Welcome to Day 3 of 2019 HPT The Meadows
It started with 345 players and it comes down to these nine. The official final table is set and ready to rock for the Heartland Poker Tour The Meadows $1,100 Main Event.
Everyone's looking up in the chip counts at Dan Wagner, the only one over 100 big blinds with just a hair north of 2.5 million as play returns with just a few minutes remaining at 12,000/24,000/24,000. Wagner has plenty of experience with several wins and big cashes on his ledger, so he'll be a tough man to take down with his lead.
Wagner's followed in the counts by Anthony McIe at just under 2 million and nobody else is particularly close to the pair.
However, one massive obstacle a little lower in the counts is Andy Spears. The tournament vet has more than $1.3 million in cashes and owes his middling stack only to a rough beat where he had an opponent coolered with ace-king over ace-queen blind versus blind only for a queen to arrive on the river. If his luck turns around, he'll certainly be the favorite.
The competition begins here at The Meadows at noon local time, with a live stream following on a 30-minute delay. They'll play 40-minute levels until a winner claims the $76,165. You can follow the updates to see who emerges here on PokerNews, and here's a link to HPT's stream.
HPT The Meadows Final Table
| Seat | Player | Stack |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kelly Becker | 477,000 |
| 2 | Anthony McIe | 1,981,000 |
| 3 | Marcus Gaunt | 527,000 |
| 4 | Christopher Lee | 1,275,000 |
| 5 | Lydia Waltonbaugh | 578,000 |
| 6 | Andy Spears | 1,094,000 |
| 7 | Jason Pickup | 893,000 |
| 8 | George Stathers | 1,022,000 |
| 9 | Dan Wagner | 2,509,000 |