2013 World Poker Tour Seminole Hard Rock Showdown Day 1b: Deeb Dominates

April 13, 2013

Chad Holloway PR & Media Manager

The 2013 World Poker Tour Seminole Hard Rock Showdown continued on Friday with Day 1b action from the Hard Rock Casino in Hollywood, Florida. On Thursday, the $5,000 Main Event attracted 205 runners, and by the time registration closed on Day 1b, 337 others had joined them for a total field of 542 entrants, which created a prize pool of $2,547,400. From that, the winner will receive $660,395. After 10 levels of play, Shaun Deeb emerged as the chip leader with 235,400.

Top 10 Day 1b Counts

Place	Player	Prize
1	Shaun Deeb	235,400
2	David Diaz	191,400
3	Matthew Mendez	185,700
4	Gil Morgensztern	173,400
5	Ben Hamnett	171,000
6	Roberto Alberro	170,400
7	Micah Smith	169,100
8	Corey Burbick	166,400
9	Paul Volpe	161,300
10	Mark Sandness	156,100

The WPT Seminole Hard Rock Showdown was a re-entry event, and plenty of players took advantage including the defending champ, Tommy Vedes. Unfortunately for him, his second bullet wouldn’t amount to anything. In Level 7 with the blinds at 250/500/75, Vedes got his stack all in on a 10♠8♦5♠4♣ board holding the 6♦7♦ and was ahead of his opponent’s 5♣5♦. The 10♣ paired the board on the river to give his opponent a full house, and Vedes was sent to the rail.

Another player to fall was Cory Zeidman, who was eliminated by Deeb during the last four hands of the night. According to the WPT Live Updates Team, it happened in Level 10 (500/1,000/100) with a board reading J♦J♣6♦5♥. Zeidman had checked to Deeb, who bet 6,500. Zeidman woke up with a check-raise to 15,000, Deeb three-bet to approximately 50,000, and Zeidman called off.

Deeb: 6♠6♣
Zeidman: J♠3♣

Seidman had flopped trip jacks, but it was no good as Deeb had flopped a full house. The 10♥ river failed to help Zeidman and he was sent packing while Deeb used the hand to finish with the biggest stack in the room.

Others who hit the rail on Day 1b were Noah Schwartz, Will “The Thrill” Failla, Tom Marchese, Brian Hastings, Andy Frankenberger, Kurt Jewell, David “Doc” Sands, Curt Kohlberg, Nicolas Cardyn and Mike Sexton.

Just busted out at WPT Hard Rock w/Queens vs A-K & I hit a Queen! He back doored a flush. The good news is that I get to watch the Masters!
— Mike Sexton (@MikeSexton_WPT)

While many fell, a plethora of notables made it through to Day 2 including Nancy Birnbaum (126,000), Matt Giannetti (91,400), Matt Salsberg (84,000), Carlos Mortensen (73,900), Ravi Raghavan (63,200), Vanessa Selbst (56,100), Garry Gates (43,500), Scotty Nguyen (40,400), Matt Waxman (38,100) and Kathy Liebert (25,000).

Day 2 is set to begin at noon EST on Saturday. PokerNews will be sure to bring you a full recap upon the completion of play, so check back then. In the meantime, check out the following interview with Deeb, who finished as the ClubWPT Player of the Day.