After two Day Ones to begin the weekend, the World Poker Tour’s Seminole Hard Rock Lucky Hearts Poker Open in Hollywood, Florida, will enter into Day 2 on Sunday with 112 players still in contention for the championship.
Day 1B played out on Saturday after 125 players showed up on Day 1A for play. With the unique format of this WPT tournament – players who had been eliminated on Day 1A could come back for a second shot on Day 1B – it was expected that the number of entries would be larger. That did come to pass, as 170 additional entries came out on Saturday to set the final number for the tournament at 295 entries.
There were 77 players eliminated on Day 1A and some of those players with deeper pockets stepped up with another $3500 for play on Saturday. Included in that list were Andrew Lichtenberger, “The Raw Deal” host Tony Dunst, Jonathan Little, Todd Terry and Kathy Liebert and several got off to good starts with their second chance.
Dunst and Terry were among those who came out of the gate with nice showings. Within the first few moments of the start of Day 1B, Dunst had almost doubled his 30,000 starting stack and Terry did, moving up to over 61K within the first couple of hours of action. Also among the early movers was Victor Ramdin, who busted a player when his tens up held over a turned top pair of Kings, and Tristan Wade, who rocketed to the top of the leaderboard within four hours of the start of Day 1B to 108K in chips.
Following the close of the late registration period and just prior to the dinner break, the payouts were announced to an eagerly awaiting crowd. 27 players would take home the minimum payday of $8629, with the top three places all taking a six figure score. The top prize would be $268,444, a seat at the WPT Championship in April and the honor of having their name inscribed on the WPT Champions Cup.
After some much needed sustenance, the players began to drop quickly from the tournament. Dan O’Brien was knocked out by Matt Stout when his pocket tens was outrun by Stout’s A-J that caught on the flop and improved to two pair on the turn. Stout would also dispatch Michael Mizrachi when his pocket Aces served as a cooler to “The Grinder’s” pocket Kings. As the clock passed the 9PM hour, Matt Jarvis would also become a casualty of the battles on the felt, his A-Q falling to pocket tens that flopped a needless set.
As the final level of the day played out, the bigger stacks looked to position themselves for the Day 2 action on Sunday. Wade, who rode his chip stack like a rollercoaster, eventually would end the day with roughly 96K in chips, but it was action on another table that established who would be the overall chip leader for today’s play.
After originally raising the pot, Dunst saw another big stack at his table, Matt Juttelstad, three bet him from small blind and Dunst made the call. The duo would see an A-K-2 flop, which Juttelstad fired on and Dunst raised. Juttelstad wasn’t going anywhere, however, as he put in another bet and Dunst called, holding fewer chips than his opponent.
On the turn three, Juttelstad wasted little time in moving his remaining chips to the center and Dunst made the call, turning up an impressive A-Q. That moment was short lived, however, as Juttelstad opened up a 5-4 for a turned straight that left “The Raw Deal” host only saying, “Oh, wow.” Drawing dead after that turn, Dunst would be eliminated on the hand and Juttelstad would assume the overall chip lead for the tournament.
When the cards fly on Sunday afternoon, here’s how the leaderboard lines up:
1. Matt Juttelstad, 280,000
2. Uri Kadosh, 275,500 (Day 1A chip leader)
3. Will Durkee, 233,100
4. Eliyahu Levy, 218,500
5. Angelo Miele, 211,800
6. Alex Ivanov, 200,700
7. Keith Ferrera, 200,600
8. Jason Mercier, 176,400
9. Hal Klein, 172,900
10. Omar Sider, 170,600
Notable names that are above the average chip stack (79,019) include Harrison Gimbel (143,200), Christian Harder (114,400), Shaun Deeb (112,700), Wade (96,200) and Stout (94,800), while Terry (46,700), Allie Prescott (36,600) and Liebert (18,100 after doubling a player just before the end of play Saturday) will have their work cut out for them.
The next two days of the tournament could be quite long for those seeking this latest WPT championship. With 112 players remaining, the field will have to be down to the traditional six handed WPT final table for play on Valentine’s Day. With the goal at the end of the proverbial rainbow, however, the players will be up for the challenge of the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Lucky Hearts Poker Open.