2024 Champions Club Winter Poker Open

$400 Mystery Bounty
Day: 1ij
Event Info

2024 Champions Club Winter Poker Open

Final Results
Winner
Winning Hand
75
Prize
$38,128
Event Info
Buy-in
$400
Prize Pool
$300,000
Entries
1,276
Level Info
Level
31
Blinds
200,000 / 400,000
Ante
400,000
Players Info - Day 1ij
Entries
342
Players Left
42

$400 Mystery Bounty

Day 1ij Completed

Sanjeev Vora and Cord Garcia Lead Day 1ij of Mystery Bounty

Level 15 : Blinds 5,000/10,000, 10,000 ante
Cord Garcia
Cord Garcia

It was another great day of poker here at Champions Club in Houston, Texas as flights 1i and 1j of Winter Poker Open Event #4: $400 Mystery Bounty are in the books. Both flights ended a little over the eight-hour mark with players from each flight in the money and advancing to Day 2.

Leading both flights is Houston regular Sanveev Vora who bagged up 622,000 in Day 1j. Behind him is another well-known local by the name of Cord Garcia who spun up a stack in the morning flight and managed to finish with 496,000. In third for the day is Jonathan Tamayo who bagged 464,000 withJeffrey Nowling (437,000) in fourth andBen Thomas (427,000) rounding out the top five. Crazy enough, after 10 starting flights, it is STILL Derek Normand of Day 1e with the top stack of 691,000. With only the turbo flight left to go tomorrow morning, it is more than likely that he will be the chip leader going into Day 2.

Day 1ij Top Ten Stacks

PlacePlayerChip CountCityState
1Sanjeev Vora622,000HoustonTX
2Cord Garcia496,000  
3Jonathan Tamayo464,000HumbleTX
4Jeffrey Nowling437,000HoustonTX
5Ben Thomas427,000Las VegasNV
6Lam Tran383,000  
7William Newby376,000RichmondTX
8Jessica Richards347,000SpringLA
9Kamoru Yusuf334,000HumbleTX
10David Valden327,000San FelipeTX

In the morning flight, Garcia took an early lead as he had the most chips going into the first break, and true to his form, that stack fluctuated quite a bit throughout the day, but eventually managed to be on the upswing when the day finished. Day 1i took longer to reach the final 20 players than its evening counterpart, but there were zero hands on the bubble as two players busted at the same time to end the day. As for Day 1j, the bubble was reached fairly quickly but the players played roughly 45 minutes during hand-for-hand, as the short stacks just kept doubling. The player that eventually burst the bubble was Nathan Gay, who was a dominant chipleader with over 400,000 at one point, but found the exit when his pocket sevens ran into the queens of Jared Stearns.

A couple of players that fired today who failed to bag included Christopher McCauley, Drake Kemper, Mark Pertgen, and Jason Fitzpatrick. For these players, there is only one remaining turbo flight tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. for a chance to find a bag.

Jason Fitzpatrick
Jason Fitzpatrick

With 1,220 total entries so far, the prize pool is well over the $300,000 guarantee and tomorrow’s flight is just an added bonus as at least another 100 entries are expected. As always, keep a bookmark on PokerNews as we will be here every step of the way until a champion is crowned on Monday.

Tags: Ben ThomasChris McCauleyCord GarciaDavid ValdenDerek NormandDrake KemperJared StearnsJason FitzpatrickJeffrey NowlingJessica RichardsJonathan TamayoKamoru YusufLance GarciaMark PertgenNathan GaySanjeev VoraWilliam Newby

End of Day Counts (full)

Level 15 : Blinds 5,000/10,000, 10,000 ante
Player Chips Progress
Profile photo of Sanjeev Vora us
Sanjeev Vora
622,000
144,000
144,000
Profile photo of Cord Garcia us
Cord Garcia
496,000
131,000
131,000
Profile photo of Jonathan Tamayo us
Jonathan Tamayo
464,000
54,000
54,000
WSOP Main Event Champion
WSOP 1X Winner
Chip Leader Coaching
Profile photo of Jeffrey Nowling us
Jeffrey Nowling
437,000
Jaka Coaching
Profile photo of Ben Thomas us
Ben Thomas
427,000
187,000
187,000
Profile photo of Lam Tran us
Lam Tran
383,000
53,000
53,000
Profile photo of William Newby us
William Newby
376,000
196,000
196,000
Profile photo of Jessica Richards us
Jessica Richards
347,000
172,000
172,000
Profile photo of Kamoru Yusef us
Kamoru Yusef
334,000
136,000
136,000
Profile photo of David Valden us
David Valden
327,000
Profile photo of Seyed-Ali Jafari
Seyed-Ali Jafari
319,000
Profile photo of Jason Daly us
Jason Daly
316,000
131,000
131,000
WSOP 1X Winner
Profile photo of David Mann us
David Mann
300,000
95,000
95,000
Profile photo of Michael Nichols us
Michael Nichols
287,000
-28,000
-28,000
Profile photo of Yonase Tena us
Yonase Tena
285,000
-155,000
-155,000
Profile photo of Mario Mendozarobles us
Mario Mendozarobles
280,000
Profile photo of Chan Pelton us
Chan Pelton
269,000
99,000
99,000
Profile photo of Michael Stoner us
Michael Stoner
248,000
-107,000
-107,000
Profile photo of Genc Govori us
Genc Govori
240,000
Profile photo of Karim Bevans us
Karim Bevans
228,000
-2,000
-2,000
Profile photo of Mustapha Tokko us
Mustapha Tokko
225,000
-15,000
-15,000
Profile photo of Dudley Bienvenu us
Dudley Bienvenu
214,000
-80,000
-80,000
Profile photo of Jared Stearns us
Jared Stearns
214,000
-7,000
-7,000
Profile photo of Xiao Probst us
Xiao Probst
212,000
182,000
182,000
Profile photo of Malou Lowrey
Malou Lowrey
209,000

Read full

End of Day; Players Bag

Level 15 : Blinds 5,000/10,000, 10,000 ante

With the elimination of Nathan Gay in 19th place, play has ended in Day 1j as the surviving 18 players have bagged up to return on Monday for Day 2.

A complete list of chip counts for both flights as well as a recap of the day will be released shortly so stay tuned!

Nathan Gay Eliminated as Bubble Bursts

Level 15 : Blinds 5,000/10,000, 10,000 ante

Level 15: Blinds 5k/10k/10k

After a full level on the bubble, Nathan Gay and Jared Stearns got all of the chips into the middle preflop, with Gay at risk.

Nathan Gay: 77
Jared Stearns: QQ

The board ran out A6282 for Stearn's queens to hold and Gay was eliminated as the bubble boy of Day 1j.

Tags: Jared StearnsNathan Gay

Malou Lowery Triples On Bubble

Level 15 : Blinds 5,000/10,000, 10,000 ante

On a four-way flop of QJ8, action checked to the preflop raiser, Jonathan Tamayo who then bet 40,000. Jason Daly made the call and then Malou Lowery moved all in for 44,000 total. Tamayo and Daly both tossed out the additional 4,000 and went to the turn J, which they checked.

They also checked through the river 4. at which point Lowery flipped over 910 for a flopped straight and she took down the substantial pot for a triple-up.

Player Chips Progress
Profile photo of Jonathan Tamayo us
Jonathan Tamayo
410,000
WSOP Main Event Champion
WSOP 1X Winner
Chip Leader Coaching
Profile photo of Malou Lowery us
Malou Lowery
215,000
Profile photo of Jason Daly us
Jason Daly
185,000
WSOP 1X Winner

Tags: Jason DalyJonathan TamayoMalou Lowery

Bubble Time!

Level 15 : Blinds 5,000/10,000, 10,000 ante

The field has now been trimmed down to 19 players remaining, and with 18 bagging, the players are now on the money bubble and hand-for-hand play is now in effect.

Goldsmith Flops the Joint to Double

Level 15 : Blinds 5,000/10,000, 10,000 ante
Bryan Goldsmith
Bryan Goldsmith

Level 14: Blinds 4k/8k/8k

On a five-way flop of 10J7, the action checks to Sanjeev Vora who bets 8,000 into the pot of 50,000 and got two folds, but then Bryan Goldman moved all in for 39,000. The action folded back to Vora who reluctantly called to put him at risk and flipped over AK for ace-high, but Goldman tabled 89 for the nut straight.

Vora could still hit a queen to take it with a bigger straight, but the runout of 6A was pure for Goldsmith and he was awarded the pot for the double.

Player Chips Progress
Profile photo of Sanjeev Vora us
Sanjeev Vora
478,000
355,000
355,000
Profile photo of Bryan Goldsmith
Bryan Goldsmith
115,000
115,000
115,000

Tags: Bryan GoldmanSanjeev Vora

Color-Up Break

Level 15 : Blinds 5,000/10,000, 10,000 ante

The remaining 26 players are now on a short 15-minute break and will return to action shortly. The purple 500-chips will also be raced off and colored up at this time.