WPT Jacksonville, Day 1A Recap

By BJ Nemeth

We couldn’t hear what David "The Dragon" Pham (left) was whispering to Allen Kessler, but Pham was having a great day on the felt, finishing the day fifth in chips. Perhaps Pham was telling Kessler the secret to accumulating more than $8.2 million in career earnings, and reaching seven televised WPT final tables. Unfortunately for Kessler, he busted in the final minutes of the day, but he plans to re-enter on Day 1B.

The day begin at noon with the WPT’s Vince Van Patten welcoming the players and giving the traditional "Shuffle up and deal." From left to right: Royal Flush Girl Angelique Velez, Deborah Giardina (Executive Director of Poker for the Orange Park Poker Room), Vince Van Patten, Tony Dunst (Raw Deal Analyst and Live Streaming Commentator), and Royal Flush Girl Ivy Teves.

By the time Jason Mercier (foreground right) arrived in Level 2, multiple WPT winner Jonathan Little (top left) had nearly tripled his chip stack from 30,000 to 88,000. Little had flopped a set of sevens against Todd Terry’s pocket aces to bust Terry, and the next hand, Little picked up aces of his own to win another big pot.

Will "The Thrill" Failla was a little late to the WPT event, because he was busy winning the final preliminary event ($560 No-Limit Hold’em). Failla has been on a heater since the summer, and doesn’t look ready to cool down anytime soon.

Since Florida allows 18-21 year olds to play poker, the Poker Room at Orange Park Kennel Club has added a prize for the last player standing from the 18-21 demographic — the customized surfboard seen above. Even if you’re not a surfer, it’ll make a very unique trophy.

The customized surfboard trophy is on display over the entrance to the poker room.

New Royal Flush Girls Angelique Velez (center) and Ivy Teves (right) play a casual game of hold’em with a few fans at the Royal Flush Girl Social Bar.

Matthew Selman is another player in the field with a lot of chips who is fresh off a victory in one of the prelim events. Selman won Event #4 ($340 No-Limit Hold’em with Bounties) a couple of days ago. In the WPT event, Selman finished Day 1A strong with 93,900.

Abbey Daniels is the only woman to ever final table a WPT event in the state of Florida — she finished fourth in last season’s WPT Seminole Hard Rock Showdown near Miami, earning $286,819. There were five women in the Day 1A field, including Lisa Hamilton and WSOP Ladies champion Marsha Wolak.

A handful of pros in the field were passing the time between hands by playing Chinese poker on their iPads. Here, Jeanine Deeb helps John Racener set up the app on his iPad.

Tony Dunst is scheduled to be providing commentary on the WPT Final Table Live Stream, but he would like to be too busy playing at the final table. Dunst finished Day 1A in the middle of the pack with 52,700.

From left to right: Darryll Fish and former WPT winners Tommy Vedes and Dwyte Pilgrim. Fish finished among the top 10 in chips with 135,400, and Pilgrim is well above average with 95,400. Unfortunately, Vedes busted late in the day, but he’ll have a chance to re-enter on Day 1B.

Matthew Jarvis was near the top of the leaderboard for a while, and busted a player in the final few hands to finish the day as chipleader with 190,300. Jarvis was also named the ClubWPT Player of the Day.

In addition to the glory and the prize money, the players are battling to get their name on the WPT Champions Cup, which travels around with the tour. Each WPT winner also receives a smaller version to take home — this WPT Champions Trophy.

There were about 85 survivors from Day 1A, and they will have the day off on Saturday before returning for Day 2 on Sunday. Here’s an unofficial look at the top of the leaderboard:

1. Matthew Jarvis – 190,300
2. Eli Gomez – 181,300
3. Shaun Deeb – 174,900
4. Robert LeBeau – 170,000
5. David "The Dragon" Pham – 165,600

Players who busted on Day 1A have the option of re-entering on Day 1B, which begins Saturday at 12:00 noon ET. Registration remains open until the end of Level 4, and we should have the official prize pool information sometime shortly after that.

However, the $500,000 guarantee has already been passed, and there’s a definite possibility of a $1 million prizepool.

Stay tuned to WPT.com for live coverage throughout the day.