World Poker Tour Hollywood Poker Open Day 3: Seidel, Reynolds, Eslami, Kessler and Marchese Make Final Table
The World Poker Tour Hollywood Poker Open is down to ten players after Day 3 concluded on Monday in Lawrenceburg, Indiana, at the Hollywood Casino. At the beginning of the day, 27 players remained in contention from a starting field of 97. Leading the way into Day 4 will be Steve Barshak with 601,000 in chips.
The first player eliminated on the day was Steve Russell. He was followed out the door by Andy Frankenberger, Karec Terrell, James Hensley and Richard Pflum. Shortly after they hit the rail, Shannon Shorr exited in 20th place.
Shorr went down to fellow superstar Tom Marchese in a queens-versus-kings battle. Shorr held the queens and Marchese the kings with all the money going in preflop. After the flop, turn and river were run out, the kings held tough for Marchese and sent Shorr packing.
After a few more eliminations following Shorr’s exit, players found themselves on the bubble with just 13 remaining. Because of the small field size, only 12 places paid out, with a minimum of $22,157 going to anyone who made the money. Unfortunately for Ben Tollerene, he’d be that last player to go home empty-handed.
After losing a big pot to Mike Scarborough and being left with less than one big blind, Tollerene quadrupled up with a flush but still didn’t have much to work with. Holding just over three big blinds, Tollerene was all-in for 10,000 from early position. Steven Kelly called on the button and Marchese called out of the big blind. The flop came down 7♣5♦2♥ and both active players checked to see the J♣ fall on the turn. Marchese bet 12,000 and Kelly doubled it to 24,000. Marchese folded and left Kelly to do the deed against Tollerene.
Kelly tabled Q♦J♦ for top pair. Tollerene held Q♥10♥ for just queen-high and was drawing dead. According to the World Poker Tour Live Update Team, Tollerene told the table, “Nice playing with you guys,” and was out the door far before the Q♠ landed on the river.
With everyone now in the money, only two more players needed to hit the rail to end the day. First to go was Chris Bell in 12th place. He was all-in preflop with the A♠K♥ against the Q♠Q♦ of William Reynolds. The board ran out 8♦6♥4♠8♥7♥ and Bell was eliminated.
After Bell hit the rail, about half an hour later, Amanda Musumeci busted in 11th place. She was down to her last 6.25 big blinds and was all-in preflop with A♦Q♥ to Allen Kessler’s Q♠J♦. Even though she was in a dominating position to double up, the board ran out 10♦9♠9♣3♥K♠ and Kessler made a straight.
Having made it to the money, Kessler moved into the lead for the most cashes in WPT Season IX. Before cashing, he was tied with ten other players with three cashes each. This marked his fourth cash, with only two events to go before the season wraps up. What’s also interesting is that Kessler tied Shawn Buchanan for most cashes at the World Series of Poker with eight. No player has ever lead the WSOP and the WPT in cashes in the same year/season. If Kessler can hold on, he’ll be the first.
Although play was supposed to end with ten players left, Kelly was all-in on the other table at the same time Musumeci was getting eliminated. Kelly held A♦Q♠ to Barshak’s A♣K♠. The board ran out K♣9♥7♥9♠Q♣ and Kelly hit the rail in 10th place, leaving just nine players remaining.
Final Table Seat Draw and Chip Counts
| Seat | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Andy Whetstone | 83,500 |
| 2 | Terry Jacobs | 106,000 |
| 3 | Erik Seidel | 526,000 |
| 4 | Allen Kessler | 226,000 |
| 5 | Ali Eslami | 204,000 |
| 6 | Tom Marchese | 182,500 |
| 7 | Mike Scarborough | 467,000 |
| 8 | William Reynolds | 541,000 |
| 9 | Steve Barshak | 601,000 |
Play will resume on Tuesday for Day 4 at 1:00 p.m. EDT (1700 GMT). The blinds will be 2,000/4,000 with a 500 ante for another minute and 27 seconds before they move up. The plan for Day 4 will be to eliminate three players and set the official televised WPT final table of six. Be sure to stay tuned to PokerNews for the recap.
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