Day 1B of the WPT World Championship is in the bag, and we’re starting to get the sense that this tournament is going to sail through the $40 million guarantee. 730 players turned up today, adding to the 609 who couldn’t wait any longer than Day 1A. That makes 1,339 as we work towards the magic number of 4,000 that will enable the WPT executives to sleep through the night for the first time since the crazy $40 million guarantee was announced.
Aggro players looking to build a stack will help their cause, and Chance Kornuth was in and out of the door before we had a chance to finish a cup of coffee. He got it in with a huge combo draw (flush and double gutter) against a set in Level 1, but he couldn’t find one of his many outs on the river.
Day 1B was the day of the WPT ambassadors, with Andrew Neeme, Brad Owen, Tony Dunst and Lynn Gilmartin all looking to spin up their 100k starting stacks. Gilmartin went deep in this event last year (91st for a $36,500 payday) and she’s really threatening a repeat. She built her stack up to an impressive 556k by the end of the day.
Things didn’t go so well for Matt Berkey, who managed all of one hand, getting called after an 80bb jam with pocket tens. He took it pretty well, though.
Much better than Freddy Deeb, who was not in a good mood when he was overheard walking to the restroom. “They play one orbit an hour. They all play like robots. It's a waste of time." He got back to his table and promptly spilt a cup of coffee on the felt in front of him. When it’s not your day…
Intermission
We interrupt this broadcast for a quick update on the WPT Prime Championship. The huge event attracted 10,512 runners, and it was supposed to have played down to the final six on Tuesday. In the end, they stopped play with nine left and resumed on Wednesday.
It didn't take long to get nine down to six today – just a couple of hours. The remaining players are now guaranteed $290,000 with $1,386,280 up top. Jay Lu was the biggest winner this afternoon, almost doubling his stack to take a commanding chip lead.
He's followed by Calvin Anderson and Bob Buckenmayer. Yuebin Guo, Tri Dao and Mukul Pahuja were the three to be eliminated ahead of the TV final table on December 19.
- Jay Lu: 123.2m
- Calvin Anderson: 99.5m
- Bob Buckenmayer: 76m
- Jon Glendinning: 44.4m
- Valeriy Pak: 39.7m
- Aaron Pinson: 38.6m
Meanwhile, back at the World Championship
Not content with making the final six in the Prime, Calvin Anderson was hard at work building a stack in the World Championship.
That leaves the tantalizing possibility of him going deep and having to play Day 5 of the World Championship and the final table of the Prime at the same time. There’s a contingency if that were to happen, apparently. And what a story it would be.
Hellmuth threatened to join the action today but was a no-show. We’re expecting to see some #POSITIVITY in the Wynn tomorrow.
Erik Seidel took another shot after buying in and busting on Day 1A. He did better and bagged at the end of the day, thanks in no small part to turning a full house with T-3 towards the end. He dragged a big pot in that hand and ended the day with 272k.
He bagged along with 278 other players. They’ll join the 202 players who got through Day 1A and will return on Saturday for Day 2.
Peter Neff won the honor of end-of-day chipleader. He ended the day with 899k, less than either Jeff Hakim or Alan Keating who ended Day 1A with just shy of one million.
Neff has career earnings of $2,206,578, and his biggest score of $617,480 came in another WPT event, the Five Diamond Classic, that took place four years ago this week.
That just leaves us with two more Day 1 flights to get through and they’re going to get bigger and better. You can find all the latest updates on PokerOrg Instant – we’re on the ground at the Wynn all the way through to the final table on December 21. It’s going to be some ride.
