A fast-paced day in Jacksonville, FL leaves only 17 players to fight for six final table spots in the WPT bestbet Bounty Scramble from the 356 who entered. Season XVI WPT Rolling Thunder final tablist Ping Liu is the chip leader with 2.566 million following a surge up the leaderboard after the money bubble.
Liu is a self-described cash game professional based in Los Angeles, but his $742,000 in tournament earnings suggest he is at home on the tournament side of the felt. Along with his final table at Thunder Valley, Liu is a veteran of six WPT cashes, including this week at bestbet.
The big hand of the day for Liu came versus Ari Engel. Liu bet all three streets on a 
board and showed up with 
when Engel called him on the river. Liu earned close to 1 million chips in the hand and never looked back.
“Things went well pretty much all day,” said Liu. ” I got some good hands in some spots. I’m just focused on closing this thing out.”
WPT bestbet Bounty Scramble Day 3 Leaderboard
1. Ping Liu – 2,566,000
2. Jake Schwartz – 1,406,000
3. Dominique Mosley – 1,352,000
4. Harrison Gimbel – 1,320,000
5. Harpreet Padda – 1,238,000
6. Adam Ross – 1,006,000
7. Brian Altman – 986,000
8. Kelly Minkin – 884,000
9. Talesh Patel – 631,000
10. Michael Chow – 451,000
11. Filipp Khavin – 432,000
12. Justin Liberto – 408,000
13. Tony Tran – 406,000
14. Ray Qartomy – 403,000
15. Steven Rash – 382,000
16. Tim Burt – 212,000
17. Sam Panzica – 160,000
Liu was the chip leader at the end of Day 1a at WPT Maryland and was eliminated in 26th place. He’s already bettered that finish at the WPT bestbet Bounty Scramble and is looking to make his second WPT final table.
“Anything can happen in these things, so I’m just trying to stay focused and not think too far ahead,” Liu added.
The leaderboard behind Liu is loaded with talent and accolades. Neck-and-neck for second and third place is Florida’s Jake Schwartz and Dominique Mosley. Schwartz final tabled the WPT bestbet Bounty Scramble in Season XIV and held the chip lead for part of today. Mosley is a professional player who plays tournaments on occasion and is in the money for the seventh time on the WPT.
Three Champions Club members are left standing, including one who is quite fond of bestbet. Season XV WPT bestbet winner Sam Panzica took second place last season and is alive, but short-stacked, heading into Day 3. Brian Altman and Harrison Gimbel both hold above-average stacks and have nothing but their second title in mind.
Kelly Minkin, Day 1a chip leader Justin Liberto, and Ray Qartomy are the other three past WPT final tablists still in the hunt. Filipp Khavin owns a title from Season II of WPTDeepStacks when he won the WPTDS Immokalee event.
45 players made the money at bestbet from the 126 who entered the day’s action. Among them was start of Day 2 chip leader Steven Snyder, who fell in 27th place. Others who fell along the wayside include Engel (18th), Matt Glantz (22nd), Jessica Dawley, who was last bounty standing for the second season in a row (29th), Champions Club member James Calderaro (41st), and Justin Zaki (42nd).
Day 3 of the WPT bestbet Bounty Scramble starts at 12 p.m. local time with 90-minute levels in store until the final table of six is reached. All 17 players have locked up at least $19,245 but the $341,486 first-place prize, a seat into the season-ending WPT Tournament of Champions, along with 1,000 Hublot Player of the Year points is what everyone has their eye on. Any player who makes the final table earns at least $60,981.
Stay tuned to WPT.com for continued coverage of the World Poker Tour, starting with Day 3 of the WPT bestbet Bounty Scramble on Monday.
Photography by Joe Giron / PokerPhotoArchive.com
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