Galen Hall is one day away from what could be his second seven-figure score of 2011. Not bad for a kid who considers himself a part-time player.
The 24-year old Stanford student who won the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) Main Event in January for $2.3 million is the chip leader of the $25,000 World Poker Tour (WPT) Championship final table at Bellagio. Hall is joined by a talented group of pros, including Scott Seiver, who is virtually even with Hall in chips going into Friday’s final table. The winner of the event will earn $1.6 million.
Play-down day began with 15 players Wednesday with Hall comfortably on top of the leaderboard. Reigning WPT World Champion David Williams bowed out in 14th place early in the afternoon, ending a spirited run at history. Following a preflop raise by Daniel Alaei and a call by Shannon Shorr, Williams moved all-in preflop with Jc-Js. Alaei and Shorr both called and checked the Ac-9c-5c flop and 4s turn. The 10c fell on the river and Alaei folded to a bet by Shorr. Williams had a jack-high flush, but Shorr tabled Qc-Jd for a higher flush to eliminate the defending champion. Williams took home $53,095 for his efforts.
Others eliminated short of the final table were Ashton Griffin, Alaei, Nenad Medic, and Shorr, who exited in ninth place for $84,952 and then hopped a plane to New Orleans for the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Regional Circuit Championship. WPT Amneville champion Sam El Sayed was sent to the rail in eighth place when he was all in preflop with pocket fives against Galen Hall’s Ac-10s and the flop brought 10h-10d-10c. El Sayed took home $119,464 for his four days of work.
The unfortunate final table bubble boy was David Peters. Here’s how the final hand went down according to the WPT Live Updates team:
Roger Teska min-raises from the cutoff to 120,000, Scott Seiver calls from the button, and David Peters moves all in from the small blind. Teska quickly folds, and Seiver asks for a count before he calls.
Seiver shows Ks-Qh, and it’s a race against the 10h-10s of Peters.
The board comes Kd-9d-7d-8c-Kh, and Seiver wins the pot with trip kings to eliminate David Peters on the TV bubble in seventh place.
Seiver finished the day just 20,000 chips behind Hall for the chip lead. The WSOP bracelet winner with more than $2 million in live tournament earnings is eyeing the largest score of his career.
“This is my first WPT final table,” Seiver told WPT’s Kimberly Lansing after play ended Wednesday. “I’m extremely excited for it. Hopefully, I can make it memorable and win it.”
Play will resume at 4 p.m. local time on Friday. Here’s what the final table will look like at the Fontana Lounge at Bellagio:
Seat 1: Galen Hall — 5,095,000
Seat 2: Justin Young — 1,750,000
Seat 3: Tony Gargano — 3,550,000
Seat 4: Roger Teska — 3,600,000
Seat 5: Scott Seiver — 5,075,000
Seat 6: Freddy Bonyadi — 2,470,000
While the final six players in the $25,000 Main Event have a day off Thursday, the $100,000 Super High Roller will crown a champion. Twenty-nine players entered the exclusive tournament and 17 survived Day 1 of the two-day event. Justin Bonomo leads the way going into Day 2 with 1,837,000 chips, but Vivek Rajkumar and Erick Lindgren are close on his heels. Among the notables still playing for the $1,092,780 prize include Sam Trickett, Daniel Negreanu, Eugene Katchlov, Gabe Kaplan, Ashton Griffin, Yevgeniy Timoshenko and Erik Seidel.
Here’s a look at the Top 10 stacks going into Thursday:
1. Justin Bonomo — 1,837,000
2. Vivek Rajkumar — 1,628,000
3. Erick Lindgren — 1,607,000
4. John Morgan — 1,009,000
5. Randy Dorfman — 968,000
6. Sam Trickett — 626,000
7. Gregory Brooks — 611,000
8. Rick Salomon — 582,000
9. Dan Shak — 558,000
10. Daniel Negreanu — 471,000
Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for continuing coverage from the World Poker Tour at Bellagio.
