Full Tilt Poker pro Erik Seidel has been on a tear as of late. He’s banked a ridiculous $4.3 million in live poker tournaments in 2011, took down the National Heads-Up Poker Championship, and won an AUD $250,000 buy-in tournament “Down Under” at the Aussie Millions for $2.4 million.
Now, Seidel is poised to make his fourth World Poker Tour (WPT) final table in the Hollywood Poker Open, emanating from southern Indiana. Seidel already has one WPT title, which came by winning the Season VI Foxwoods Poker Classic for $992,000, and last appeared at a final table on the tour in 2009.
Seidel sits in ninth place entering Day 3 of the Hollywood Poker Open on Monday with a stack of 133,000. The entire field trails ClubWPT qualifier Andy Whetstone, who bagged up 334,000 in chips last night and is the only player over 300,000. The tournament will crown a champion two days from now.
Whetstone served as the grim reaper for several players down the stretch last night. First, DoylesRoom pro Hoyt Corkins was all-in with A-4 of spades on a flop of 10-7-3 with two spades for the nut flush draw. Whetstone tabled pocket aces, which held when clubs fell on the turn and river. That hand boosted Whetstone to nearly 200,000 in chips.
Whetstone wasn’t done there, however. Brady Churches 3bet all-in on a flop of Q-10-8 and showed A-Q for top pair. Whetstone had him dominated with pocket eights for bottom set and the turn and river were no help to his opponent.
On the very next hand, while Whetstone was still stacking his chips from Churches’ elimination, Luke Staudenmaier called all-in on a flop of J-6-2 with two clubs. Larry Ormson called Whetstone’s flop raise to 20,000 and both players checked when a nine hit on the turn.
The final card was a five. Ormson bet, Whetstone called, and Ormson tabled Q-J for top pair. Whetstone showed pocket fives for a rivered set and moved to 326,000 in chips. By the way, Staudenmaier flipped over ace-high and was eliminated.
WPT champion Andy Frankenberger is still alive in the Hollywood Poker Open. The Season IX Legends of Poker winner is in search of his third WPT final table and doubled up after calling all-in with pocket kings on a board of J-9-2. He was up against A-K and took down the pot when a running 10-5 came. Frankenberger is in 19th place with 61,000 entering Day 3.
Here are the 27 players remaining in the WPT Hollywood Poker Open:
1. Andy Whetstone – 334,400
2. Shannon Shorr – 250,900
3. Steven Kelly – 233,000
4. David Anthony – 207,000
5. Steve “Illini213” Barshak – 193,600
6. Mike Scarborough – 170,500
7. Ali Eslami – 153,300
8. Michael Rocco – 137,700
9. Erik Seidel – 133,000
10. James Hensley – 132,800
11. Neal Vansaun – 96,400
12. Benjamin Tollerene – 95,200
13. Mike Miller – 90,700
14. Terry Jacobs – 90,600
15. Allen Kessler – 72,400
16. William Reynolds – 70,900
17. Larry Ormson – 66,200
18. William Johnson – 61,700
19. Andy Frankenberger – 61,100
20. Hassan Beydoun – 58,200
21. Amanda Musumeci – 57,900
22. Chris Bell – 40,700
23. Shawn Cunix – 38,000
24. Steve Russell – 37,200
25. Karec Terrell – 29,900
26. Tom Marchese – 29,800
27. Richard Pflum – 14,600
The blinds were at 500-1,000 with an ante of 100 when play paused on Sunday. Keep it tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest WPT results.
