Day 2 came to a close on Saturday for the Season XV WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown $3,500 Championship, and 66 players remained in the hunt to make the official WPT final table of six. The chip leader at the end of play was Matt Affleck (pictured) with 1,893,000. Affleck eliminated multiple players down the stretch tonight, including Jared Jaffee and Anton Astapau.
Other top contenders above a million included Eric Beller (1,155,000) and Phil Hui (1,120,000), but Affleck really pulled away from even his closest contenders by making a big call to take out Garrett Greer in 67th place at the end of the night..
We caught up with Affleck at the end of play tonight, and he broke down the final hand of the night against Greer.
“I’m calling preflop because I thought Garett could be getting out of line,” Affleck said. “I have ace-queen, I really don’t want to four-bet … I have position in the hand, and I have a big stack where I can do some stuff post flop, so I decided to call. A seven-four-three flop shouldn’t change anything unless he has something like seven-six suited that he three-bet or something. If I’m calling with ace-queen preflop on that flop, I should never be folding. The flops I’m going to fold are going to be the king-high flops and stuff like that. And once I call too, my hand looks like queens, jacks, tens, so I don’t expect to get barreled too often on the turn, so I think it’s an easy play in position. My hand looks pretty strong.”
Affleck did call the flop, and then turn paired the board with another seven.
He continued: “The turn’s a seven, obviously a really good card. He checks, I check back, which I probably would if I had jacks or something too you know. And then the river’s a queen, which now the only hands that beat me that I’m concerned about are some weird seven that he checked to me, or aces or kings … He stuffs it for 310,000. I expect him to shove aces, but I have an ace, but kings, queens are a big part of my range. And if I have jacks I might not fold now, so it’s kind of weird for him to shove two kings. He might check kings now, because I had two queens a lot. So I have the best hand I can have other than three queens. So I’m not happy about it, but I call and he had king-queen, so a pretty good river for me.”
When asked about his strong run throughout the late stage of the evening, Affleck pointed out another key hand that gave him the bulk of his chips.
“That was a crazy last couple of hours,” Affleck said. “Some kid moved to the table, played a couple of hands, and then he opened under the gun to 22,000 at [5,000/10,000 blinds]. A guy who had been playing a lot of hands called. I had eight-seven of spades in the small blind and I almost squeezed because we’re only like 50-60 big blinds deep, so those hands don’t play as well. If they’re opening wide I could probably just take it down [preflop], but I decided just to call. Big blind calls, it comes eight-seven-two] with two diamonds, I lead since that flop gets checked through a lot, and there’s a lot of bad cards. Under the gun raises huge, too high. I led for 40,000 and he made it 200,000. I shove, he has like 550,000 or something. I shove and he calls pretty quickly, and he has the ten-two of diamonds that he opened under the gun. Somehow I have to fade a 50-50 with the top two, which is a joke (laughs), and I held. An orbit before that I had kings versus Jaffee’s jacks, so I went from 500,000 to to 1,600,000 in like three orbits.”
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In addition to the interview with Affleck to end the day, we chatted with Jason Mercier about playing on his home turf and some of the big things happening in his life off the felt. We also talked with the other Mike Sexton playing in the field today in alongside WPT Co-Commentator Mike Sexton.
Here is a look at the top 10 chip counts at the end of play:
1. Matt Affleck – 1,893,000
2. Eric Beller – 1,155,000
3. Phil Hui – 1,120,000
4. Ubaid Habib – 1,061,000
5. Robert Mizrachi – 1,038,000
6. Dietrich Fast – 1,020,000
7. Brandon Caputo – 1,004,000
8. Chad Eveslage – 930,000
9. Kelly Minkin – 873,000
10. Lance Howard – 849,000
Other notables that still hold chips include Daniel Colman, Erik Seidel, Nipun Java, Vlad Mezheritsky, Bryn Kenney, Daniel Strelitz, Darryll Fish, Ken Aldridge, John Gordon, Byron Kaverman, Shankar Pillai, Millard Hale, Jake Schwartz, Ankush Mandavia, Taylor Paur, James Mackey, Taylor Von Kriegenbergh, Tyler Kenney, Chris Klodnicki, Praytush Buddiga, Scott Baumstein, Jason Mercier, Joe Elpayaa, and Wally Madah.
Hublot WPT Player of the Year points leader Benjamin Zamani fell in 101st place tonight, but the min-cash gave him an even larger lead in the POY race. The only other contender left in the field that can catch him is Daniel Strelitz, who bagged up 690,000. Strelitz would need to win this event to catch Zamani.
The money bubble burst when 151 players remained this evening, and we hit that milestone just after 8:30 p.m. local time. Fermin Micheo was eliminated on the money bubble by Mezheritsky, and after that every player remaining was guaranteed at least $5,002.
ClubWPT qualifier Glenn Groper unfortunately did not make it to the money today. His ace-king fell to pocket tens in a hand where all the money got into the middle preflop.
Notables that cashed on Day 2 included Ryan Hughes (149th), Zo Karim (138th), Blake Bohn (137th), Scott Davies (132nd), Phong “VIP” Nguyen (130th), Alex Foxen (129th), Frank Flowers (126th), Nancy Birnbaum (121st), Matthew Wantman (116th), Tim Reilly (111th), Jason Koon (107th), Matt Haugen (106th), Michael Sexton (91st), Jared Jaffee (90th), Mohsin Charania (84th), Michael Laake (74th), Mimi Luu (70th), Matt Glantz (69th), and Greer (67th).
Day 3 begins at 12 p.m. ET on Sunday. Return to WPT.com at that time for continuing coverage of all the action at the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown.
Looking to win your way to a World Poker Tour event for your shot at becoming a WPT champion? Play for your chance on ClubWPT.com, where eligible VIP Members can play for over $100,000 in cash and prizes each month, including seats to WPT events, no purchase necessary.