partypoker US Network Players Choice Series (Dec.13-20)

In Level 21 with blinds of 7,000/14,000 and an ante of 1,750, "La_Flama_Blanca" and "skip-973" have both found themselves down to one big blind, only to each earn doubles. "La_Flama_Blanca" was the more recent to earn the double, and it was their second double on the bubble as 19 players still remain in the tournament.

Seven players now find themselves below 100,000 as the bubble continues.

Player	Chips	Progress
Jinxy	96,489	-192,475
Don "dhimp20" Himpele	83,790	-16,855
leoliondog	67,409	-319,012
ashylarry	54,126	-54,250
La_Flama_Blanca	43,117	-24,715
skip-973	19,596	-22,202

In Level 20 with blinds of 6,000/12,000 and an ante of 1,500, "richyrich" was just eliminated to bring the field down to 19. Just one more elimination is needed and a few shorter stacks are littered across the four tables still in play.

Player	Chips	Progress
ashylarry	108,376	45,376
La_Flama_Blanca	67,832	-26,751
skip-973	41,798	-102,743
richyrich	Busted

In Level 19 with blinds of 5,000/10,000 and an ante of 1,250, heads-up action between Kevin "sofcknsick" Campbell in the big blind and "HodorHodorHodor", who was on the button led to there being 142,000 in the pot on a board of .

First to act, Campbell made a pot-sized bet that was enough to put "HodorHodorHodor" to a decision for the 139,000 that remained in their stack. After spending some time in the tank, "HodorHodorHodor" found a call.

"HodorHodorHodor":
Kevin "sofcknsick" Campbell":

After calling, "HodorHodorHodor" saw their aces up with the nut kicker was no good to Campbell's full house and they were eliminated from the tournament as a result.

Also eliminated at roughly the same time were "bertdoggy" and "SadBigCheese" to bring the number of players remaining in the tournament down to 20. Two more eliminations are needed to make it into the money.

Player	Chips	Progress
Kevin "sofcknsick" Campbell	962,195	-14,618
HodorHodorHodor	Busted
bertdoggy	Busted
SadBigCheese	Busted

Last month, the World Poker Tour (WPT) announced its first U.S.-based online Main Tour event, the $3,500 WPT Online Poker Open Main Event, set for a late December running in New Jersey. That one will also carry a guarantee of $1 million.

The WPT Online Poker Open Main Event will be held Dec. 27-29 on partypoker US Network for players in New Jersey.

The ambitious $1 million guarantee signifies how serious the WPT and partypoker are about making this a premier poker tournament worthy of the WPT name.

“The WPT Online Poker Open brings the most prestigious prize in poker to New Jersey and the partypoker US Network,” said WPT CEO Adam Pliska in a presser. “WPT’s continued pivot toward online will continue with another landmark for regulated online poker in the United States.”

Indeed, the WPT has pivoted into a strong series of online offerings, however, all were offered to the dot-com partypoker player pool, a much larger bunch of customers than the prospective New Jersey pool. Drawing the necessary entries to meet the guarantee will require some effort, and the WPT already announced satellites will be available for as little as $5.

In Level 18 with blinds of 4,000/8,000 and an ante of 1,000, all of the chips got into the middle preflop with "jtdelnot" at risk for their tournament life in the small blind against Stanton "Stonniepokes" Tentnowski, who was under the gun.

"jtdelnot":
Stanton "Stonniepokes" Tentnowski:

"jtdelnot" was ahead with two jacks going to the flop , which further improved them to a pair of aces with a better kicker than that of Tentnowski. The turn kept them ahead, but the river spelled disaster, giving Tentnowski the nut boat to result in their elimination from the tournament.

The elimination of "jtdelnot" was the fourth since returning from the break, also being joined by "ChippingggUP88", "Mhampton19", and "starx", and 23 now remain.

Player	Chips	Progress
Stanton "Stonniepokes" Tentnowski	574,296	101,670
jtdelnot	Busted
ChippingggUP88	Busted
Mhampton19	Busted
starx	Busted

In Level 17 with blinds of 3,500/7,000 and an ante of 875, the board read with 107,000 already in the middle. Action was heads up between Stanton "Stonniepokes" Tentnowski, who was under the gun, and "l3illal30nG" in the cutoff.

Tentnowski fired 64,500 and "l3illal30nG" went into the tank, utilizing some of their time bank before finding a call, and the river fell . Tentnowski thought for a few moments and checked, and then "l3illal30nG" immediately jammed for 212,000.

With action back on Tentnowski, he folded and "l3illal30nG" took down the pot to bring their stack to just shy of 450,000.

Player	Chips	Progress
Stanton "Stonniepokes" Tentnowski	472,626	-157,169
l3illal30nG	449,267	226,732

Play has reached Level 17 with blinds of 4,000/8,000 and an ante of 1,000 and just 27 players remain. Those players are on a five-minute break and will look to make a push towards becoming one of the 18 to make it into the money upon play resuming.

Complete chip counts from all who remain have been provided below, with "GrindUrGearz" still as the only player to have more than 1 million and having further increased their chip lead to 1.38 million.

Player	Chips	Progress
GrindUrGearz	1,385,466	327,169
Kevin "sofcknsick" Campbell	976,813	665,399
MakiNuReload	823,665	683,441
Stanton "Stonniepokes" Tentnowski	629,795	514,804
CharlieLucky	448,490	287,664
leoliondog	386,421	-103,275
Ryan "TheSims" Hohner	360,153	223,984
ChippingggUP88	305,078	-16,511
Michael "UFOLDIWIN" St. John	298,409	103,122
Jinxy	288,964
r87996541	288,637	-18,695
HodorHodorHodor	263,433	213,433
l3illal30nG	222,535	84,930
Chris "rumpthumper" White	182,286	-144,505
bertdoggy	173,340	2,150
SadBigCheese	171,300	103,925
skip-973	144,541	-103,148
jitney0999	134,014	8,544
Mhampton19	128,595	-38,225
Bigtexas	101,158	-60,421
Don "dhimp20" Himpele	100,645	-167,315
jtdelnot	99,170	-52,845
La_Flama_Blanca	94,583	-11,700
Shipit2488	69,450
starx	65,675

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In Level 15 with blinds of 2,500/5,000 and an ante of 6,250, three-way preflop action brought 33,000 into the middle before a flop of appeared.

Action checked to "onoreally" in the cutoff and they bet 16,800, receiving a call only from "GrindUrGearz" in the big blind.

"GrindUrGearz" then led out with a bet of 37,500 on the turn and "onoreally" called, bringing the river where "GrindUrGearz" fired out another 77,500.

"onoreally" thought for a little bit and then opted to fold, earning "GrindUrGearz" the pot without showdown. With the pot, "GrindUrGearz" has become the first player in the tournament to reach a seven-figure stack, increasing their chip lead and finding themselves with 1.05 million after the hand.

Player	Chips	Progress
GrindUrGearz	1,058,297	412,245
onoreally	163,747	-62,195