The World Poker Tour continued its first stop on American soil for its Season XI schedule yesterday in Pennsylvania with the second of two Day Ones at the Parx Casino in Bensalem.
The stunning surprise of the opening of Day 1B was the appearance of defending WPT World Champion Marvin Rettenmaier on the ground at the Parx Casino. Rettenmaier, who made history just prior to the Parx tournament by winning the inaugural Season XI stop at the WPT Merit Cyprus Classic to become the first player in WPT history to win back-to-back tournaments, apparently DID have a teleporter available to get to the U. S. before the start of the Day 1B festivities. At the start of the day’s action, he was joined by another 182 players, including such names as Matt Glantz, Allen Kessler, Tony Dunst, Amanda Musumeci, Joseph Cheong and Matt Stout, who all decided to fire a second bullet in this re-entry tournament.
With late registration open until late in the afternoon, the players wasted little time getting to the business at hand. Kathy Liebert, who was kept from being among the Day 1A players after a flight cancelation and a delayed flight, made her way to the tables while Cheong and Bernard Lee increased their stacks in the early going. Lee, in fact, made one of the bigger hands of the day when, on a Q-9-8 flop, he called a flop and turn bet to see two sevens complete the board. When it came to showdown, Lee “only” turned up pocket sevens for rivered quads to crush his opponent.
Rettenmaier was stuck in the other direction, however. On a flop and turn of J♥ 7♠ 3♦ 7♥, Rettenmaier and Scott Montgomery found themselves squaring off to see a 4♥ on the river. After a 1200 chip bet from Montgomery, Rettenmaier made the call and – just as quickly – mucked his hand after Montgomery showed the K♥ Q♥ for the flush. The hand would knock the only back-to-back winner in WPT down to half his starting stack only a few hours into play.
As the late registration period ended, the WPT staff went about compiling the numbers and announced the prize pool. They hit their predicted number of entries exactly, with 500 being the final count, building a prize pool of $1.65 million. The eventual champion of the WPT Parx Open Poker Classic will walk off with a decent payday of $416,127 and a seat to the 2013 WPT Championship.
After the dinner break, the players began to depart the Parx Casino, some who had fired two bullets in the tournament and will have nothing to show for it than a buy-in slip. Stout, Montgomery, Dunst, and Cheong were among those “double bullet” casualties, while Liebert and Rettenmaier would also not make it through the Day 1B carnage. There were some players who were able to mount a charge up the leaderboard, including the player who would become the overall chip leader.
Lee would continue his excellent play throughout the day on Saturday, eventually bagging up a decent 132,600 in chips to come back for Sunday’s action. Jon “PearlJammer” Turner – who was one of those players to take advantage of the re-entry option after busting on Friday – also would charge up the leaderboard on Day 1B, finishing off the action Saturday night with a solid 222,200. It wasn’t enough to get to the top of the Day 1B ladder, however, as Henry Lu rampaged through the field:
1. Henry Lu, 302,500
2. Andy Philachack, 267,000
3. Jon Turner, 222,200
4. David Eldridge, 167,200
5. Tony Gregg, 135,100
6. Bernard Lee, 132,600
7. Jamie Kerstetter, 126,000
8. Scott Blackman, 116,000
9. Brent Roberts, 104,500
10. Robert Pyne, 95,000*
(* – Listed on WPT reports as “Santa Claus,” his tournament entry ticket has both names on it.)
Combining the fields from the dual Day Ones, the overall leaderboard looks as such:
1. Henry Lu, 302,500
2. Andy Philachack, 267,000
3. Cornel Cimpan, 242,800*
4. Jon Turner, 222,200
5. Gregory Shuarts, 220,000*
6. William Brandise, 208,300*
7. David Eldridge, 167,200
8. Ravi Raghavan, 166,500*
9. Brian Taylor, 135,600*
10. Tony Gregg, 135,100
(* – Day 1A players)
Day Two will kick off for the remaining 196 players at noon today (Eastern Time), but there’s still a good deal of poker left before the true drama will set in. The top 54 finishers will walk off with a payday, something that could be potentially met today, with the televised final table set for play on Wednesday at the WPT Parx Open Poker Classic.