David Levy Leads 167 Players on Day 1B of WPT Lucky Hearts Poker Open

By Tim Duckworth

The second stop of 2020 for Season XVIII is the WPT Lucky Hearts Poker Open from the Seminole Hard Rock in Hollywood, Florida. With a $2 million guaranteed prize pool, and two starting flights, Day 1B attracted a total of 420 entrants and saw just 167 players survive into Day 2 on Sunday.

Following ten levels of play, it would be David Levy (pictured) topping the leaderboard to finish the day with 344,500 in chips. Hailing from Denver, Colorado, Levy has amassed over $164,000 in lifetime tournament earnings including most recently a third-place finish in the $400 Pot-Limit Omaha event a few days ago. On the WPT, Levy has a 42nd-place finish at WPTDeepStacks Hustler for $1,925.

“I just grew my stack slowly, step by step, and then I picked off a big, big bluff,” Levy said. “I had pocket aces and I three bet preflop he called. The flop came king high with two clubs, and I led out. He raised me on the flop, I called, and another king came on the turn. I checked this time, he bet 25,000, and I called. The river was a blank and he just went all in. I thought for a couple of minutes and called and he just had 6-5 offsuit. And that was like a 150,000 pot.”

The majority of Levy’s results dating back to 2012 have occurred in the Los Angeles area, or Black Hawk, Colorado, with a few results in Las Vegas and other states.

On Levy’s decision to make his way to Florida was based on the Winter weather, “It’s just so cold over there. Here the weather is great, I love the venue the people are so nice, the WPT staff are great and so are their events. I love playing these events.”

“I’m just going to play my game really,” Levy said when discussing heading into Day 2 with a big stack. “I will change it from hand to hand depending on my table. Sometimes I’ll be tight sometimes aggressive. Over the years I’ve gotten the experience. I hope this time it’s going to be great for me.”

Sitting on the heels of Levy is Barbaro Diaz (312,500), John Dollinger (298,000), and Michael Duek (295,000). Rounding out the top chip counts include Mario Hudson, Donys Agnelli, Tim Vance, and WPT Champions Club member James Calderaro (pictured) who ended with 231,500.

Others to survive into Day 2 include WPT Champions Club members Eric Afriat, Craig Varnell, Ryan Van Sanford, Geoffrey Hum, Andy Frankenberger, Mike Vela, Marvin Rettenmaier, and Andjelko Andrejevic. Also still in contention is former WPT Player of the Year Mukul Pahuja, and WPTDeepStacks champion Faraz Jaka.

With the two flights combining on Day 2, a total of 318 players will return on Sunday from the 823-entrant field. Those 823 entrants created a prize pool of $2,697,600 that will pay the final 106 players a guaranteed $5,666 payday.

Reaching the WPT Lucky Hearts Poker Open final table of six players will earn each player a guaranteed $98,686 payday. For the player who can navigate their way to the top spot, they will take home the $482,636 first-place prize which includes a seat into the season-ending $15,000 buy-in Baccarat Crystal WPT Tournament of Champions, along with having the honor of his or her name engraved on the WPT Champions Cup.

The 318 players that return for Day 2, they will be playing ten 60-minute levels with a dinner break after the sixth level of the day for 90-minutes. The money is expected to be reached after dinner, along with having the Action Clock by Protection Poker installed across all tables that will give players only 30 seconds to act on their hand unless they use a time extension.

Day 2 of the WPT Lucky Hearts Poker Open begins at 12 p.m. (ET) on Sunday, January 19, with continuous live updates being provided by the World Poker Tour. Stay tuned right here to WPT.com for the exclusive live coverage of the tournament from start to finish to see who becomes the WPT Lucky Hearts Poker Open, and wins his or her way to the season-ending Baccarat Crystal WPT Tournament of Champions.

Photography by Melissa Haereiti / PokerPhotoArchive

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