Brandon Novena Lays Down Jacks

With around 8,000 chips in the pot and the board reading [7s6d2c], the player in the hijack checks and Brandon Novena bets 7,500 from the cutoff.  His opponent check-raises to 15,000 total and Novena tanks.

After a minute or two of thought, Novena shows him pocket jacks before folding.  After the hand, Novena drops to a still above average 68,000.

Though last year’s winner, Dwyte Pilgrim, is out of the event, there are several other players from the Season IX final table who are faring well.  Novena finished fourth in last year’s event and is doing the best of the final tablists so far, but sixth place finisher Ben Klier and third place finisher Ofir Mor are in the Day 1B field as well.  They are sitting on 23,000 and 37,000 respectively.

Last year’s fifth place finisher Daniel Makowsky did not play in this year’s event.  We have yet to spot last year’s runner-up, Kia Mohajeri, in the field, but considering this is the largest event in WPT history, it is possible we simply haven’t seen him yet.