$2,200 Eight-Max No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Structure | Payouts
Level 17:  3,000/6,000 with a 6,000 ante
Players Remaining:  15 of 167

In Hand #5 of hand-for-hand play on the Money Bubble, the player in the big blind was all in against Jesse Lonis in the small blind and Spencer Champlin in late position.

Lonis and Champlin checked all the way down on a board of , and all three players showed their cards:

Jesse Lonis:    (two pair, kings and jacks)
Spencer Champlin:    (ace high)
Big Blind:    (eight high)

Lonis won the pot with his two pair to eliminate the player in the big blind in 18th place, bursting the Money Bubble.

Jesse Lonis  –  140,000  (23 bb)
Spencer Champlin  –  65,000  (11 bb)

A few minutes later, Champlin moved all in from the cutoff for about 65,000, and Lonis moved all in over the top with . Champlin turned over , and he was dominated as he faced elimination.

The board came , and Lonis won the pot with two pair, aces and queens, to eliminate Champlin in 16th place.

Jesse Lonis  –  207,000  (35 bb)
Spencer Champlin  –  Eliminated in 16th Place  ($5,521)

With 15 players remaining, the average chip stack is about 223,000 (37 big blinds). These players are all guaranteed to earn at least $5,521 each, and the next pay jump is $6,762 for 14th place.

$2,200 Eight-Max No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Structure | Payouts
Level 16:  2,500/5,000 with a 5,000 ante
Players Remaining:  18 of 167

With the board showing on the turn with nearly 150K already in the pot, chipleader Dan Sepiol bets 80,000 from the big blind, and Orson Young thinks for a while before he calls from the cutoff.

The river card was the , and Sepiol moved all in for about 415,000.

Young tanked for a long time before he called all in for about 243,000 with , but Sepiol turned over to win the pot with a flopped set of nines, eliminating Young in 20th place.

Dan Sepiol  –  975,000  (195 bb)
Orson Young  –  Eliminated

Less than a minute later, another player was eliminated on a different table, dropping the field down to 18 to begin playing hand-for-hand play on the Money Bubble.

With 18 players remaining, the average chip stack is about 186,000 (37 big blinds). The final 17 players will finish in the money, guaranteed at least $5,521 each.

$2,200 Eight-Max No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Structure | Payouts
Level 16:  2,500/5,000 with a 5,000 ante
Players Remaining:  20 of 167

With the board showing on the turn, the player in the small blind got it all in with (pair of jacks), and he needed it to hold to stay alive against the — flush draw with an open-ended straight draw — of Jeff Lehouillier in the big blind.

The river card was the , and Lehouillier won the pot with an eight-high straight to eliminate his opponent in 21st place.

Jeff Lehouillier  –  280,000  (56 bb)

With 20 players remaining, the average chip stack is about 167,000 (33 big blinds). The final 17 players will finish in the money, guaranteed at least $5,521 each.

$2,200 Eight-Max No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Structure | Payouts
Level 15:  2,000/4,000 with a 4,000 ante
Players Remaining:  23 of 167

Chipleader Dan Sepiol raised from the cutoff to 9,000, James Mackey moved all in from the button for about 70,000, and Sepiol called with . Mackey turned over , and needed to improve to stay alive.

The board came , and Sepiol won the pot with his ace to eliminate Mackey in 27th place.

Dan Sepiol  –  477,000  (119 bb)
James Mackey  –  Eliminated

A few minutes later, a player was all in from the cutoff for about 30,000 with , and he needed to improve to stay alive against Thomas Boyden’s on the button.

The board came , and Boyden paired his king on the flop, turned trips, and rivered a full house to win the pot and eliminate his opponent in 25th place.

Thomas Boyden  –  85,000  (21 bb)

After that player’s elimination, the final 24 players had a redraw for random seats at the final three tables. We’ve since lost another player, and with 23 players remaining, the average chip stack is about 145,000 (36 big blinds). The final 17 players will finish in the money, guaranteed at least $5,521 each.

$2,200 Eight-Max No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Structure | Payouts
Level 14:  2,000/3,000 with a 3,000 ante
Players Remaining:  32 of 167

The field is down to the final four tables, and here are updated chip counts for some of the notables in the field:

Dan Sepiol  –  345,000  (115 bb)
Orson Young  –  210,000  (70 bb)
Jeff Lehouillier  –  165,000  (55 bb)
Jon Borenstein  –  145,000  (48 bb)
James Mackey  –  135,000  (45 bb)
Jake Schwartz  –  115,000  (38 bb)
Spencer Champlin  –  100,000  (33 bb)
Thomas Boyden  –  90,000  (30 bb)
David Shaw  –  90,000  (30 bb)
Brett Apter  –  85,000  (28 bb)
Jesse Lonis  –  85,000  (28 bb)
Hasan Hakim  –  75,000  (25 bb)
Jeremy Becker  –  60,000  (20 bb)
Aaron Thivyanathan  –  58,000  (19 bb)

With 32 players remaining, the average chip stack is about 104,000 (35 big blinds). The final 17 players will finish in the money, guaranteed at least $5,521 each.

$2,200 Eight-Max No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Structure | Payouts
Level 13:  1,500/2,500 with a 2,500 ante
Players Remaining:  41 of 167

The players return from dinner to begin Level 13, with increased blinds of 1,500-2,500 with a 2,500 ante.

A scan of the field during the break turned up three players with at least 175K in chips, creating an unofficial leaderboard:

1.  Dan Sepiol  –  282,500  (113 bb)
2.  Jeff Lehouillier  –  228,000  (91 bb)
3.  Orson Young  –  185,500  (74 bb)

With 41 players remaining, the average chip stack is about 81,500 (33 big blinds). The final 17 players will finish in the money, guaranteed at least $5,521 each.

2021 WPT Tampa
Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino
Tampa, Florida
Event 12
$1,100 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Entries:  222
Prize Pool:  $215,340
June 16, 2021

Last month, Balakrishna Patur won the pandemic-delayed televised Final Table for the WPT L.A. Poker Classic, earning more than $1 million. And he came to Tampa for the first time primarily to play in the $2 million guaranteed WPT Tampa main event that begins on Friday.

But when Patur and his friends tried to check into the rental they’d be staying at, it was still occupied and they couldn’t check in. So they came to the Hard Rock to play some poker until they could check in, and Patur just kept going and going until he made the money, then he made the final table, and eventually, he won the whole thing.

Patur won it in a three-way preflop all-in situation, when his pocket sixes held up against the of Jay Giles and the of Derek Bowers.

“It was a tough one,” said Patur about the final table. “There were a couple of top notch pros here, but somehow I was able to navigate it.”

Patur wanted to give a shoutout to his friends, Sri and Sandeep, who stayed for the entire final table to support him.

“We are all grinders,” said Patur. “We discuss different hands and different situations. And everything pays off when we work together as a team.”

$1,100 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
Structure | Payouts
Level 27:  30,000/60,000 and a 60,000 ante
Players Remaining:  1 of 222

The final three players battled for a while before chipleader Balakrishna Patur moved all in from the button, and Derek Bowers called all in from the small blind for 530,000.

Jay Giles called all in from the big blind for about 560,000, eliciting a groan from Bowers, who implied he would not have called if he knew Giles was calling.

These were the cards in descending order of chip counts:

Balakrishna Patur:  
Jay Giles:  
Derek Bowers:  

Bowers was in even worse shape than he feared, with both of his holecards covered by superior hands.

The board came — Giles turned a gutshot straight draw, but improved no further. The pocket sixes held up for Patur to win the pot, the title, the trophy, and the first prize of $55,785.

Congratulations to Balakrishna Patur!

1st:  Balakrishna Patur  –  $55,785 + Trophy
2nd:  Jay Giles  –  $37,415
3rd:  Derek Bowers  –  $22,072
4th:  Sanjib Acharya  –  $13,426
5th:  Loni Hui  –  $10,369
6th:  Thomas Boyden  –  $8,592
7th:  David Dibernardi  –  $7,322
8th:  Fred Goldberg  –  $6,439

2021 WPT Tampa
Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino
Tampa, Florida
Event 11
$400 H.O.R.S.E. (Re-Entry)
Entries:  112
Prize Pool:  $37,520
June 16, 2021

H.O.R.S.E. is played as a rotation of five different poker games — Hold’em, Omaha-8, Razz, Stud, and Stud-8. But Aaron Lipstet had only ever played two of those five games before outlasting a field of 112 entries on Wednesday to win the title, the trophy, and $11,612.

“Winning feels pretty good,” said Lipstet, “considering I’ve never played a H.O.R.S.E. event, and have literally never played stud, stud-8, or razz.”

Lipstet seemed to adapt to the new games quickly, saying, “I was definitely playing more tight in those games to start with, but by the end of it, it seemed like there were some pretty obvious steal spots, so I was going for those. Other than that, I was being more careful in those rounds. Especially razz.”

And Lipstet remained modest about his new status as a H.O.R.S.E. champion.

“For me, it was a tough final table,” said Lipstet. “I feel like I was probably the second- or third-worst player at the table. I was just trying to do my best. I’m really happy that I got really lucky.”

$400 H.O.R.S.E. (Re-Entry)
Structure | Payouts
Level 24:  40,000/80,000 Limits
Players Remaining:  1 of 112

Aaron Lipstet and Sam Sternfield played a big hand of Seven Card Stud where the put in about 320K each.

Aaron Lipstet:        (full house)
Sam Sternfield:        (two pair)

The order of the hole cards is uncertain, but Lipstet won the pot with his full house to knock Sternfield all the way down to just 3,000 — less than a third of an ante.

The next hand, Sternfield was forced all in for the ante, but finished with two pair, aces and kings, to double up to 6,000.

Aaron Lipstet:        (ace high)
Sam Sternfield:        (two pair)

The next hand, Sternfield was once again forced all in for the ante, and this time he finished with trip tens to double up to 12,000. He could now afford the ante and have 2,000 left over.

Aaron Lipstet:        (two pair)
Sam Sternfield:        (trip tens)

The next hand the game switched to Stud-8, and this time, Sternfield was forced all in for the bring-in:

Aaron Lipstet:        (full house)
Sam Sternfield:        (two pair)

Sternfield’s potential comeback fell short, as Lipstet won the final hand with a full house, threes full of sixes, to win the title, the trophy, and $11,612.

Congratulations to Aaron Lipstet!

1st:  Aaron Lipstet  –  $11,612 + Trophy
2nd:  Sam Sternfield  –  $7,177
3rd:  Cory Zeidman  –  $4,813
4th:  Dale Schmitz  –  $3,348
5th:  Henry Porcaro  –  $2,418
6th:  Ben Mauger  –  $1,816
7th:  A.J. Kelsall  –  $1,421
8th:  John Fahmy  –  $1,161
9th:  Homi Syodia  –  $991
10th:  Yuval Bronshtein  –  $991
11th:  Anthony Askey  –  $886
12th:  Hoyt Verner  –  $886