The final table of the Season XVI WPT Lucky Hearts Poker Open Championship is set and it’s Aleksandr Shevelev leading the final six players in competition for the $511,604 first-place prize.
Tuesday’s Day 4 saw 14 players from a 911-entry field return to action at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. Rainer Kemper was the first to bust in 14th place, and he was followed out the door by Song Pham in 13th, Almog Biton in 12th, David Liu in 11th, and Mike Chiappetta in 10th.
Ness Reilly began the final table of nine as the chip leader, and she’s coming off an impressive eighth-place finish from the recent WPTDeepStacks Hollywood event that attracted 1,366 entries just a few days prior. She started to increase her lead and move away from the pack, but then Shevelev knocked out John Dolan in ninth place to narrow the gap.
After falling out of the lead, Reilly got some chips back when she busted Mario Prats Gracia in eighth place. The official WPT final table bubble was upon us, and one player needed to go home to end play for the day.
The player to bust in seventh was Nick Schwarmann, who fell at the hands of Alan Krockey. Schwarmann’s pocket sixes couldn’t hold up against the 
of Krockey, and Schwarmann took home $80,771.
With the official final table set, Shevelev was locked in as the chip leader with a stack of 6.96 million. Reilly came in behind him with 6.295 million, and then Darryll Fish was in third with 5.92 million. The shortest stack amongst the final six was WPT Champions Club member Andy Frankenberger, who will enter Wednesday’s final day of play with 2.17 million.
Below is the seat draw for the start of the final table.
Seat 1: Brett Bader – 3,160,000 (53 bb)
Seat 2: Darryll Fish – 5,920,000 (99 bb)
Seat 3: Alan Krockey – 2,810,000 (47 bb)
Seat 4: Aleksandr Shevelev – 6,960,000 (116 bb)
Seat 5: Andy Frankenberger – 2,170,000 (36 bb)
Seat 6: Ness Reilly – 6,295,000 (105 bb)
The final table is scheduled to begin at 12 p.m. local time on Wednesday, with all remaining players guaranteed a payout of $104,784. There will be a live stream of the event starting at 12:30 p.m.
Photography by Joe Giron / PokerPhotoArchive.com
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