Nathaniel Zoller Leads Final Table After Day 2 of HPT Golden Gates
Day 2 of the Heartland Poker Tour Golden Gates $1,100 Main Event saw 128 players come into the day with their hopes of making it to the final table of nine and after nearly eight hours of play, that number has been reached. Leading the way by a wide margin is Nathaniel Zoller who bagged a massive stack of 7,485,000.
Zoller entered the day well below the average stack with 88,000 in chips and a stack just shy of 18 big blinds. He built his stack as the tournament progressed, eclipsing the one million-chip mark when there were five tables left in the tournament. He secured a knockout and took down a few more pots before reaching the unofficial final table of 10 with a stack of 3.2 million, good to put him in second in chips. Then the fireworks flew.
Maz Keshavari had entered the unofficial final table as the chip leader with 4.1 million after winning a huge pot with pocket kings versus Anthony Piazza’s (12th place - $10,012) pocket queens shortly before the redraw was reached at 10 players. Zoller found himself on Keshavari’s left and took a chunk off of him with ace-king on an ace-high board to take the chip lead.
On the final hand of the night, both players called an under-the-gun raise by Rich Dixon from the blinds. Dixon got out of their way on the flop and the two both ended up making it to showdown with six-four suited. However, Zoller backed into a flush and ended up calling an all-in bet from Keshavari to knock him out in what was around a 6.5 million-chip pot to end play for the night.
Other notable players to make the final table include Dapo Ajayi who finished the day second in chips with 3,450,000 and Nick Pupillo who will enter the final table as the short stack after bagging 675,000.
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 | 34,50,000 |
| 7 | Albert Winchester | 2,110,000 |
| 8 | Nick Pupillo | 675,000 |
| 9 | Scott Horvath | 1,970,000 |
The action was loaded across the four Day 1 flights and was kicked up a notch today as the money bubble burst shortly before the first break of the day. Players to make the money and fall short of the final table included reigning HPT Player of the Year Aaron Johnson (81st place - $1,917), Chris Moon (55th place - $2,414), Mike Englert (22nd place - $4,473), and Neil Blumenfield (19th place - $4,473).
Play will resume Monday at noon local time upstairs in the overflow room with 2:14 remaining in Level 27 (30,000/60,000/60,000) and the final table will be live-streamed and televised. Come back to PokerNews for live updates and be sure to visit HPT’s Twitch channel to watch all the action unfold in real-time as a champion is crowned and presented the HPT trophy along with a first-place prize of $152,671.
. Keshavarzi checked and Zoller bet 210,000. Dixon folded and Keshavarzi check-raised to 440,000. Zoller called.
. After close to two minutes, Zoller called. The river came 
and Keshavarzi announced he was all in. Zoller quickly called.
for a pair of sixes and Zoller tabled 
for what had been the same-strength hand until filling up to a backdoor flush on the river. 
as he was sent home in 11th place, resulting in the tournament redrawing to the unofficial final table of 10 players.
and river 
resulted in his departure from the tournament in cold fashion.
and Campanile was eliminated in 13th place. In the meantime, Pupillo has lost a pot since which brings him to his current total.
and Harvey hit the rail in 14th place.
and Palmer was eliminated in 15th place. Meanwhile, Ajayi has picked up momentum and finds himself as one of the top stacks among the 14 players left in the tournament.
from the button. Campanile called with 
to give Sheaves a chance at a chop but the turn and river were blanks and he was eliminated in 17th place.
