WSOP POY Chase: Liberto Makes Final 21 of Two Tournaments at Once
Mike Leah and Shaun Deeb might be the players best-known for their live poker multi-tabling exploits, but Justin Liberto had a pretty impressive run himself on Wednesday when he made the final three tables of two events at the same time.
The East Coast pro may not be as recognizable a name as the other two, but he has put up some nice results in his own right. He counts a bracelet in the $3,000 Six-Max in 2015 among his $3 million in live earnings, and he's been putting together a strong run here at the 2018 World Series of Poker.
"I needed the min-cash to propel myself to first. So, I got in there and actually ran up a stack to 50 bigs going into Day 2."
This summer, Liberto already had nine cashes at the WSOP coming into this week, including final tables in the Millionaire Maker (fifth for $303,294) and $3,200 Online High Roller (seventh for $37,356). That put him squarely in WSOP Player of the Year contention with a top-five points count.
When he bagged the $1,111 Little One for One Drop on Day 2 — with a monster stack of 140 big blinds for the chip lead — just 125 players remained. Liberto knew he had a realistic shot at the win and the roughly 1,200 POY points that would come with it. That alone would almost put him in first place. One more min-cash would do it, and two levels of registration remained in $1,500 Mixed No-Limit Hold'em/Pot-Limit Omaha. Liberto decided to go for it by embarking on his very first attempt at live multi-tabling.
"I thought I had a chance to min-cash that night," Liberto said, outlining his reasoning. "Lance Bradley tweeted that [the tournament was going to be in the money soon]. I needed the min-cash to propel myself to first. So, I got in there and actually ran up a stack to 50 bigs going into Day 2."
Leah made the practice famous with his manic WSOP days, sometimes playing — and cashing — as many as three tournaments at once. Deeb may have reached peak multi-tabling when, earlier this summer, he finished third in one tournament and 16th in another while switching back and forth. He sits second in the POY at the time of writing.
Double Dipping on Deep Runs
Liberto had no experience, but he enlisted some help. His friend Tim Little would act as a scout, watching over the mixed-game table while Liberto focused on One Drop. When a break hit, Liberto sprinted about 40 yards from Amazon Tan to Amazon Gold to sneak in 15 minutes of play. The 60-minute dinner also offered a chance to grind. Sometimes, Liberto would also scamper over and play the blinds and late-position hands.
"I missed probably 90 to 95 percent of hands in the mix," Liberto said.
"Didn't even stack the chips, just left them there. I came back two-and-a-half hours later."
Variance smiled upon Liberto though, and he still chipped up. The first hand he played in the mix, he arrived just as the last card was being pitched to his big blind, keeping his hand live. After a raise and a call, Liberto looked down at aces and repotted. He got stacks in and busted an opponent.
"I sprinted the hell out of there," he said. "Didn't even stack the chips, just left them there. I came back two-and-a-half hours later. It was nice playing half PLO so I wasn't getting crushed by the antes."
Another time, Liberto ran over to play his blinds and late-position hands and wound up jamming in the cutoff. An opponent on the button isolated with a shove of his own, but Liberto's pocket fours held against king-jack.
"Once the river came, I sprinted out of there and knew I had enough chips to actually play when I bagged the One Drop," he said.
The End of the Ride
So, Liberto switched back over to the mix. That's when things went south. He made the three-table redraw but busted out in 21st for $5,670.
"I actually probably should have left the blind stack," Liberto joked. "When I actually played, I lost. I'm better off just sitting there, running over and trying to get lucky."
"When I actually played, I lost. I'm better off just sitting there, running over and trying to get lucky."
Things didn't go much better in the One Drop. He earned a full double to 4.4 million making top two with ace-queen but eventually bluffed off a big chunk of his chips when an opponent with a straight draw got there against Liberto's flush draw. Liberto had him high-carded but bluffed into the rivered straight after missing the flush.
Liberto still bagged in the final 14 for the unscheduled Day 4 but lost a flip with ace-king against sevens to bust in 14th for $29,490.
"I would have focused on One Drop," Liberto said of his plan for Thursday if he bagged both. "I lost One Drop first two hours of the day, so I actually would have been able to play [the $1,500] fully. But, it was fun while it lasted for sure."
Asked for advice to give to ambitious future multi-tablers, Liberto ruefully referenced the WSOP reorganizing the tournament logistics so Deeb's two tables were close together.
"Probably be a bigger name so they move the tables closer together so you can play them both," he said.
However, he said he wouldn't be averse to trying to multi-table again in the future if he finds himself in the hunt for POY honors once more. He's still sitting in seventh place at the moment.
| Place | Player | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | John Hennigan | 3,181.35 |
| 2 | Shaun Deeb | 3,111.64 |
| 3 | Scott Bohlman | 2,916.50 |
| 4 | Eric Baldwin | 2,516.30 |
| 5 | Mike Leah | 2,294.28 |
| 6 | Paul Volpe | 2,278.47 |
| 7 | Justin Liberto | 2,112.28 |
| 8 | Anthony Zinno | 2,097.86 |
| 9 | Julien Martini | 2,096.31 |
| 10 | Ben Yu | 2,036.83 |
**Current as of Thursday evening
That gives him an outside chance if he can perhaps gain some traction in the closing events here and then hit Rozvadov for a final push, as Ryan Hughes and John Racener did trying to catch Chris Ferguson last year.
"If I got in this spot again where POY was in reach, I would give it a go," Liberto said. "Especially for the lower $1,500 buy-ins."
