A total of 147 players remain in the running for the million-dollar top prize at the Seminole Hard Rock Showdown, the first ever stop in Florida for the World Poker Tour (WPT). Former WPT Legends of Poker final tablist Todd Terry leads the way with two days of play in the books and will come armed to Day 3 this afternoon with a stack of 296,400.
Life isn’t going to be easy for Terry, however. At Table 13 today, he’ll have to contend with the likes of PokerStars North American Poker Tour Mohegan Sun Main Event runner-up Mike Beasley, Noah “fouruhaters” Schwartz, and poker pro Allen Bari.
Terry took the chip lead after relegating another player to the rail on a flop of 6-5-2. Terry held 4-3 for the nuts, while his opponent showed pocket rockets. The board filled out 3-6 and Terry stacked up a quarter-million in chips; he parlayed that into nearly 300,000 by the time all was said and done.
One of the late eliminations of the day belonged to William Reynolds. The accomplished young gun and 2010 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure High Roller champ got his money in ahead pre-flop with A-J against Anthony “holdplz” Spinella’s A-10. Spinella held the ace of hearts and watched as four of the suit hit the board for a flush to bust Reynolds from the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Showdown. Spinella, however, also failed to make Day 3.
There’s nothing like a little prop betting between tablemates, which is exactly what happened to recent “The Showdown with Jon Friedberg” guest Kathy Liebert. Coverage found on the official website of the WPT laid out the basics of a $500 bet in which Liebert needed to stay quiet for two hours: “The strategy for the players at her table was to ignore her for the first hour, hoping she’d forget about the bet and eventually say something. But Liebert was eliminated with about 45 minutes left in the bet and quietly gathered her things and left the arena.”
Following her elimination, Liebert sought refuge in the world of Twitter, posting, “It’s 4:20 in my room. Just officially hit the 2 hour mark and am now free to speak w/o consequence.” She also recognized WPT Executive Tour Director Matt Savage, Tweeting, “Nice job at Hard Rock. I’ll be back.”
Lauren Kling doubled through fellow online superstar Chris “SLOPPYKLOD” Klodnicki in the late going yesterday. Kling moved all-in over the top of a bet from Klodnicki with the board showing 8-5-3-2-2. Klodnicki obliged and Kling turned over A-4 for a Wheel. Klodnicki mucked and Kling moved up the leaderboard to 39,000 in chips. Entering today’s play, Klodnicki owns the 64th highest tally with 86,600, while Kling is at 52nd with 95,200.
Here are the top 10 chip stacks in the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Showdown entering Day 3 on Friday:
1. Todd Terry – 296,400
2. Charles Wiper – 273,100
3. Steven Levy – 247,300
4. Brandon Steven – 237,600
5. Mike Beasley – 231,000
6. Farhan Madhani – 227,300
7. Brain Colin – 224,500
8. Annette Obrestad – 213,500
9. Jason “JAKoon1985” Koon – 207,700
10. Corwin “mig.com” Mackey – 205,100
You’ll recognize quite a few players at the top of the leaderboard. Steven was the Final Table Bubble Boy in the 2010 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event, while Obrestad was the inaugural WSOP Europe Main Event winner. Koon and Mackey are both online pros; in fact, the latter is a sponsored pro of Hero Poker and sits at #46 worldwide in the prestigious PocketFives.com Online Poker Rankings.
Other poker pros still standing in the top 50 include:
17. James “croll103” Carroll – 164,200
18. Randy Dorfman – 164,000
22. Tommy Vedes – 152,600
23. Noah “fouruhaters” Schwartz – 146,600
27. Mike Sexton – 135,000
29. Shawn Cunix – 134,900
31. Sam Stein – 131,000
32. Matt Waxman – 130,900
33. David Paredes – 130,600
38. Adam “Roothlus” Levy – 118,700
The winner of the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Showdown will bank $1.1 million. Keep it tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest.
