Nick Raio Leads Day 1B of WPT bestbet Bounty Scramble; 73 Survive into Day 2

By Tim Duckworth

Season XVIII of the World Poker Tour continued on to Jacksonville, Florida, for the WPT bestbet Bounty Scramble from bestbet Jacksonville. Day 1B attracted a field of 195 entries, and after ten levels of play, just 73 players remained with Nick Raio (pictured above) bagging the chip lead with 303,500.

The 40-year-old Jacksonville resident and business owner has over $121,000 in lifetime tournament earnings, and on the World Poker Tour Raio collected a cash at the recent WPTDeepStacks Jacksonville, and the Season XVII WPT Seminole Rock ‘N’ Roll Poker Open to have just north of $11,000 in WPT tournament earnings. Raio catapulted up the leaderboard in the middle stages of the day when he eliminated WPT Champions Club member James Romero. After a raising war preflop, Raio would see his pocket queens hold up against Romero’s ace-king. From then on, Raio continually picked up pots before ending the day as the only player above the 300,000-chip mark.

On finishing the day as chip leader, Raio said, “It feels pretty awesome. Quite a few times I’ve had the chip lead and I didn’t get as far as I wanted. I’d get in the money, but didn’t get as deep as I wanted. It happened twice in Hollywood [at the Seminole Hard Rock] last year. I was chip leader coming back with 1,500 people and also at an HPT event. I came back with a monster chip lead in both and still pretty much ended with a min-cash.”

Raio’s finish with 303,500 sees him second overall behind Day 1A chip leader Ashraf Chehata who bagged 359,500. Sitting behind Raio on Day 1B is WPT Champions Club member Larry Greenberg (288,000), Lindell King (240,000), WPT Champions Club member Sam Panzica (224,500), Ray Qartomy (210,500), Josh Kay (206,000), and WPT Champions Club member James Carroll (201,500) as the only players above the 200,000-chip threshold.

Greenberg (pictured above) held the chip lead for the majority of the final levels of the day as he continuously battled with Qartomy. Up until the final few hands, the Season XVI WPT Bellagio Elite Poker Championship winner would have his eyes locked on the Day 1B chip lead until Raio snatched it away.

Players still in contention include WPT Champions Club members Jonathan Jaffe (175,000), Nabil Hirezi (122,500), Matas Cimbolas (85,000), and James Calderaro (40,000), along with WPTDeepStacks champion Jonathan Cronin (130,500). Also still in the mix are bestbet bounties Calderaro, Jessica Dawley, Jamie Kerstetter, Kitty Kuo, and Matt Glantz, who will join Day 1A bestbet bounties Mike Sexton, Anthony Zinno, Frank Stepuchin, Marvin Rettenmaier, Loni Harwood, Ari Engel, Byron Kaverman, and Jake Schwartz – which leaves 14 bestbet bounties and the $2,500 reward for each available.

The 349-entrant field is down to the final 122 players (50 from Day 1A and 73 from Day 1B – Curt Kohlberg bagged in both flights) returning for Day 2 action. When play resumes, levels will continue at 60-minutes in duration until the 60-minute dinner break is taken after Level 16; approximately 6:30 p.m. (ET). When play resumes, levels will be increased to 90-minutes in duration and there will be three more levels remaining in the day, with the scheduled end-of-play being around 12:30 a.m. (ET).

Day 2 of the Season XVIII WPT bestbet Bounty Scramble begins on Sunday, October 13, at 12 p.m. (ET) 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 bestbet Bounty Scramble champion, and wins his or her way to the season-ending WPT Tournament of Champions.

Photography by Joe Giron / PokerPhotoArchive

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