The next to last stop for the Season XII schedule on the World Poker Tour kicked off yesterday in the sunny climes of Florida. Day 1A of the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, FL, is in the books with two notable names sitting atop the leaderboard.
The tournament has a guarantee of a $5 million prize pool and, if everything runs like Thursday did, they should easily top that massive figure. With late registration open to the end of Level 7 yesterday, many took advantage of that and slept in a bit. Add into the fact that those players who busted on Day 1A (or weren’t happy with their stacks) could re-enter on Days 1B and 1C – plus unlimited re-entries on all three days – and the $5 million guarantee looks a bit low as the runners headed off on Thursday.
Opening up the action on Day 1A at the original call of “shuffle up and deal” were several notable names in the tournament poker world. Chance Kornuth, Jason Mercier, Ronit Chamani, Faraz Jaka, Jennifer Tilly, Phil Laak and defending champion Kevin Eyster were all at the felt for the first hand of the day, heading off into what they hoped were 10 levels of play before Thursday’s play would come to a close.
Jaka would get a double up early through Laak but, on another table, a show of professional poker was displayed. After Matt Salsberg opened up the action, another opponent in the cutoff pushed the bet up to 1200. Matt Stout, sitting on the button, would three bet the action to 3300 as Salsberg pushed his hand to the muck. According to Salsberg’s Twitter, “(After) I fold, other guy snap all-in. Stout snap mucks pocket Kings. #Pro”
There were some players who were willing to gamble, though. Lily Kiletto was able to double up after an opponent tried to bluff her with only Ace high. On the other side of the equation, Mike Sowers saw his flopped set of Queens prove to be the second best hand against Keith Ferrera’s flopped set of Aces. Blair Hinkle (missed open end straight draw), Ryan Riess (pocket Kings run down by A-Q) and Tilly (Kings versus Aces) also would bust early on, but all would get back in the saddle as the day wore on.
Following the conclusion of Level 7, the total number of entries were tallied and the figures were astounding. 479 entries were received, meaning that the tournament was already at the one-third mark of the $5 million guaranteed prize pool. With the normal logjam of players that are expected for Days 1B and 1C (and the additional re-entries should they bust), the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown should blow past the guarantee without much effort.
Ryan D’Angelo made his move towards the top of the leaderboard following the start of Level 8. He would chop some chips from Patrick Eskandar when he sniffed out an Eskandar bluff to pass the 200K mark and would end the day with a towering stack of 271,300. That wasn’t enough to take the overall Day 1A lead, however. That honor fell to Justin Young, who quietly maneuvered his way through the Day 1A field to amass a stunning 313,200 in chips, guaranteeing his place in the Day 2 field on Sunday.
1. Justin Young, 313,200
2. Ryan D’Angelo, 271,300
3. Mark Darner, 238,700
4. Francois Gagne, 211,500
5. Kyle Keranen, 210,400
6. Tuan Le, 202,900
7. Ronit Chamani, 180,900
8. Rep Porter, 167,300
9. Jonathan Roy, 160,900
10. Corrie Wunstel, 151,800
Action has already kicked off for Day 1B with many of those that were knocked out yesterday back for another taste of Hard Rock poker madness. Jeff Madsen, Jonathan Aguiar, James Calderaro, Kornuth, Hinkle, Stout, Sowers and Tilly are all back again as they attempt to make the Day 2 field for the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown.