After the furious action from Friday, where nearly 160 players were eliminated, Saturday at the World Poker Tour’s World Poker Finals did not disappoint.
Many in the field wondered if Jonathan Jaffe could sustain his chip lead and drive his way to the final table. Also on the minds of the remaining 91 players and the fans along the rail was who among the many professionals remaining in the field would be able to rise up to challenge for the lead. There was also the question of whether the hectic pace of bust-outs would continue. The short day of action on Saturday provided answers to all of the questions asked.
Action began at noon Saturday and, from the start, the players showed no inclination of slowing down. Three top professionals – Allen Kessler, Team PokerStars Pro member Victor Ramdin and Anna Wroblewski – were taken down in the first level of the day, with Alex Bolotin taking out Ramdin and Wroblewski on his own. This type of aggressive play was the standard for Day Three, as it has been throughout the tournament.
As the battles around him continued, Jaffe continued to play excellent poker and was able to stretch out to a comfortable lead. He always seemed to have the hands when he was challenged by shorter stacks and gradually built his chip stack up over a million chips. Meanwhile, as the money bubble approached, many players looked to climb up to challenge him.
After making a great run in the early stages of the tournament, professional Toto Leonidas fell short of the bubble at the hands of Kevin Saul. 2007 WPT Player of the Year Jonathan Little was the man who got the admiration of the other 49 players left in the tournament, as he was able to eliminate a player in 51st place, guaranteeing the field a minimum of $21,320 on their investment. Once the bubble burst, the players leaving the arena continued to mount up.
Top names that took away cash from the event include Full Tilt Poker pro Chris Ferguson (43rd), Svetlana Gromenkova (41st), Vadim Trincher (38th) and Daniel Negreanu (35th), who all took away the minimum prize. Meanwhile, Mike Matusow was on a rush for the day that would take him towards the top of the leader board.
Matusow – who, by his own admission, had “an amazing card rush” – started the day around the average stack but, by the end of the shortened Day Three, found himself in the second slot on the board. Jaffe would continue to play his consistent game and leads the tournament for the second day as the field stopped play early with 33 players remaining:
1. Jon Jaffe: 1,100,000
2. Mike Matusow: 1,076,500
3. Tom Nguyen: 870,000
4. Carl Restifo: 720,000
5. Ron Kirsh: 681,000
6. Charlie Marchese: 625,500
7. Dimitri Haskaris: 522,000
8. Larry Greenberg: 519,000
9. Jon Little: 477,000
10. Jon Friedberg: 449,000
The players return to the felt on Sunday at Noon ET to play down to the final nine players or five levels, whichever comes first. Monday’s schedule is to reach the six player final table that will sit down for the WPT taping on Tuesday afternoon. Jaffe has a tough task ahead of him – especially with Matusow right behind him and several strong pros still in the field- but he can see the opportunity at becoming the next champion of the WPT’s World Poker Finals. Poker News Daily will continue to keep you updated to see if he can complete the deal.
