By Sean Chaffin
There were 30 bounty players in the field when the WPT bestbet Bounty Scramble got underway, but now all have been eliminated. However, there is still plenty of poker left at the final table – with six players hoping to take home $331,480 in first-place cash and become the newest addition to the WPT Champions Club.
Along with the cash, the WPT bestbet winner takes home 1,000 points in the Hublot Player of the Year race, a $15,000 seat in the season-ending WPT Tournament of Champions, and some nice bragging rights in one of the most popular events on the schedule. The final table will be streamed on WPT.com and here’s a look at the final six players who will be in action when the cards get in the air at 2:30 p.m. ET.
Seat 1: Josh Adkins – 3,220,000
This marks the first WPT cash for this player from Tallahassee. Adkins continued working his chip stack up on Day 3 after ending the second day of action as the chip leader. In limited tournament action, Adkins has almost $23,000 in live tournament winnings. The biggest of that came in 2016 when he won in a $200 Card Player Poker Tour event at bestbet for $12,114.
Don’t confuse that lack of tournament cash with a lack of experience. This is by far the biggest buy-in this 26-year-old has ever played, but he has been a regular cash game player for several years. Here in Jacksonville, Adkins’ table skills have transferred well to the WPT tournament scene. He returns with a big stack of chips, he’ll be hoping to close out a win and add his name to the WPT Champions Cup.
Seat 2: Jonathan Cronin – 1,780,000
bestbet has been good to this 39-year-old player from Savannah, Georgia, and both his WPT cashes have come at this property. In March 2018, he took down a WPTDeepStacks event here, topping a field of 372 entries on his way to a score of $107,386. He also finished 27th in the Bounty Scramble in Season XV for $11,409. Cronin now has a chance to become only the second player to join the Champions Club and also be a WPTDeepStacks champion.
Beyond the WPT, Cronin has $202,749 in live tournament winnings including several other wins and final table appearances in events here at bestbet. Another nice score for Cronin came in 2017 when he finished runner-up in a $360 event for $19,000. Cronin knows what it takes to finish in a big tournament and has a WPT title now right in front of him. With his big stack of chips, he might be able to capture it.
Seat 3: Tan Nguyen – 2,680,000
Now with three WPT cashes under his belt, Nguyen is hoping his nice run of success here at bestbet continues at this final table. With almost $225,000 in live tournament winnings, the 29-year-old from the Jacksonville area has several nice scores throughout Florida and in Las Vegas. In Season XVI, Nguyen finished 10th in this event for $25,333 and finished 31st that same season in the L.A. Poker Classic for $27,830.
This summer, Nguyen chalked up a nice finish at the WSOP as well, finishing sixth in a $600 Deepstack for $77,418. In 2018, he also recorded a min-cash in the Main Event. Another nice cash came in 2014 when he took fourth in a $570 event at the Seminole Hard Rock. Nguyen rode a wave to the final table and is definitely not afraid to mix it up.
Seat 4: Jason Lee – 1,465,000
This player from the Jacksonville area is making his first WPT cash and has done so in style with a final table appearance. Lee, who is from the Jacksonville area, is a recreational player and a small business owner. The 39-year-old has more than $20,000 in live tournament winnings with several here at bestbet.
Lee has been playing poker for nine years and may be among the least experienced at this final table when it comes to major tournament poker. However, he enters the Bounty Scramble final six on a bit of a hot streak. In preliminary events, he finished third in a $240 event for $2,109 and took fourth in a $250 event for $3,573. He’ll need to gather some chips and bring his A-game.
Seat 5: Jeff Cunningham – 690,000
This 29-year-old player from Mooresville, North Carolina, recently made the transition from part-time cash game player to full-time cash game rounder – with a few tournaments mixed in as well. He previously worked as a Best Buy Geek Squad home theater installer and is married with two children. This is only his third major tournament, and he’s found success against some tough competition.
A couple recent nice tournament finishes motivated Cunningham to enter more events including the WPT bestbet Bounty Scramble. In August, he finished seventh in a $400 Monster Stack at the WSOP Circuit stop in Cherokee, North Carolina, for $14,137. He followed that up with a cash in a $570 event here at bestbet. Cunningham may be more of a cash game player, but has impressed with his instincts for the tournament game.
Seat 6: Josh Kay – 4,075,000
Even a sixth-place finish here at bestbet pushes Kay’s WPT earnings to more than $700,00, but as final table chip leader he’s definitely hoping for more than that. Kay, 32, has a WPT resumé that includes 14 cashes with one final table appearance, a third-place finish at WPT Choctaw in Season XVI for $270,801. He’s also had a few other nice scores – taking seventh at the Seminole Hard Rock WPT Finale in Season XV for $109,412, and taking 11th in Season XVI at the WPT Borgata Poker Open for $43,301.
Beyond the WPT, Kay this player from Delray Beach, Florida, has $1.7 million in live tournament winnings and has notched several five- and six-figure scores. His biggest finish came in 2015 at the Latin American Poker Tour-Bahamas Main Event where he took home the title and first-place cash of $367,928. With so much success on the WPT, he’s now looking to move to the next level with a WPT Champions Club membership.
Sean Chaffin is a freelance writer in Crandall, Texas, and his work appears in numerous websites and publications. Follow him on Twitter @PokerTraditions.