WPT Seminole Hard Rock Lucky Hearts Poker Open, Day 3 Recap

By BJ Nemeth

Ivan Schertzer was down to his final three big blinds with 25 players left, and hoped a photo with Royal Flush Girls Brittany Bell (left) and Jeannie Duffy would give him some luck. Unfortunately, it didn’t work, and he was eliminated soon after. At least he survived through the money bubble, earning $8,629.

Justin Zaki (center), who final tabled last season’s WPT event here at the Seminole Hard Rock Casino, found himself in a tough spot with 22 players left. Bernard Lubitz (left) raised, Zaki called, and Todd Jacobson (right) moved all in. Lubitz called all in, and Zaki faced a decision for all his chips.

Zaki eventually folded, claiming to have "two black jacks." Lubitz turned over [QcQh], and Jacobson showed [AdKs]. The board came [AcJd10h10s10d], and Jacobson paired his ace on the flop to win with a full house, eliminating Lubitz in 22nd place.

Even though other players assured Zaki he made the correct play by folding, if he had called, he would have won the pot and more than doubled up. Unfortunately, Zaki was eliminated a few minutes later in 21st place.

With 13 players remaining, Keith Ferrera (far left) three-bet all in after a flop of [Qc10c9h] against Todd Jacobson (far right). Ferrera had the lead with [10d10h] (middle set), while Jacobson had [QsJd] for top pair with an open-ended straight draw.

The turn was the [As], and both players watch as the dealer puts out the [8d] on the river — giving Jacobson a queen-high straight to win the pot and double up in chips.

With 11 players remaining, Alex Ivanov (far left) raised, Gigi Gagne (center left) reraised, and Keith Ferrera (foreground right) four-bet it to 200,000. Ivanov moved all in for nearly 400,000, and Gagne tanked for a while before she called. Ferrera took a minute before he called behind — 60 big blinds in the pot before the flop.

The flop came [Qc9s3s], Ferrera checked, Gagne moved all in, and Ferrera folded. Ivanov showed [JcJs], but Gagne turned over [KcQs] for a pair of queens. (She’s pointing to her queen in the photo.)

The turn was the [5s], the river was the [6d], and Gigi Gagne won a huge pot to take a massive chip lead into the final 10-handed table.

Gigi Gagne smiles and poses with her massive pile of chips before moving to the final 10-handed table. With nearly 2.6 million in chips, she had 80 big blinds more than anyone else.

The final 10 players, in seat order: (1) Matt Juttelstad, (2) Victor Heffesse, (3) Gigi Gagne, (4) Uri Kadosh (away from his seat), (5) Keith Ferrera, (6) Sharon Levin, (7) Omar Sider, (8) Todd Jacobson, (9) Hal Klein, and (10) Harrison Gimbel.

While Matt Juttelstad didn’t go wire-to-wire as chipleader, he was never very far from the top of the leaderboard after winning a big pot late on Day 1B. Juttelstad was the overall chipleader heading into Day 2, Day 3, and is second in chips going to the final table.

Juttelstad stopped playing poker after Black Friday hit on April 15, 2011, and this is his first major event since. You wouldn’t know he was out of practice by the poise and the polish that he’s shown this week.

With 10 players left, Harrison Gimbel (left) doubled thru Victor Heffesse (far right). All in preflop, Gimbel’s [10c10d] flopped an unnecessary set against Heffesse’s [9d9h] on a board of [10h6s2s8cKc].

One hand after doubling up Harrison Gimbel, Victor Heffesse (seated, top left), got it all in preflop with [7c7s] against the [QcQh] of Sharon Levin (second from right). The board came [10s6d2hQd6c], and Levin won the pot with a set of queens to eliminate Heffesse in 10th place. Uri Kadosh (standing) offers a handshake of congradudolence to Heffesse.

With seven players remaining and less than 150,000 in the pot on a board of [KsQh2d7s], chipleader Gigi Gagne (left) moves all in, easily covering Keith Ferrera (right), even though he has more than a million in chips himself.

Gagne, who was still busy stacking chips from a previous pot, moved all in as if it had been an afterthought. Ferrera could only smile to himself as he folded.

Short stack Omar Sider (standing, right) moved all in after a preflop raise from Sharon Levin (seated, center). Levin tanked for about a minute before he folded.

Five hands later, Sider got it all in preflop with [JhJs] against the [AcKh] of Matt Juttelstad. The board came [Ad8d8h6h7d], and Juttelstad paired his ace on the flop to win the pot and eliminate Omar Sider in 7th place on the WPT Final Table bubble.

The final seven players fill out their WPT bio sheets before getting bagging and tagging their chips.
Here are the official chip counts for the WPT Final Table:

Seat 1.  Matt Juttelstad  –  1,651,000  (138 BBs)
Seat 2.  Gigi Gagne  –  2,708,000  (226 BBs)
Seat 3.  Uri Kadosh  –  1,470,000  (123 BBs)
Seat 4.  Keith Ferrera  –  1,094,000  (91 BBs)
Seat 5.  Sharon Levin  –  1,208,000  (101 BBs)
Seat 6.  Todd Jacobson  –  718,000  (60 BBs)

The WPT Final Table begins Tuesday (Valentine’s Day) at 1:00 pm ET, and the action will be streamed nearly live — with holecards — on a 30-minute delay, and Mike Sexton, Tony Dunst, and Dan O’Brien will be on hand to provide commentary.

As always, all of the hand-for-hand action will be posted here in the WPT Live Updates, with every check, bet, call, raise, and fold from the first hand until the final river card.