$1,100 Mystery Bounty ($1,000,000 GTD) Day 1b | 2023 PokerNews Cup

06-30-2023 16:54 UTC-12

Assorted Counts Around The Field

Liam Gannon

Level 14 : Blinds 2,000/4,000, 4,000 ante

Player	Chips	Progress
Yueqi Wang	364,000
Chris Maguire	317,000 317,000	317,000
Joshua Prager	275,000 275,000	275,000
Michael Liang	209,000 17,700	17,700

Jason Riesenberg	203,000 108,000	108,000
Tim Garles	193,000 6,000	6,000
Jack Sinclair	181,000 181,000	181,000

Gabi Livshitz	178,000 57,000	57,000

Shane Melert	175,000 77,000	77,000
Stanislav Ivanov	143,000 143,000	143,000
Xuan Liu	99,000 54,500	54,500
Ryan Laplante	93,000 28,000	28,000

Brian Altman	75,000 44,000	44,000

Brian Hastings	74,000 29,500	29,500

Jack Oliver	68,000 7,000	7,000
Lena Evans	55,000 31,000	31,000
Michael Wang	Busted

Cole Ferraro	Busted

Marle Spragg	Busted

Level: 15

Blinds: 3,000/5,000

Ante: 5,000

06-30-2023 17:18 UTC-12

Pei Wins A Race

Share on Twitter Share on Facebook

Liam Gannon

Level 15 : Blinds 3,000/5,000, 5,000 ante

A player in first position moved all in for 65,000 which saw action fold around to Eric Pei in the small blind who moved in for more and everyone else folded.

Opponent: 9♦9♣
Eric Pei: A♥K♥

The board ran out K♠10♥2♣5♠7♥ and the ace-king found a king on the flop to pull ahead and take down the pot.

Player	Chips	Progress
Eric Pei	214,000 214,000	214,000

Tags: Eric Pei

06-30-2023 17:29 UTC-12

Oliver Doubles Up Through Maguire

Share on Twitter Share on Facebook

Liam Gannon

Level 15 : Blinds 3,000/5,000, 5,000 ante

Jack Oliver moved all in for 14,000 in middle position which saw Chris Maguire call in the cutoff and Harrison Gimbel call in the big blind. "Housemate busts other housemate," joked Maguire.

The flop rolled out A♠K♣J♣ and Gimbel check-folded to a bet of 10,000 from Maguire.

Jack Oliver: A♥4♠
Chris Maguire: A♣7♠

"F***," Oliver screamed "low cards please."

The turn came the A♦ which gave both players three aces and looking very likely to chop.

"Yes!" screamed Oliver.

The river changed fortunes once more as the 4♥ peeled off, giving Oliver aces full of fours.

"Yes!" Oliver screamed even louder while flipping his roommate off as the pot was pushed towards him and the table laughed all around him.

Player	Chips	Progress
Chris Maguire	413,000 96,000	96,000
Harrison Gimbel	109,000

Jack Oliver	50,000 18,000	18,000

Tags: Chris Maguire Jack Oliver Harrison Gimbel

06-30-2023 17:30 UTC-12

Get to Know Golden Nugget Shift Manager Mike Godfrey

Share on Twitter Share on Facebook

Chad Holloway

Level 12 : Blinds 1,000/2,500, 2,500 ante

As part of PokerNews’ continuing Industry Insiders series, we caught up with Golden Nugget’s poker shift manager Mike Godfrey, who this summer is serving as Tournament Manager and Administrator for Grand Poker Series under Andy Rich, who we previously featured in his own Industry Insiders profile here.

Godfrey, 38, graduated from UNLV with a degree in American History and is a proud husband as well as a father of two children.

“I have worked in the poker industry for 13+ years and have been playing since I moved into town when I was 21,” Godfrey told PokerNews. “I was hired as a dealer for my first job at the Joker’s Wild Casino. I quickly moved on to the Mirage where I learned that I would work more hours if I learned to be a supervisor and in return was mentored by one of the all-time greatest in Mark Gershof.”

From there he was hired as a tournament manager at the Golden Nugget in November 2014.

“I was lucky to be hired by the Golden Nugget as a tournament manager and from there I took over the graveyard shift and am lucky enough to still be manning that post for seven years. My mentor, Mark Getshof, knew the acting manager at the time and put in a good word for me. It must have been an incredible one because I was hired on the spot and have pushed myself every day to be worthy of that recommendation still.”

When he started, Godfrey oversaw little nightly tournament 5-6 days a week. The priority was simple – turn a two-table tournament into a six-table tournament. Within three months, he did exactly that and their daily events soon became a popular attraction.

“After working my first Grand Poker Series with Andy Rich at the helm of operations we learned that the mission became even larger — turn GPS into a tournament destination for pokers players of all buy in ranges and demographics,” Godfrey shared. “I was turned into a shift manager on graveyard where we were struggling, and the goal became to change the direction of how late night poker was handled at the Golden Nugget. With the help of my team of dealers we have made that shift into a thriving place for poker."

He added: “The theme for the goals across the goal was simple – build. Make things better, keep things fun, and make the world of poker great for everybody involved.”

Click here to read out full Industry Insiders Profile!

06-30-2023 17:47 UTC-12