Day 1 of the $5,000 buy-in World Poker Tour (WPT) Best Bet Scramble Championship attracted 156 participants, with a familiar face winning the biggest pile.
Josh Reichard, who won the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown for $839,300 in May, has an old trick up his sleeve. The Wisconsin player finished the opening session with 487,000 chips, far more than all 56 players who survived that day.
Tough one for Becker
jeremy becker
One of the players who couldn't find his bag at the end of the night at Best Bet Jacksonville was Jeremy Becker. The Las Vegas daily tournament legend doubled his stack immediately after winning the race and nearly doubled it again before the dinner break. However, with just a few levels left in the session, he lost a race to Maurice Hawkins and was eliminated from the tournament due to a large stack.
Reichard, on the other hand, is a different story. The Mid States Poker Tour (MSPT) and WPT champion, who collected 15 World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOPC) rings, will enter Day 2 with 195 big blinds on Sunday. Bagging a chip lead after the first day does not guarantee anything for the player, not even cash. However, Reichard has the experience and track record of shutting out tournaments and playing effectively with big stacks.
Day 1a Chip Stack Top 5
PlacePlayer Chip Stack 1 Josh Reichard 487,000 2 Tony Dunst 280,000 3 Aaron Coupin 252,500 4 Dustin Holladay 243,500 5 Josh Hopkins 239,500
The chip leaders will have stiff competition on day two. World Poker Tour commentator and champion Tony Dunst finished day one in second place with 280,000 chips, while 2015 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event Champion Joe McKeehen also secured a large stack (232,500) I did. ). Famous players such as Christian Harder, Francis Anderson, and Brian Altman collected tips.
Dunst immediately began building his stack on Friday. He rivered a straight before his second break of the day, doubling Becker's set to over 100,000 and more than doubling his starting stack of 50,000 chips.
Defending champion Frédéric Normand defeated an early bullet before rebuying. At the time of publication, the complete chip stack was not available. The last departure flight, day 1b, kicks off at noon (Eastern time) on Saturday. All remaining players from both opening sessions will return to action at noon Sunday at Bestbet Jacksonville.
*Image courtesy of Katerina Lucina/World Poker Tour.