WPT bestbet Jacksonville Day 1a: The Defending Champ Misfires First Bullet
Season XII of the World Poker Tour continued on Friday with Day 1a of the bestbet Jacksonville Fall Poker Scramble. The $3,500 reentry tournament allows players one reentry per starting day; in addition, players who survive Day 1a can play Day 1b and advance to Day 2 with the bigger of their two stacks.
The opening starting flight attracted 143 runners, and after 10 60-minute levels, just 46 remained with Cong Pham and his stack of 265,000 leading the way.
Unofficial Day 1a Top 10 Chip Counts
| Place | Player | Count |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cong Pham | 265,000 |
| 2 | Andrew Whitaker | 254,500 |
| 3 | Dan Dumont | 242,900 |
| 4 | Jared Jaffee | 223,400 |
| 5 | Blake Purvis | 191,700 |
| 6 | John Gordon | 166,800 |
| 7 | Alexander Venovski | 134,500 |
| 8 | John Holley | 123,900 |
| 9 | Matt Glantz | 120,000 |
| 10 | Rogen Chhabra | 118,300 |
According to the WPT live blog, action heated up in Level 3 (75/150/25) when a raising war resulted in Justin Zaki getting his stack of 24,000 or so all in with the K♠K♣ only to run into the A♠A♣ of Micah Raskin. The board ran out a dry 6♦5♥4♥9♦Q♦ and Zaki was left to reenter.
That was quick. Ran KK into AA. We both limped in too. Pretty sick hand lol. #rebuy
— Justin Zaki (@Justin_Zaki)
Not long after, a A♣10♣2♥ flop saw Donald Yaughn get his stack all in holding the 10♠10♥ only to run into the A♥A♦ of Abbey Daniels. It was a brutal set-over-set flop, and Yaughn failed to catch the case ten as the 7♥ appeared on the turn followed by the 2♣ on the river. It was a big hand for Daniels, but little good it did her as she would fall before the end of the night.
In Level 5 (150/300/50), Kunal Patel got his stack all in preflop and was racing against John Holley.
Holley: Q♥Q♠
Patel: A♦K♠
It was a flip, and according to the PokerNews Odds Calculator, Holley was a 56.55% favorite while Patel would survive 43.03% of the time. The Q♦J♥8♣ flop was great to Holley as it delivered him a set and made him an 86.26% favorite. However, Patel picked up a Broadway straight draw, which he’d hit 13.74% of the time. The A♥ turn dropped Patel’s chances to 9.09%, and that flatlined when the 9♣ blanked on the river. As it turned out, the hand was the start of a nice little run for Holley.
Called ep raiser with @realAriEngel new fav pair and cracked his aces. 120k now WPT @bestbet_jax #jAXEsonville
— john holley (@hohnjolley)
Others who joined Patel on the rail on Day 1a were Jake Bazeley, Lily Kiletto, Shawn Cunix, Marvin Rettenmaier, Jake Schwartz, Kevin Eyster, Tom Nguyen, Ryan Olisar, John Racener, Bobby Oboodi, Aaron Massey, Blake Bohn, Chris Klodnicki, and Noah Scwartz.
Schwartz, who won the event in Season XI after defeating a field of 477 players, fell in Level 7 (250/500/75) when he was crippled after getting his all in preflop holding the A♥K♥ and was racing against the J♦J♥ of Jeff Madsen. The A♠J♣2♠ flop paired Schwartz’s ace, but it also gave Madsen a set of jacks. Neither the Q♥ turn nor 9♥ river helped Schwartz, and he was knocked down to 25,000 after the hand. He would be eliminated a short time later.
While many fell, plenty of notables advanced to Day 2 including Jared Jaffee (223,400), Alexander Venovski (134,500), Matt Glantz (120,000), Dan Heimiller (90,500), David Peters (103,600), Joe Kuether (47,000) and Todd Terry (45,700).
PokerNews will be bringing you daily recaps of the WPT bestbet Jacksonville Fall Poker Scramble all weekend long, so be sure to check back for those in the coming days. In the meantime, check out Royal Flush Girl Jeannie Duffy as she sets the stage for the latest WPT tournament.
*Photos courtesy of the WPT Blog.
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