Cartwright Looking to Defend His Title with Six Players Remaining in the $1,700 Main Event
There were 79 players who returned to the felt for Day 2 of the World Series of Poker Circuit Horseshoe Tunica $1,700 Main Event. After over 10 levels of poker and nearly 13 hours later, only six players remain with a shot at the title and booking their spot in the Global Casino Championship in August.
Leading the pack is the defending champion Kyle Cartwright who bagged up a whopping 4,285,000 chips. Cartwright won last year's event by topping a 639-entry field for just under $200,000. He is one of two players remaining in the field currently with a WSOP gold bracelet and he will have his work cut out for him with some stiff competition to deal with.
Cartwright's largest pot of the day came when he flopped a set of eights against Kelvin Douglas. All of the chips got in the middle on the turn and Douglas was left drawing to just two outs with pocket kings. Cartwright's set held up and he vaulted into the lead, one that he would hold on to throughout the latter half of the day.
"I ran bad in some spots," Cartwright noted in the last couple of hands of the night. "I had aces vs kings and he just flatted preflop, I had aces vs ace-king for only six big blinds, and then this hand." Cartwright was referencing a hand where he flopped trip jacks against Bryan Piccioli's pocket kings. "He checked back twice and just called the river. I was on the right side of them all but I could have had a lot more."
Piccioli will be one of the players looking to hunt down the defending champion along with Scott Stewart and Lytle Allen. Both Piccioli and Stewart made deep runs in the 2017 WSOP Main Event finishing in 6th and 13th respectively. While both players have a long list of accomplishments throughout their poker career, that deep run is still both of their largest cashes. In fact, both players made the final table of the WSOP Circuit Thunder Valley Main Event just last weekend.
Day 3 Seating Assignment
| Seat | Player | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lytle Allen | 1,615,000 | 32 |
| 2 | Bryan Piccioli | 1,580,000 | 32 |
| 3 | Matthew Higgins | 2,900,000 | 58 |
| 4 | Scott Stewart | 2,165,000 | 43 |
| 5 | James Todd Osborne | 2,190,000 | 44 |
| 6 | Kyle Cartwright | 4,285,000 | 86 |
The day kicked off at 12 p.m. local time with just five eliminations away from the money. It didn't take long for the short stacks to be eliminated and the hand-for-hand process quickly followed. It was over ten hands later that the bubble finally burst and Todd Bartlett was the unlucky man. Bartlett flopped a set of sevens against Bryant Kelley's top pair and flush draw. The river completed Kelley's flush and Bartlett was left empty-handed.
Two players that managed to squeak into the money included James Todd Osborne and Matthew Higgins. Osborne had around two big blinds and Higgins with four. Most people, including themselves, didn't expect things to go so well afterward. Both players quickly spun up a stack and they will be returning on Day 3 with a shot at the title.
Many players quickly made their way to the payout desk once the money bubble burst and the field dwindled down to just three tables by the dinner break. Some of the notables eliminated in the money include Brian Green (73rd place), Will Berry (57th place), Timothy Miles (52nd place), Warren Sheaves (40th place), start-of-day chipleader Christopher Miller (32nd place), and Blake Whittington (18th place).
The final table was reached just prior to the last break of the night and upon returning for the last couple of levels, four players hit the rail. Walker Miskelly was the first to bow out when he ran his ace-king into Piccioli's pocket kings for ten big blinds. Following him, Hyun Lee flopped top pair and moved all-in on the turn, only to be called by Higgins' two pair in the big blind.
Greg Jennings came into the final table as one of the short stacks and was really soaking up the pay jumps, but his time finally came as well. He too picked up ace-king with less than 10 big blinds but ran into the pocket aces of Cartwright. The last player eliminated on the day was Blake Barousse who lost a coin flip to Higgins.
That leaves just six players to return on Day 3 with the lion's share of the prizepool still up for grabs. Each player has locked up over $28,000 for their efforts but every one of them will have their sights set on the first-place prize of $144,313. The cards will go in the air at 12 p.m. local time with the blinds resuming on level 27 at 25,000/50,000 and a 50,000 big blind ante.
The PokerNews live reporting team will be here to cover every elimination from the start of the day until a winner is crowned.