John DuBois Bags 1.715 Million to Lead Rock 'N' Roll Charge Into Day 3

The stampede of 333 players who returned for Day 2 at the WPT Seminole Rock ‘N’ Roll Poker Open was cut down to 52 with John DuBois in the lead. DuBois holds 1.715 million which gives him a slim lead over Brent Kallman, who bagged 1.645 million.

DuBois hails from Palmetto Bay, FL and is enjoying his first WPT cash. When not at the poker table, DuBois owns a surveillance technology company and is the vice mayor of his town. Currently, DuBois is the mayor of the Hard Rock with pole position heading into Day 3.

A local to the Hard Rock Casino, DuBois is enjoying the run good that comes with being home.

“I generally do well at the Hard Rock tournaments here at this location. For some reason, I always do horribly out in Vegas at the WSOP events,” DuBois said.

DuBois picked a majority of his chips near the end of the night when he rivered a full house versus Jonathan Jaffe’s flush. The  of DuBois called Jaffe’s river bet on a board of  and beat the  of Jaffe.

“It was a big pot and I just smooth called because he could have had Ace-King. That was a hand that really stood out and was probably the luckiest,” DuBois commented.

The money bubble burst after the dinner break on Day 2 when Donovan Walker was felted by Rees Scruggs. Bailey was all-in for 8,000 from the big blind with  and ran into a worst-case scenario against the  of Scruggs. No help came for Walker and the final 113 players locked up a payout of at least $5,845.

61 players made their way to a collect their prize money for cashing this week at the Hard Rock. Among those to make the money but fall on Day 2 include Champions Club member Tony Sinishtaj (110th) along with Andy Philachack (109th), Jeff Fielder (104th), Dominique Mosley (102nd), Stephen Song (96th), Ryan Hughes (92nd), Marc Macdonnell (81st), Ben Yu (77th), Peter Lockwood (72nd), and Ray Qartomy (66th).

There are plenty of talented players remaining when play starts at 12 p.m. local time on Monday. The defending Rock ‘N’ Roll Poker Open champion Michael Newman ended his day with 470,000 and is right in the thick of the action for the second year in a row. A final table this week would be Newman’s first on the World Poker Tour.

Past WPT final tablists to bag chips include Paul Balzano (1.4 million), Farid Jattin (1.38 million), Jim Gilbert (1.35 million), Joe McKeehen (1.27 million), Ryan Yu (1.135 million), Chris Limo (695,000), and David Peters (270,000).

Season X WPT Player of the Year Joe Serock advanced with 905,000 and is joined by other WPT royalty in the form of Champions Club members Jonathan Jaffe (1.15 million), Erkut Yilmaz (520,000), and Ravi Raghavan (215,000).

The plan for Day 3 is to play five 90-minute levels and return on Tuesday for Day 4 to get down to the final table of six.

As always, stay tuned to WPT.com for complete coverage of the WPT Seminole Rock ‘N’ Roll Poker Open.

Photography by Joe Giron / PokerPhotoArchive.com

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