It seems that the Season XV schedule for the World Poker Tour has a new stop every couple of weeks. On October 5, Zachary Smiley emerged as the champion at the WPT Maryland Live! Main Event and now, barely a week later, the battleground has moved south to Florida and the WPT bestbet Jacksonville Bounty Scramble.
Beginning on Friday, the $1 million guaranteed event will bring players from around the world for an event that isn’t common on the WPT circuit. The WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star features bounties on 50 or so “stars” (re: professional players). Following in those footsteps, the WPT bestbet Jacksonville Bounty Scramble features $2500 bounties on selected players in the field (also like the Shooting Star, the bestbet Jacksonville Bounty Scramble will award a $5000 bonus to the chip leaders from the two Day Ones that will begin the event). Some of those that already have the target squarely placed on them include the WPT announcing staff, Poker Hall of Famer Mike Sexton and Vince Van Patten, and the WPT Executive Tournament Director Matt Savage. In addition, former WPT Player of the Year Anthony Zinno and former National Football League player and three-time Super Bowl champion Richard Seymour will be bounties.
“We are proud to welcome back the World Poker Tour to bestbet Jacksonville for the WPT bestbet Bounty Scramble,” said Deborah Giardina, Vice President of Poker Operations at bestbet Jacksonville. WPT CEO Adam Pliska was also happy to be on the grounds of bestbet Jacksonville when he stated, “The WPT bestbet Bounty Scramble is one of the most entertaining events of the year.”
It is a bit difficult to get a read on the numbers of players who will be there for the Bounty Scramble. The tournament will need 200 entries (at a $5000 buy in clip) to be able to crack the $1 million guarantee, but that is a very good possibility. The WPT Florida events are extremely popular with the players and, in 2015, this tournament pulled in 412 entries to more than double the guarantee (for the record, Tyler Patterson captured the title over Benjamin Zamani, who has been running rampant over the Season XV calendar and currently leads the WPT Player of the Year race).
Some players are already on the grounds in Jacksonville and have gotten their feet wet on the bestbet Jacksonville tournament floor. There was a $25,000 High Roller event held and, with 20 players entering the tournament, built a prize pool of $456,000. Local player Chad Deberry was able to work his way into the top three (the payout spots) to more than triple his money ($91,200), but it was Chance Kornuth ($186,672) who defeated Sam Soverel ($178,128) in what looks to have been an ICM chop.
Other players have also announced that they will be a part of the action in Jacksonville. Matt Affleck said he was on the bounty list for the tournament and challenged players to “Knock me out and claim my bounty!” Also on the bounty list will be Christian Harder, who said he was “leaving the friendly confines” of Maryland Live! to head to Florida. Jessica Dawley, Matt Stout, three-time WPT champion Darren Elias and (soon to be) former World Champion Joe McKeehen are also on record as “on the way” to Jacksonville for the tournament.
Action in the WPT bestbet Jacksonville Bounty Scramble will kick off on Friday with the first of two Day Ones. The field will come together on Sunday for Day 2, with the plans for the final table to be played out on Tuesday. That final table will not be streamed online but will be taped for broadcast on the Season XV television schedule of the WPT on the Fox Sports Network.