The World Poker Tour has pulled into Florida’s Seminole Coconut Creek Casino for their latest Main Event. With a $1 million guaranteed prize pool on the line (plus unlimited re-entry and multiple Day Ones), even Day 1A was expected to draw a crowd and it didn’t disappoint.
As the cards hit the air on Friday, three members of the WPT Champions’ Club (players who previously have won WPT events) were on hand for the festivities. Tony Dunst, Jared Jaffee and Jordan Cristos were all on the felt at the opening bell and other top pros were in their seats for action. Allen Kessler, Chance Kornuth, David Paredes (fresh off a runner-up finish at the WPT Borgata Winter Poker Open), Shannon Shorr, Jonathan Aguiar, Adam Levy and Tony Cousineau all were ready for what they hoped would be a long day of poker.
With 30,000 starting stacks and ten levels facing them, the early action was expectedly a bit on the slow side. Cristos was a little more aggressive than most, taking on Darryll Fish in a hand that saw his chip stack grow noticeably. After Cristos three bet a Fish raise, Michael Tait called and Fish came along for the ride. A J-7-7 flop saw Fish bet out 2500, but only Cristos would decide to look him up. A King on the turn brought a check-raise out of Cristos that Fish decided he couldn’t top as his cards slid to the muck. With the hand, Cristos had reached nearly double his starting stack (59,300) while Fish dropped under that level.
As Day 1A moved into the late afternoon hours, more pros looking for a big payday would appear on the Coconut Creek Casino floor. Ebony Kenney, Andy Frankenberger, Will Failla and the runner-up from the 2013 version of this tournament, Lily Kiletto, all reached into their pockets for the buy-in as the chip lead switched hands. In a three-way battle, Andy Philachack was able to triple up after flopping a straight with a Q-J (against pocket eights and 9-8) to reach 80K in chips to take over the top slot.
Philachack would donate some of those newfound chips back to the table as Scott Lushing took over the apex of the leaderboard. Battling against Kornuth, Lushing watched as Kornuth pushed his final chips in on a 7♦ 2♠ 2♣ 9♦ flop and turn. Calling the bet, Lushing showed “just” a 3-2 for trip deuces, but Kornuth had turned the world. His 10♦ 8♦ held fourteen outs to taking the hand (the 2♦ wasn’t one of them, however, as it would give Lushing quads), but Kornuth missed them all as an 8♥ landed on the river. Scooping up Kornuth’s chips, Lushing rocketed up the leaderboard to take the lead with 155,000 in chips.
It was Kornuth’s second shot of the day, but that didn’t stop him from firing a third before the dinner break. Many other players took advantage of the unlimited re-entry format of the tournament, including Levy and Barry Hutter, but they would not make it to the end of the Day 1A proceedings. Lushing continued to lead the early action until just before the dinner break when Cristos passed him.
Of the two men, Cristos had the better of the evening festivities. He continued to dominate his patch of felt as Lushing fell by the wayside behind him. Even after doubling up Robert Pantich on the final hand of the night, Cristos was still above the 200K mark to ensure his slot for Sunday’s Day 2 play:
1. Jordan Cristos, 205,200
2. James Calderaro, 175,300
3. Alan Percal, 163,500
4. Joseph Levitt, 152,000
5. Tim Kegel, 141,400
6. Joshua Kay, 134,700
7. Matthew Waxman, 131,700
8. Michael Lewin, 128,000
9. Ben Tarzia, 119,500
10. Jamie Rosen, 112,100
Of the 183 players that started off Friday with high hopes for the WPT Lucky Hearts Poker Open, only 74 would be able to maintain that dream.
The action on Saturday should be a bit more hectic as the second of the two Day Ones takes place. Many of the competitors from Friday’s action have already stated their intentions to fire again on Saturday and it won’t even be close to see if the field can top the $1 million guarantee. To eclipse that mark, only another 102 entries would have to be ponied up (they should easily beat that). What will be interesting, though, is to see if the players at the Lucky Hearts can top last year’s field that drew 369 entries and crowned Matt Giannetti the champion.
