As the tournament poker year winds down to just a few top tier events remaining, the World Poker Tour has taken its cameras to the island of St. Kitts in the Caribbean. The WPT Alpha8 St. Kitts completed its first day on Friday with Olivier Busquet leading a strong (and deep-pocketed) field that is vying for a $1.5 million prize pool.
11 players originally took the felt on Friday afternoon and wasted little time getting the most out of their $100,000 buy-in. High Roller regular Bill Perkins was the first elimination of the day when he clashed with Busquet in an early hand. After Busquet bet out and both Perkins and Tony Guglietti made the call, a 5-3-3 flop seemed to hit nobody but didn’t stop the action. Perkins check-called a bet from Guglietti (Busquet also called) and, once a ten hit the turn, Perkins moved all in. Guglietti agonized over the decision and folded, but Busquet immediately called and showed pocket tens for the turned full house. All Perkins could do is turn up his pocket fives for the flopped (but inferior) boat and, after the river blanked, dipped back into his pocket for another $100K to continue the fight.
Moments after Perkins’ knockout and re-entry, Jeff Gross would be facing the same decision. After being eliminated by Kathy Lehne when she rivered an unnecessary straight with an A-10 against Gross’ A-6, Gross took a moment for some nourishment as he thought about jumping back into the fray. Eventually, Gross would decide the sun and sand of the Caribbean was better than another $100K dent in his bankroll and became the first official elimination in the tournament.
By far the most active player (money-wise) on the felt in St. Kitts was Antonio Esfandiari. He would be eliminated twice during the course of play, first by Michael Singh and then by Busquet, but a third bullet fired by Esfandiari at least will bring him back on Saturday. A similar situation happened to Lehne after her pocket Aces were vanquished by the turned straight of Perkins, but she also rebought and will be a part of the play today.
Singh would be the man who fell to bring the final nine players to one table. After Singh pushed all in from under the gun, everyone folded and Singh looked to pick up some much needed chips. Unfortunately, Perkins woke up with a hand in the big blind and made the call, tabling a leading A-Q against Singh’s A-8. Once the board came ten-high, Singh headed for the Tiki Bar and the final nine were determined.
The story for the day was Busquet, however, as he never seemed to make a bad move. His chip stack constantly was on the climb after taking over the chip lead with the first Perkins elimination and he will continue to sit in the leader’s chair as the action picks up on Saturday.
1. Olivier Busquet, 346,000
2. Bill Perkins 254,000
3. Daniel Colman, 222,500
4. Alec Torelli, 170,000
5. Tony Guglietti, 127,000
6. Kathy Lehne, 116,500
7. Jason Mercier, 100,500
8. Antonio Esfandiari, 90,500
9. Talal Shakerchi, 72,000
These nine players will play through the day today and three of them will divvy up the $1.5 million prize pool:
1st: 727,500
2nd: 436,500
3rd: 291,000
In case you’re keeping score at home, Esfandiari would have to finish second in the tournament to make a profit, while Perkins and Lehne need a third place finish to do the same thing. Everyone has their eyes on the big prize, however, promising for some exciting play this afternoon as the champion of the WPT Alpha8 St. Kitts is determined.
