In Season X of the World Poker Tour, one of the most entertaining and memorable heads-up battles of the season was the Jacksonville showdown between Shawn Cunix and James Calderaro. In the end, Cunix prevailed, but Calderaro would go on to win his own title in Florida two seasons later.
Now, here in New Jersey, we might just see a rematch of that heads-up showdown given the way Day 3 of this tournament went. Cunix is the runaway chipleader with 4,195,000, but Calderaro is fourth in the counts with 2,222,000. Though, there is still a ways to go before we even reach the final table, let alone heads-up action, as 27 contenders still remain in the hunt for the Borgata Winter Poker Open title.
When the day began, that number was at 136, but the bust outs came quickly early in the day, with players like past Winter Poker Open champ Andy Hwang, Shannon Shorr, Team partypoker Pro Jamie Kerstetter, reigning WPT Player of the Year Mukul Pahuja, and Cliff Josephy.
The money bubble came so quickly that it was actually over before most players even realized it. As multiple all-in situations played out, including that of Hwang, who finished in 92nd place, and eventual bubble boy Maruti Yarlapati, hand-for-hand didn’t even get started before the final 90 players were in the money.
Once the bubble burst, the eliminations came quickly with notables like Shaun Deeb (89th), Tyler Kenney (77th), Athanasios Polychronopoulos (71st), Vinny Pahuja (68th), Champions Club member Jared Jaffee (67th), WPT commentator and partypoker Ambassador Mike Sexton (66th), Champions Club member Ravi Raghavan (63rd), and actor James Woods (59th) all hitting the rail before the dinner break.
While things slowed for many players after the dinner break, things only sped up for Cunix, as he busted several players in cooler situations to run his stack up over 3 million and prompt Cunix to tell his friend Calderaro, “It’s like Hanukkah!”
As the day wore on though, players refused to go out without a fight and it took until after 1am before the final three tables were set. Along the way, Season X WPT Player of the Year Andy Frankenberger (40th), David Tuthill (37th), and Chris Klodnicki (34th) hit the rail. The last elimination of the day was Zhen Cai, whose inferior ace couldn’t beat that of Bruce Yamron’s Big Slick, so he busted in 28th place.
In addition to Calderaro and Cunix, the other notables left in the field include past WPT Ones to Watch Loni Harwood and Aaron Massey, East Coast poker legend Eugene Todd, Esther Taylor-Brady, Kevin Calenzo, and Aaron Steury.
Here is a look at the top five counts heading into Day 4, which begins at 12:00 ET on Thursday:
1. Shawn Cunix – 4,195,000 (174 bb)
2. Randy Pfeifer – 2,493,000 (103 bb)
3. Phillippe Belley – 2,260,000 (94 bb)
4. James Calderaro – 2,222,000 (92 bb)
5. Justin Liberto – 2,051,000 (85 bb)
Photos by Joe Giron