The World Poker Tour has two events in action over the weekend, with poker’s high rollers on the island of St. Kitts in the Caribbean and other players taking on the equally challenging tables arranged around bestbet Jacksonville in Florida.
WPT Alpha8 St. Kitts
Enjoying some fun in the sun of the Caribbean, 23 players came out for the third stop on the WPT Alpha8 tour. The $100,000 buy in event’s lineup drew a quality field including Erik Seidel, Mike ‘Timex’ McDonald, Scott Seiver, Jonathan Duhamel and several other prominent pros. Through the play of the day on Saturday, there were five players who ponied up another entry to bring the total entries for the event to 28, setting a $2.716 million prize pool that will be shared by five players.
The 28 total entries are the largest yet for one of the WPT Alpha8 events. The inaugural event, held at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, drew in 18 players (with 21 entries) and last month’s London stop drew in 20 entries.
Through the afternoon’s play, seven players were eliminated from the event. Greg Whalley, Ray Tabby, Igor Kurganov, Tony Guglietti, Bill Perkins, Seidel and Duhamel would all hit the rail before the end of the evening’s play and, on the final hand of the night, the chip leader was established. On a Q-10-2-9-6 board, Isaac Haxton fired out a 100K bet and, after several moments of consideration, “Big One for One Drop” champion Antonio Esfandiari released his hand. Cajoled by the other members of the table to show his cards, Haxton instead simply mucked and, in picking up the chips, also took the chip lead:
1. Isaac Haxton, 462,000
2. Mike McDonald, 345,000
3. Scott Seiver, 250,500
4. Jason Koon, 230,500
5. Timothy Adams, 225,000
6. Jeff Gross, 159,500
7. Antonio Esfandiari, 148,500
8. Fabian Quoss, 147,500
9. Max Altergott, 143,500
10. Steven Silverman, 113,500
The plan on Sunday is for the final 16 players to play down to a champion, meaning it could be a long day of work for the contenders. The final prize is worth that effort as a $1,086,400 first place check and the third-ever WPT Alpha8 trophy await the victor.
WPT bestbet Jacksonville Fall Poker Scramble
Two Day Ones are in the books in Florida as the WPT Season XII schedule continues onward at bestbet Jacksonville. Wrapping up the Day 1B action yesterday, 2012 World Series of Poker National Champion Ryan Eriquezzo amassed a chip stack of 275,200 to barely edge out Day 1A chip leader Cong Pham for the overall chip lead.
The $3500 buy in tournament drew in a nice 358 entry field (players eliminated on Day 1A could reenter the tournament on Day 1B) to build a prize pool of over $1.1 million. The top 45 finishers will take away a $6329 payday, but the big prize of $252,749 (and a seat at the WPT Championship in April 2014) is what the players are all shooting for.
After the two Day Ones, only 130 players remain in the tournament and the Top Ten looks like this:
1. Ryan Eriquezzo, 275,200
2. Cong Pham, 265,000
3. Andrew Whitaker, 254,400
4. Dan Dumont, 242,900
5. Jacob Bazeley, 230,000
6. Jared Jaffee, 223,400
7. Billy Swaringen, 223,000
8. Rob Manjura, 201,500
9. Jacquelyn Scott, 198,500
10. Blake Purvis, 191,700
Familiar names such as Matt Glantz (175,000), John Dolan (173,700), Jeff Madsen (112,300) and Dan Heimiller (90,500) are all still alive heading into Day Two with above the chip average stacks.
The WPT bestbet Jacksonville event will work through Day Two on Sunday and may actually crack the money bubble by the end of the night’s action. The final table for the tournament is scheduled for Tuesday afternoon when the latest champion on the World Poker Tour will be crowned.
