WPT bestbet Jacksonville Fall Poker Scramble, Day 1B Recap

By BJ Nemeth

Here’s a look back at a couple of highlights from Day 1B of the WPT bestbet Jacksonville Fall Poker Scramble.

Dwyte Pilgrim (left) and Daniel Negreanu pose as another player at their table takes a photo.

Negreanu had just bought in for the fourth time — twice on Day 1A, and twice on Day 1B. With $14,000 invested into this $3,500 buy-in tournament, Negreanu will need to finish 15th or higher in order to break even.

Royal Flush Girl Tugba Ercan is featured on the bestbet casino sign, announcing the $500,000 guaranteed prizepool for this event. As you’ll see in a moment, the actual prizepool is much, much higher.

As expected, Day 1B attracted more entrants than Day 1A, creating a total field size of 477 players, and a prizepool worth $1,526,400. The top 45 players will finish in the money, and first prize is worth $402,970.

Longtime friends Amanda Musumeci and Matt Stout were seated side-by-side for most of the day. Both players survived to Day 2.

Tim Nguyen qualified into this World Poker Tour event by winning a mega satellite on ClubWPT.com. Nguyen received an entire travel package that included his tournament entry fee. Unfortunately, Nguyen wasn’t able to parlay his satellite victory, as he was eliminated late on Day 1B.

Jason Mercier’s day got off to a less-than-stellar start, as he arrived a few levels into play dressed to fully support his Miami Hurricanes. The only problem was that the Miami game was already over — and they had lost. Virginia scored a touchdown with six seconds left to defeat Miami by one point.

Ouch.

As for Mercier, he was eliminated about two hours after the dinner break. It just wasn’t his day.

Mark Rose took a big lead early, crossing the 200,000-chip mark in the middle of the day. Rose finished the day second on the leaderboard, as his 245,300 was just a little bit shy of chipleader John Racener’s 250,300.

Lisa Hamilton final tabled this event a year ago, finishing third to earn $112,657. Hamilton got off to a slow start early, but as her chip stack built higher, she started having more and more fun. Hamilton finished the day in the top 10 with 168,000 in chips.

Mark Stephen Edwards won a WPT Regional Series event here in Jacksonville, just two months ago, earning $107,730. Edwards is now taking his shot at a full WPT title, and survived to Day 2 with 109,200 in chips.

With the board showing [Jd6h5s10d4h], Dwyte Pilgrim (left) made a big bet on the river, and Daniel Negreanu (center) tanked for a couple of minutes before Pilgrim called the clock.

Negreanu said he felt that Pilgrim had flopped a set of sixes, and he eventually folded K-K face up. Pilgrim teased Negreanu by showing only one card — the [6s] — as he took the pot.

Ed Blount survived Day 1A with 73,200 in chips (45 big blinds), but felt that he could improve on that, so he re-entered the tournament on Day 1B. It was a surprising move, but Blount made the most of it, finishing Day 1B with 161,500 (100 big blinds). Blount will only get to carry the larger chip stack forward to Day 2.

As the day got longer, more and more notable players were moved to Table 58, creating what would have been a TV-friendly featured table. Players included Tony Dunst (seat 1), Amanda Musumeci (seat 2), Matt Stout (seat 3), Jonathan Little (seat 4), Chad Batista (seat 5), Todd Terry (seat 7), and Nick Grippo (seat 8).

Tommy Vedes was the last player to enter this tournament — his plane landed in Jacksonville shortly before registration closed at 4:45 pm. But Vedes called ahead to register over the phone, and his chip stack was put in play to blind off until he arrived.

Unfortunately, the two-time WPT winner wasn’t able to get much momentum going, and he was eliminated late on Day 1B.

Here’s a look at the top of the leaderboard from Day 1B:

1.  John Racener  –  250,300  (156 bb)
2.  Mark Rose  –  245,300  (90 bb)
3.  George Sinishtaj  –  205,200  (128 bb)
4.  Raj Vohra  –  202,400  (126 bb)
5.  Pavlos Savouidakis  –  194,200  (121 bb)
6.  Shon Mekyten  –  188,200  (117 bb)
7.  Hiren Patel  –  186,100  (116 bb)
8.  Paul Rushing  –  171,700  (107 bb)
9.  Lisa Hamilton  –  168,800  (105 bb)
10.  Taylor Moore  –  165,000  (103 bb)

Day 2 begins today at 12:00 noon ET. Stay tuned to WPT.com for live coverage and chip counts throughout the day.