Tag Archives: 2021 WPO

Event 3 Day 1C: Zekri Qovanaj Bags the Overall Lead

$400 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$100,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 16:  3,000/6,000 with a 6,000 ante
Day 1C Players Remaining:  55 of 542

Zekri Qovanaj

Flight C came to an end with Zekri Qovanaj bagging a huge chip lead among the 55 today and the 101 overall coming back tomorrow. His 778,000 is way ahead of the rest of the field and he’ll be a favorite to go deep tomorrow.

Action gets back underway on Sunday at noon with everyone in the money. We will post the payout information and Day 2 seat draw as soon as it is available.

Event 3 Day 1C: Mitch Mitchell Eliminated by Isaac Shulmaister on the Bubble

$400 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$100,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 16:  3,000/6,000 with a 6,000 ante
Day 1C Players Remaining:  55 of 542

Mitch Mitchell

Hand-for-hand on the money bubble began in Level 15 but ended in Level 16. At took several rounds and several short stack survivals to get to the point when Mitch Mitchell moved all in for 99,000.

Isaac Shulmaister called and they waited for the rest of the tables to finish. When they flipped up their cards, Mitchell was in great shape to double up late.

Mitchell: AcKs
Shulmaister: AsJs

Mitchell had the bigger ace and he faded the 8s5h4s flop. The bad news was the Jh turn to pair Shulmaister’s jack. The river 4d finished the board and Mitchell was unlucky to exit on the money bubble.

The remaining 55 players will bag their chips for a Day 2 return tomorrow at noon in the money.

Event 3 Day 1C: Last Break; New Leaders

$400 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$100,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 15:  3,000/5,000 with a 5,000 ante
Day 1C Players Remaining:  72 of 542

Marcus Little

The final break of the day has come and gone and we have two new big stacks at the top of the counts. Marcus Little is the new leader of the pack with 458,000 but Zekri Qovanaj isn’t far behind with 456,000. That’s a tight race for the Flight C lead with the bubble coming up.

Blind levels are now 40 minutes long and we should wrap things up near the end of Level 16.

Zekri Qovanaj

Event 3 Day 1C: Chris Mills Doubles Through Alan Thomas

$400 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$100,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 14:  2,000/4,000 with a 4,000 ante
Day 1C Players Remaining:  96 of 542

Chris Mills

We caught up with the action on Table 19 with about 65,000 in the pot and Chris Mills all in for 95,000 from the cutoff with the board reading KdJs3s7d. Alan Thomas was on the button and considering what to do.

“Sorry guys,” Thomas told the rest of the table as he thought it through. He cut out 95K from his stack, put it back, thought some more, and then tossed in a chip to call.

“I have ace king,” he said before flipping up AhKh.

Mills turned over Qs9s for a flush draw/gutshot draw. Thomas was ahead with top pair top kicker but needed to fade 12 outs on the river, all the spades and tens in the deck.

The river came Tc to give Mills the king-high straight to double up to 254,500 and knock Thomas down to less than a starting stack.

Event 3 Day 1C: Rasheed Dunlap Leads After Break

$400 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$100,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 13:  1,500/3,000 with a 3,000 ante
Day 1C Players Remaining:  112 of 542

Rasheed Dunlap

The color-up break came to an end and we have another big stack in the room. Rasheed Dunlap is the new leader in Flight C with his 375,500 a few yellow chips bigger than Ryan Luker’s 371,500.

They’ll have another break after Level 14 to pull the purple chips from play with the money bubble expected somewhere around Level 16.

Event 3 Day 1C: Color Up Break

$400 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$100,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 12:  1,500/2,500 with a 2,500 ante
Day 1C Players Remaining:  120 of 542

Tournament staff sent players on another 15-minute break after Level 12 to pull the black chips out of play and introduce the 25K chips.

They will return to play two more levels before the purple chips are colored off as well and they will make the money soon after.

Event 3 Day 1C: Ryan Luker Leads

$400 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$100,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 12:  1,500/2,500 with a 2,500 ante
Day 1C Players Remaining:  120 of 542

Ryan Luker

Another Tampa tournament is another chance for Ryan Luker to stack big. The 2017 WPTDeepStacks Tampa Main Event final table member builds them big here and he’s up to 330,000 (plus some shuffling chips) as they head into the end stage of the day.

Event 3 Day 1C: Dropping Fast

$400 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$100,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 11:  1,000/2,000 with a 2,000 ante
Day 1C Players Remaining:  152 of 542

Scott Levitt

Flight C is dropping quickly despite no more chances to enter. They still have some ways to go with 55 advancing but they are moving right long.

We mentioned Jacob Ferro earlier, the second-place finisher in the WPT RRPO Hollywood Championship this week, and we found another player in today’s field who also made a deep run in that tournament. Scott Levitt was poised for a monster finish at his local joint but it fell short.

He came back for Day 4 of that Championship leading the last 15 players but that was where the good news ended. A brutal run of cards for Levitt saw three players double through him and he had to settle for a 13th place finish.

Levitt made the trek across the state this weekend to visit family and play today with his son.

Event 3 Day 1C: Cody Brinn Leads

$400 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$100,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 10:  800/1,600 with a 1,600 ante
Day 1C Players Remaining:  224 of 542

Cody Brinn

The second break was a bit of controlled chaos with a couple hundred players leaving the area at the same time. But it was fun chaos, big money chaos.

When we could get around, we found two big stacks at one table and they looked like the leaders at this stage. Cody Brinn was up to 154,000 and the two-time WSOP Circuit ring winner out-chipped tablemate Mansoor Kader’s 138,600.

Mansoor Kader

Event 3 Day 1C: Registration Closed with 542 Entries

$400 No Limit Hold’em (Re-Entry)
$100,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 9:  600/1,200 with a 1,200 ante
Day 1C Entries:  542

Registration closed for the final flight of WPO Event 3 and the $400 buy-in game 542 this afternoon for combined 1,000 entries on the nose. The $100,000 guarantee was easily surpassed and they put $335,000 up for grabs.

Flight C will keep playing this evening until only 55 players remain. They will advance to Day 2 with the other 46 from the first two flights.

Day/TimeFlightEntriesAdvanced
Thur at 11amA18719
Fri at 11amB27127
Sat at 11amC542TBD
Total1,00046

Chip counts through Flight B