The first of two starting flights for the $3,500 World Poker Tour Choctaw Championship began with more dealers than players in the room but the field filled out to 293 entrants. Leading the 84 advancing players is Curt Kohlberg with 505,000.
“If I’m not the chip leader then I’m still the best-looking guy left in the tournament,” Kohlberg said after bagging up the lead. “There’s no change there. Somebody made an error, that I don’t want to elaborate on, but they overplayed a hand and that was key for me. Then pretty much a good run (of cards), good playing and avoiding the disaster spots.”
Kohlberg has the day off tomorrow and we asked if he’d be in the poker room playing. “I’ll be drinking heavily starting at 7:30 am tomorrow and won’t stop – drink all day and night,” he joked. “Hopefully, there will be a trash can nearby on Sunday – white knuckling it – that’s how I roll.”
Brian Battistone finished second with 482,000 and Michael Wang just missed out on the top five spots with 347,000. Erick Lindgren, Ren Lin, Viet Vo, Chino Rheem and Dan Sepiol finished near the top of the counts.
Plan: Pool, drinking, play-offs, then final table
Vo didn’t bag nearly the stack Kohlberg did but has history in this building with two runner-up finishes. “I have unfinished business here,” he said. “Home is right next door, so I’m comfortable here.”
While Kohlberg was tongue-in-cheek about his Saturday plans, Vo was pretty matter-of fact. “I’m going to hang out by the pool, do some drinking and watch playoff games,” said Vo. “I’m going to final table again – that’s my plan.”
Lin is a week removed from winning the inaugural PokerGO Tour Texas Poker Open Championship – which secured his lead for the top-ranked GPI player in the world. He fired a couple bullets on Friday and found one that stuck to advance.
Three players have made two WPT Choctaw final tables – and they were all in action today. Vo, Craig Varnell and James Mackey. Mackey found a bag on Friday, but Varnell was no where to be found at the end of Level 10.
Anthony Zinno, Jared Jaffee, Jonathan Roy, Aaron Massey, Blair Hinkle and Jesse Lonis all fired a bullet or two on Friday but are expected to be back on the felt for Day 1B on Saturday.
Day 1B plays a mirrored schedule on Saturday and Sunday sees the field combine for the first time on Day 2. Monday’s Day 3 sees the field play down to a final table of six to be played out May 30th at the HyperX Arena at Luxor Las Vegas.
Top Five Chip Counts
- Curt Kohlberg – 505,000
- Brian Battistone – 482,000
- Kyle Arora – 436,000
- William Lamar-Boone – 383,500
- Danny Doucet – 362,000
All photos courtesy of World Poker Tour - shot by Enrique Malfavon and Joe Giron.
