Cooler Flop on Bubble Sends WPT bestbet Scramble into the Money on Day 2
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The 47th place player in the World Poker Tour (WPT) bestbet Scramble Championship busted at around 8:30 p.m. ET Sunday night, ensuring all remaining players would go home with money.
Josh Hopkins flopped a nine-high flush and had over 20 big blinds left, but would lose the hand to the bigger stack, Joe Jordan, who flopped a king-high flush. The cooler flop sent Hopkins home one spot shy of the money in the $5,000 buy-in tournament at bestbet Jacksonville. All players who escaped the bubble had a guaranteed minimum payday of $9,100.
It took 13 hands on the stone bubble before Hopkins busted, and then it would take nearly 20 minutes before another player was eliminated, a rarity in tournament poker. But players would fall much faster throughout the remainder of the 12-hour session.
Recapping Day 2 Action
Josh Reichard, a WPT Champions Club member, entered Day 2 with a sizable chip lead over his 120 competitors. He'd hover around his start-of-day stack through the first couple of levels on Sunday, but would eventually fade and bust in 30th place for $10,900.
Eric Afriat, who is one win away from tying Darren Elias for the record with four World Poker Tour titles, went in the opposite direction of Reichard on Day 2. He began the session with a middling stack but would quickly go from just over 100,000 chips to being the first player to crack 1 million chips long before the dinner break.
Top 5 Chip Counts Following Day 2
| Place | Player | Chip Stack |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nick Funaro | 2,250,000 |
| 2 | Joe Jordan | 2,050,000 |
| 3 | Eric Afriat | 1,700,000 |
| 4 | Frank Wyville | 1,555,000 |
| 5 | Francis Anderson | 1,350,000 |
Afriat didn't hold the chip lead throughout the day, but he did continue to increase his stack and finished third in chips at 1,700,000. Nick Funaro bagged the Day 2 chip lead with 2,250,000, while Jordan finished the session at 2,050,000. Frank Wyville (1,555,000) and Francis Anderson (1,350,000) round out the top five.
Only 18 players bagged chips, all still with a shot to win the $347,850 first place prize to be awarded at the final table in Jacksonville, Florida on Tuesday. Thad McNulty (885,000), 2015 world champion Joe McKeehen (490,000), and WPT commentator Tony Dunst (385,000) are among those still standing. Dunst will enter Day 3, which kicks off at noon ET on Monday, with the smallest stack.
All remaining players have a guaranteed minimum payout of $16,800, and the big pay jumps won't occur until the final table approaches. Speaking of the final table, Day 3 won't conclude until the field, which began with 361 entrants, is down to just six, one of whom will become the next member of the WPT Champions Club.
*Images courtesy of Katerina Lukina/World Poker Tour.
