Play on Day Three of the World Poker Tour stop at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, FL, has reached a key moment, whittling the field down to just shy of the money bubble.
102 players stepped up to continue the battle on Friday with Clyde Hinton on the point and a host of excellent pros still chasing him from the 290 player original field. Using an excellent run to finish off action on Day Two, Tommy Vedes held the second place spot, while John Dolan continued to impress the railbirds with his outstanding play. Also in the mix were Fred Goldberg (who was at this particular WPT final table last year) and Ebony Kenney, carrying the banner for the ladies.
Hinton would maintain his lead through the early going, becoming the first player to break the 300K chip mark. Not to be outdone, Dolan battled in pursuit of Hinton, knocking out a fellow World Series of Poker November Niner Matt Giannetti and eliminating Jim Carroll to outdo Hinton in crossing the 400K mark. Unfortunately, in eliminating Carroll, Dolan also received a penalty for exposing his cards (pocket Aces) before Hoyt Corkins (who was also in the hand with Carroll) made his decision. The one round penalty did little to slow Dolan down, however.
Within the first two levels, several top names were dumped from the proceedings at the Seminole Hard Rock Showdown. Lauren Kling, Thayer Rasmussen, Chad Brown (who commented over Twitter, “Busted. I ship it with K-Q from bb after button raise. He had A-J. Next stop chad brown challenge at Choctaw casino.”) and David “Doc” Sands all left the Hard Rock earlier than they would have liked to, while Hinton attempted to catch up to Dolan by eliminating Alex Outhred from the tournament. Coming from the back of the pack was a player whom many in the crowd did not have their eyes on, however.
William Brown took a key pot against Andrew Lichtenberger, when Brown was able to river an Ace with his Big Slick, to knock off Lichtenberger’s pocket Kings and move close to the 400K mark. Brown moved over that threshold in a three way pot with Jason Koon and maintained that lead through the remainder of the day.
As the day’s activity drew to a close, several other top pros wouldn’t make it to the finish line. Joe Elpayaa, Jonathan Little, Tristan Wade, William Reynolds, Matt Marafioti, Lee Markholt, Lichtenberger and Kenney all were out the doors of the Seminole Hard Rock by the close of play on Friday. About the only thing that the players couldn’t do on Friday was get to the money; 32 players will come back on Saturday with five of those leaving the tournament with nothing to show for their efforts.
1. William Brown, 772,500
2. Joe Serock, 702,000
3. John Dolan, 685,500
4. Ravi Raghavan, 667,500
5. Fred Goldberg, 607,000
Plans for Saturday’s Day Four action include bursting the money bubble, with the minimum cash for the Seminole Hard Rock Showdown earning a nice $25,056 for being in the top 27. The real money, of course, is at the top, where the champion of the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Showdown will take down $779,520, which includes a seat at next month’s WPT World Championship, and have their name etched in perpetuity onto the WPT Champions’ Cup.
The players will play through five ninety minute levels for Day Four, unless the field is able to be cut down to the final six players before that point. Plans are for the final table to be played out on Monday, meaning that WPT Tournament Director Matt Savage may call an early end to the proceedings today.
