Welcome to Day 3 of HPT Golden Gates
The official final table has been set at the Heartland Poker Tour Golden Gates $1,100 Main Event. Seven hundred and thirty-two entries were logged over four initial flights and the 128 players to advance to Day 2 have been whittled down to nine.
Entering the day with more than double the stack of the next-closest competitor is chip leader Nathaniel Zoller. Zoller comes into the final table with a stack of 7.485 million in chips with just over two minutes remaining in Level 27 (30,000/60,000/60,000). With just two recorded lifetime cashes for a total of $528 in live earnings, this is already Zoller’s biggest score and deepest run of his career and while just eight players stand between him and his first HPT title, the road to victory will not be easy.
Second in chips with a stack of 3.45 million is Dapo Ajayi, a familiar face to tournaments at the Golden Gates Poker Parlour. Ajayi has experience with deep runs, having made final tables of main events for the HPT, MSPT, and Colorado Poker Championships all here in Black Hawk just within the past year to contribute to his total lifetime earnings of just over $500,000.
The next six players on the leaderboard are all within the range of 1.115 to 2.15 million in chips, being separated by what will be less than 15 big blinds after the last two-plus minutes of Level 27 roll off the clock.
The shortest stack entering the day is Nick Pupillo, finding himself looking up at the other eight players on the leaderboard coming into the day as the shortest stack with 675,000 in chips. Pupillo is the most acclaimed player in the field with over $2.6 million in live earnings. He is also currently in second place on the HPT Season XV Player of the Year leaderboard and slated to take the lead in that race regardless of where he finishes today.
Cards will fly on the final table at noon local time at the Gates in the upstairs overflow room with a live stream following on a 30-minute delay. Levels will remain at 40 minutes in length until heads-up play begins, at which point they will become 30 minutes each until the $152,671 first-place prize has been claimed. Updates will be provided here at PokerNews all day long to correspond with HPT’s live stream. Stay glued to both and make sure to catch all the action as a victor is determined.
HPT Golden Gates Final Table
| Seat | Player | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nathaniel Zoller | 7,485,000 |
| 2 | Rich Dixon | 2,150,000 |
| 3 | Austin Peck | 1,615,000 |
| 4 | Maxx Holland | 1,350,000 |
| 5 | Igor Leshchinskiy | 1,115,000 |
| 6 | Dapo Ajayi | 3,450,000 |
| 7 | Albert Winchester | 2,110,000 |
| 8 | Nick Pupillo | 675,000 |
| 9 | Scott Horvath | 1,970,000 |
and he was eliminated from the tournament in 9th place.
, leaving Dixon drawing dead by the turn as he was eliminated from the tournament and Ajayi collected the pot, bringing him near the chip count he brought into the day.
to give Ajayi a straight on the turn and Pupillo was eliminated in 7th place.
and Peck bet 125,000. Holland peeled and the turn came 
for queens up and took down the pot.
to give Horvath nine more outs to a flush. 
turn left him drawing dead. The river fell