World Series of Poker Circuit Biloxi Day 2: Cloutier Cashes but Falls Short of Final Table
The World Series of Poker Circuit Main Event in Biloxi, Mississippi, continued Monday with the remaining 60 players of a 270-player field returning to IP Casino Resort & Spa to play down to a final table. Action was fast and furious at the start of the day. In fact, the field was halved within the first two hours. From there, the money bubble quickly burst — with Bubble Boy honors going to Yong Chen — and the eliminations just seemed to increse from there. It took just eight hours of play for the field to whittle itself from 60 to the final nine. Heading into Day 3 and the final table, Travis Lutes leads the way with a chip stack of 1.725 million.
Lutes slowly amassed his chips throughout the day with a decisive pot coming with only 13 players remaining. In the hand, action folded to chip leader Lutes on the button and he raised to 42,000. Shane Sigsbee, who began the day as chip leader, reraised to 132,000 from the small blind. Lutes responded by moving all-in, which was met by a snap-call. Sigsbee committed his remaining stack of around 400,000 and turned over K♥K♠. Lutes revealed A♥Q♠. About a million was in the pot when the dealer put out the flop: A♣J♣4♥! Lutes hit his ace and was in the lead. The turn was the J♥, and Sigsbee needed to catch a king on the river to stay alive. It was not meant to be because the 5♦ appeared and Lutes took down the pot and increased his chip lead to 1.36 million. From there, it was clear sailing to the final table.
Also thriving on Day 2 was Farid Nasserazad , who ultimately finished second in chips with 1.697 million. With 12 players remaining, Nasserazad positioned himself as the second big stack when the following hand developed. Action folded to Will "Monkey" Souther in the hijack and he put in a standard raise. Nasserazad then made it 150,000 to go from the button and both blinds folded. Souther moved all-in for about 540,000, Nasserazad snap-called and turned up A♦A♣, and Souther found himself behind with A♠K♥. The board ran out 7♠9♣3♣K♠A♥and Souther was bounced from the tournament in 12th place while Nasserazad jumped up to 1.6 million.
Both Lutes and Nasserazad pulled away from the rest of the final table, which included Jason Cluxton (589,000), Yair Alon (404,000), and John Holley (315,000). Day 2 was not kind to everyone. Poker Hall of Famer T.J. Cloutier returned to action trying to make the final table and played patiently and selected his spots carefully as the field whittled itself down. He used well-timed aggression to take down some pots and managed to boost his stack to over 300,000. Unfortunately, his run ended when players combined in the final two tables. In the hand, Cloutier raised under the gun and Souther called from the hijack. The flop came down Q♦3♠K♠ and Cloutier bet 90,000. Souther made it 200,000 to go and Cloutier simply called. The Q♥ appeared on the turn, and Cloutier moved all-in for his last 60,000. Souther called and showed A♣A♥, which was far ahead of Cloutier's K♦J♦. The 3♦ on the river was no help, and Cloutier was eliminated from the tournament in 18th place.
Another interesting accomplishment from Day 2 was Kevin Calenzo’s deep run and in-the-money finish. Calenzo was atop the WSOPC National Leaderboard with 155 points headed into this event. Calenzo, who finished second to Charles “Woody” Moore in the WSOPC Horseshoe Southern Indiana Main Event, has been on fire as of late. He finished in 25th place in this tournament, which marked his fourth straight cash in WSOPC Main Events. In addition, he added 10 points to hit total and is up to 165 points — 12.5 points ahead of his next closest competitor, Shiva Dudani.
Here is a look at the final table.
Seat 1: Jerry Monroe - 154,000
Seat 2: Jason Cluxton - 589,000
Seat 3: Steven Marshall - 106,000
Seat 4: Yair Alon - 404,000
Seat 5: Farid Nasserazad - 1,697,000
Seat 6: John Holley - 315,000
Seat 7: Robert Gunter - 144,000
Seat 8: Bob Talbot - 276,000
Seat 9: Travis Lutes - 1,725,000
Play resumes at 12 p.m. local time on Tuesday when a winner will be determined. Our Live Reporting team will be covering the final table action so be sure to follow the action here on PokerNews.
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