122 entries plopped down $5,000 to register for Day 1a of the WPT Gardens Poker Festival at the Gardens Casino in Hawaiian Gardens, CA. Cord Garcia (pictured) took the early initiative in the five-day event by bagging 265,700 to lead the 56 players who advanced. Garcia called his shot earlier in the day in his pursuit of the Hublot WPT Player of the Year honors, and took a strong first step toward achieving the lofty goal.
Anyone want to make @wpt POY bets slide in. About to get this WPT monkey off my back. Looking for hu whoever scores higher. You gotta bet on yourself. Not letting you come up off me from your couch taking Elias.
— Cord Garcia (@Cord_Garcia_) July 20, 2019
“I came in about an hour and a half late,” Garcia mentioned regarding the start of his Day 1a. “It was fine, I played 30 minutes until the first break and I had about a starting stack. Then I caught some hands and things just went right. Things went pretty smooth.”
Throughout the day, Garcia proceeded to eliminate Zachary Donovan and Andrew Moreno along with, according to Garcia, a few other players to keep him at the top of the leaderboard for the latter part of the night.
The WPT Gardens Poker Festival format allows for a single re-entry each day and Garcia is pleased to have saved $5,000 for the time being.
“I’m happy that I’m only in for one bullet. That’s most important. The chip lead is obviously a good consolation, but I’m just glad not in for more than one bullet.”
Following up behind Garcia are Straton Wilhelm (244,300), Jeff Madsen (205,800), Bradley Hinson (183,900), and Bryce Yockey (180,300).
WPT Champions Club members who are on to Monday’s Day 2 include Daniel Strelitz (153,800), Jordan Cristos (96,900), Jared Jaffee (81,300), Adam Weinraub (51,700), Mohsin Charania (37,500), Anthony Zinno (37,400), Matthew Wantman (24,600), and Aaron Mermelstein (17,600).
Weinraub (pictured) is in the midst of a major media blitz to promote the upcoming film 7 Days to Vegas that stars WPT Commentator Vince Van Patten. WPT’s Sean Chaffin wrote about Weinraub, the film, and the efforts to promote during the WPT Gardens Poker Festival.
A few other notables with their name written on a plastic bag full of chips include Ray Qartomy (92,300), Maria Ho (76,700), and Season XVII WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic runner-up Milos Skrbic (29,500).
Full chip counts can be found here.
Day 1b starts at 12 p.m. local time with another 8 60-minute levels queued up. Registration remains open until the start of Level 11 on Monday’s Day 2.
Stay tuned to WPT.com for continued coverage of the WPT Gardens Poker Festival to see who becomes the first WPT Champion of Season XVIII.
Photography by Joe Giron / PokerPhotoArchive
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