ClubWPT.com Level 5 Update

Day 1 of the Foxwoods World Poker Finals is in the books and one of the players towards the top of the leaderboard is ClubWPT.com qualifier Alan Sasser.  Sasser spent the entire day above average thanks to a fast start and some big hands. 

Early in the level, Sasser avoided disaster when he raised to 2,000 with A-K and another player made it 20,000 to go.  After the hand, Sasser told us he was about to ship his whole stack all-in, but he ultimately decided to fold his hand and find a better spot.  It was a good read from Sasser, as his opponent did him the courtesy of showing their pocket aces.

Sasser’s card rush continued in Level 5 when a player in early position raised to 2,050, several players called and Sasser made it 10,600 from the small blind.  The initial raiser elected to call, while everyone else folded.  The flop came [6s][4c][3d] and Sasser moved all-in for over 60,000 chips.  His opponent counted his chips, mulled over his options and eventually called with [Jh][Js].  Sasser showed [Ad][Ah] and stood up, bracing himself for the turn and river.  The turn brought the [7h] and the river the [9c], meaning that Sasser’s aces held to give him the nearly 120,000 chip pot and eliminate his opponent from the tournament.

Even after spending a few minutes away from the table to calm his nerves, Sasser was still able to end the day with an impressive 121,600, which should put him in the top twenty chip counts headed into Day 2.

The other two ClubWPT.com qualifiers will also be back at the felt tomorrow.  Dean Meyer said he really tightened up during the last level of play since his table included top pros like Jason Mercier, Kathy Liebert and Nick Schulman and that strategy resulted in him ending the day with 24,525 chips–roughly 30 big blinds once play resumes tomorrow at the 400/800 ante 100 level.

Jesse Lopez continued to struggle to find spots to pick up chips and his stack eroded a bit during Level 5 as well.  He ended the day with 9,050, but told us he certainly isn’t giving up any time soon. 

If you would like to win your way to a WPT Main Event on ClubWPT.com click on the link below for all the details.