partypoker US Network Online Series (Nov. 29 - Dec.6)

Event #6: $15K GTD 8-Max NLH
Day: 1
Event Info

partypoker US Network Online Series (Nov. 29 - Dec.6)

Final Results
Winner
jerseyman99
Winning Hand
99
Prize
$4,512
Event Info
Buy-in
$215
Prize Pool
$18,800
Entries
94
Players Info - Day 1
Entries
94
Players Left
1

Eric “alwaysliquid” Vanauken Looking for More partypoker US Success

Eric Vanauken
Eric Vanauken

Eric “alwaysliquid” Vanauken is a name you should know as he's become on of the most accomplished players on the partypoker US Network.

A couple of months ago, Vanauken accomplished the incredible feat of capturing back-to-back titles not once, but twice.

In the July 6-12 series, he topped a 134-entry field to win Event #4: $15,000 GTD NLH for nearly $7,500, and then the next night bested 144 runners to win Event #5: $,7500 GTD Green Chip Bounty for $3,145. Then, at the end of July, he won the $320 buy-in Event #3: $15,000 GTD PKO Bounty for $6,393 and a day later emerged victorious in the $215 buy-in Event #4: $12,000 GTD PKO Bounty Boost for $5.691.

PokerNews recently had the chance to chat with Vanauken about his recent successes.

Money Never Sleeps

For the 43-year-old Vanauken, who is married with three kids ages 7, 10, and 19, he’s never really had a nine-to-five job. Instead, he fancies himself a real estate broker engaging in flips and investments while playing poker on the side of course.

“I first learned playing $4/$8 limit at Foxwoods in early 2000 and now play now $20/$40 and $30/$60 when I can find a game, or settle on $1/$2 or $2/$5 NLH," he said. "I have played the WSOP Main Event two times with no luck busting on Day 2 both times.”

Additionally, Vanauken grinds a decent amount on the virtual tables under the screen name “alwaysliquid,” which stems from the movie Wall Street when Gordon Gekko tells Bud Fox about how money never sleeps and you need to always be liquid.

“Since New Jersey went legal I play on Borgata and WSOP. I used to play PokerStars but had an issue with them over a year ago and have since boycotted them. I do very well on Borgata. I even shipped the Mega Thursday [not long ago] on my phone from an Applebee’s parking lot as I had no WiFi at home due to power outage.”

As for his recent successes on partypoker US, Vanauken was pleased but wanted to remain humble.

“I am humbled to be able to compete with all of the great players in New Jersey,” he said. “I’m proud that all of my studying and grinding has been producing favorable results in the past few years, taking me from an average breakeven player to a profitable one. At the same time, I try to maintain being humble with this great game and what it has provided for me and my family.”

Proudest Poker Accomplishments

For Vanauken, the scores rank up there among his proudest poker accomplishments, which includes beating a poker legend.

“In 2013, I beat Joe McKeehen for the Borgata Limit Championship,” Vanauken said. “I think that was the last limit event held at Borgata.”

Other highlights on his poker résumé include finishing sixth in the 2018 WSOP Circuit at Canada’s Playground Poker Club and finishing runner-up in a pair of WSOP Circuit online events back in March.

“So close to a ring but the two cashes of $35k and $20k within a few days definitely eased the quarantine pain,” Vanauken said.

With the latest partypoker US Network Online Series happening now, only time will tell if Vanauken can keep his streak of winning back-to-back events alive.

Click here to sign up for Nj.partypoker.com!

Updated Chip Counts for the Remaining Field (full)

Player Chips Progress
Eric “alwaysliquid” Vanauken
Eric “alwaysliquid” Vanauken
404,731 143,289
THENEXTPHIL
THENEXTPHIL
359,569 204,800
Borgatcha us
Borgatcha
330,975 330,975
A.Jackson1767 us
A.Jackson1767
323,117 -15,612
Ryan “TheSims” Hohner us
Ryan “TheSims” Hohner
300,327 103,296
ScarletRaptor us
ScarletRaptor
286,682 32,971
Rikishi
Rikishi
255,521 -81,028
xxx6395200xxx us
xxx6395200xxx
241,885 17,875
ADillykid
ADillykid
238,078 238,078
Bluehaven
Bluehaven
225,772 -15,625
mia1223 us
mia1223
212,392 87,502
Brian “TopCreature” Sherrier us
Brian “TopCreature” Sherrier
164,483 -54,841
reyd182 us
reyd182
145,884 3,244
Cara2Cacra us
Cara2Cacra
126,525 126,525
onoreally us
onoreally
122,472 -32,300
Chris “rumpthumper” White us
Chris “rumpthumper” White
121,796 -49,050
Cholie us
Cholie
103,217 -31,350
John "Slapshot1085" Forlenza us
John "Slapshot1085" Forlenza
96,000 12,412
ashylarry us
ashylarry
94,375 94,375
MsFancy us
MsFancy
92,987 92,987
jerseyman99 us
jerseyman99
86,361 -205,356
doctorJ us
doctorJ
71,078 -29,797
Alex “JinYang” Butcher us
Alex “JinYang” Butcher
69,766 -58,025
ndirish50 us
ndirish50
68,675 68,675
Ryan "Whosyourdoddy" Dodd us
Ryan "Whosyourdoddy" Dodd
61,480 -60,555

Read full

Gottleib Coolered by "Bluehaven"

In Level 17 (2,500/5,000/625), a series of raises saw "Bluehaven" get their 138,738 stack in the middle preflop from the big blind and "Ross “thehebrewhammer” Gottleib called off his 97,159 stack from under the gun.

"Bluehaven": {k-Clubs}{k-Diamonds}
Ross “thehebrewhammer” Gottleib: {j-Clubs}{j-Diamonds}

Gottleib was crushed and the {5-Spades}{2-Spades}{10-Hearts}{3-Clubs}{5-Clubs} runout was no help ending his tournament.

Player Chips Progress
Bluehaven
Bluehaven
241,397 21,622
Ross “thehebrewhammer” Gottleib us
Ross “thehebrewhammer” Gottleib
Busted

Tags: Ross Gottleib

Prize Pool and Payout Information

The numbers are in!

The registration period has officially closed with 94 total entries which generated a $18,800 prize pool.

This means that 16 players will be in the money for at least $316.78 while the winner will walk away with $4,512.

This is what the remaining 32 players are still playing for:

PlacePrize
1$4,512
2$3,158.40
3$2,256
4$1,797.28
5$1,391.20
6$1,052.80
7$846
8$658
9-10$517
11-12$413.60
13-16$316.78

Get to Know New Jersey's Daniel “centrfieldr23” Lupo

Daniel Lupo
Daniel Lupo

The partypoker US Online Network – which is comprised of partypoker US, Borgata Poker and BetMGM Poker – has been gaining momentum in New Jersey.

One player who has been doing quite well on the network is bracelet winner Daniel “centrfieldr23” Lupo, 37, of West Milford, New Jersey. You might recall that last summer, Lupo topped a 1,767-entry field to win the WSOP.com Online $500 NLH Turbo Deepstack for $145,274 and a gold bracelet. Earlier this year, he added a ring to his résumé by taking down the WSOP.com Online Circuit Event #3: $320 NLH 6-Max for $32,595 and a month later won the WSOP.com $100,000 GTD Sunday for $50,715.

A couple months ago, Lupo’s success continued when he bested a 305-entry field to win the partypoker US Network Online Series $50K GTD NLH 6-Max Main Event for $14,792.

PokerNews caught up with Lupo, who went to NJIT for Architecture and baseball, to ask him about poker, which he squeezes in between working for an Architecture firm in Bridgewater specializing in single-family residential and smaller commercial projects and his family, which includes three kids ages 2-5 and his supportive wife Laura.

Q&A with Daniel “centrfieldr23” Lupo

PokerNews: When and how did you learn to play poker?

Lupo: I started playing/learning in college during the Rounders and Moneymaker boom with a bunch of the baseball guys. Within a year I found myself hosting games at college, at home on breaks and basically anywhere I could find or make a game. I didn’t play much online early on, regrettably.

What sort of poker do you play these days?

Mostly online MTTs playing like three sessions per week on average with buy-ins typically from $50 to $1k with the occasional $2-$3k buy in for a big event. I average around 500-600 MTTs a month despite not playing full time, I tend to put in a lot of volume when I’m on. The games are mostly NLH and some PLO MTTs, but love when StarsNJ runs a series as they run a fun 8-Game MTT with a bunch of other mixed variants.

What’s it like to play poker while raising young children?

It’s been a constant evolution. I could probably write a book about all the highs and lows and life adjustments I’ve had or chose to make. It gives me a lot of inspiration to succeed while also adding some weight to my losses as it's like 'not only was I way from my kids for all of Sunday afternoon but I lost (insert obnoxious Sunday schedule cost here)'.

Daniel Lupo and his family. (Photo c/o Daniel Lupo)
Daniel Lupo and his family

What are some of your poker goals?

Try and win everything I play. Actually, my biggest current goal is trying to optimize my MTT game selection. Since quarantine began the schedules have been exploding site to site and while it's been great, with lots of new players and lots of live players playing online it has also drastically increased my average buy-ins and session costs as well as the field size which further increases variance.

I'm trying to optimize the balance of table quantity and expected value vs individual session costs and the variance that comes with it. Having an average buy-in of $250 adds up pretty quickly when it's spread across 60+ entries on a Sunday. My biggest ongoing and long-term goal is to win enough to help my family live comfortably.

How did it feel to take down the partypoker US Network Phased Main Event last month?

I was pretty stoked about the partypoker US win. I love their structure and it was a very tough field when we were deep; I was fortunate to run pretty well and the be able to leverage my chip stack at the final table. I had made a bunch of top 18 runs in their series Main Events but couldn't crack a solid finish lately so this felt a little extra special.

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Level 15 Chip Leaders - Last Level Before Registration Closes

Level 15 (1,800/3,600/450) has begun and marks the last 10-minute level of the late registration period. Upon its completion at 10:20 p.m. ET, registration will officially close.

There have been 90 entries recorded so far and this marks the final chance to play for all who wish to do so.

Player Chips Progress
A.Jackson1767 us
A.Jackson1767
338,729 208,982
Rikishi
Rikishi
336,549 239,084
jerseyman99 us
jerseyman99
291,717 169,655
Eric “alwaysliquid” Vanauken
Eric “alwaysliquid” Vanauken
261,442 91,714
ScarletRaptor us
ScarletRaptor
253,711 54,217
xxx6395200xxx us
xxx6395200xxx
224,010 62,965
Bluehaven
Bluehaven
219,775 136,112
Brian “TopCreature” Sherrier us
Brian “TopCreature” Sherrier
219,324 17,388
Ryan “TheSims” Hohner us
Ryan “TheSims” Hohner
197,031 60,008
Chris “rumpthumper” White us
Chris “rumpthumper” White
170,846 120,846
onoreally us
onoreally
154,772 -12,450
THENEXTPHIL
THENEXTPHIL
154,769 104,769
Cholie us
Cholie
134,567 134,567
mia1223 us
mia1223
124,890 124,890

White Loses Race to Sherrier and Rebuys

In Level 13 with blinds of 1,600/3,200 and an ante of 400, Ryan "Whosyourdoddy" Dodd raised to 6,400 from late position, Brian “TopCreature” Sherrier flatted from the hijack and Chris “rumpthumper” White three-bet all in for 38,100 from the button.

Action folded back around to Dodd who quickly mucked his hand while Sherrier called.

Chris “rumpthumper” White: {8-Hearts}{8-Spades}
Brian “TopCreature” Sherrier: {a-Diamonds}{k-Spades}

White was ahead with their made hand but they didn't like {q-Hearts}{10-Clubs}{10-Hearts} flop.

The {k-Clubs} appeared on the turn pairing Sherrier's king and the {a-Hearts} river improved his hand to top two-pair.

Player Chips Progress
Brian “TopCreature” Sherrier us
Brian “TopCreature” Sherrier
201,936 25,484
Ryan "Whosyourdoddy" Dodd us
Ryan "Whosyourdoddy" Dodd
122,035 46,771
Chris “rumpthumper” White us
Chris “rumpthumper” White
50,000 13,580

Tags: Brian SherrierChris White

Dodd Flushes "FRIELnGood"

Ryan Dodd
Ryan Dodd

In Level 13 with blinds of 1,400/2,800 and an ante of 350, Ryan "Whosyourdoddy" Dodd open-jammed for 35,832 from under the gun and action folded around to "FRIELnGood" who called from the big blind.

"FRIELnGood": {a-Hearts}{q-Clubs}
Ryan "Whosyourdoddy" Dodd: {q-Diamonds}{j-Hearts}

"FRIELnGood" woke up with the better hand but had a sweat after the {8-Diamonds}{10-Diamonds}{2-Diamonds} flop gave Dodd the diamond draw.

Dodd connected on the turn after the {j-Spades} appeared and the {7-Diamonds} secured his double-up.

Player Chips Progress
FRIELnGood us
FRIELnGood
106,806 -16,222
Ryan "Whosyourdoddy" Dodd us
Ryan "Whosyourdoddy" Dodd
75,264 25,264

Tags: Ryan Dodd