran took out Zach Clark in a particularly cruel fashion (Tran’s Q-J found a Queen on the river against Clark’s A-J), the remaining fifteen players wrapped up the action for the evening.
After the chips were bagged up, Serock found himself holding the chip lead, albeit by the slimmest of margins:
1. Joe Serock, 1.061 million
2. Robert Georato, 1.054 million
3. Kyle Bowker, 980,000
4. John Dolan, 900,000
5. Ravi Raghavan, 672,000
6. Craig Bergeron, 650,000
7. Fred Goldberg, 617,000
8. Jimmy Tran, 593,000
9. Jess Yawitz, 542,000
10. Tommy Vedes, 378,000
The players are facing what could be a particularly long day on Sunday. The players will work their way down to the official WPT final table of six players which, with the deep stacks of the leaders in particular, could take a good bit of time. There is also a chance that two players from last year’s final table, Vedes and Justin Zaki, could make a return trip, although Zaki will start Sunday’s play as the shortest stack remaining (204K).
The WPT Seminole Hard Rock Showdown will conclude action on Monday, crowning the champion of this tournament just days before the start of their next event up the road in Jacksonville, FL.
