In a role familiar to him, Matt Gunter came to the final table as chip leader (T$285K). The night before, he finished Event #1 with the most chips (in a two-way chop). Considering Gunter's sizable chip lead and back-to-back final tables, he was the early favorite.
The final table started with antes/blinds of 500/1,500/3,000 and a flurry of action. In a span of 15 minutes, the field was 30% lighter.
Nursing a short stack, Francis Anderson found a hand he liked enough to shove all-in and found a caller in Joanne Capritta. Unfortunately for Anderson, his AQ was up against AK. The board brought no help. 10th place = Francis Anderson.
Two hands later, Mike Griffen leveraged his short stack against Ilya Dyment's big blind. A6 vs. Q2, respectively. Five cards later, a Broadway board led to a chop and a resigned, "That's okay. I'll take it," from Griffen. The relief quickly turned into excitement when Griffen found his next hand (AA) all-in against Mona Harb's AK. A flop of J-9-T brought disappointment on the turn with a Q, followed by an early exit by Griffen with a river J. 9th place = Mike Griffen.
Joanne Capritta was next to rejoin the fast-paced, all-in action. Her cowboys survived Gunter's big-stack reraise with A4 for a T$60K+ pot.
A coin-flip situation, AQ vs TT, brought another elimination when Justin Villa's pocket pair held up. 8th place = Lou Procopio.
In a hand that would prove to be an indicator of things to come, the table folded around to Ryan D'Angelo (on the button). D'Angelo called the T$3K BB. Dyment folded in the SB but Gunter preflop raised to the standard T$9K. D'Angelo called the T$6K more. Flop: 7-9-3. A T$5K bet from Gunter was met with a raise (total of T$22K) from D'Angelo. After a bit of thought, Gunter mucked.
On the very next hand, Gunter strikes again (in what appears to be a "steam reraise") by forcing Mona Harb into a decision for all of her chips. After much thought, Harb calls for her tournament life with KJs vs. 33. Board: 6-3-4-A-Q. 7th place = Mona Harb
Updated Chip Counts
Seat 2) Justin Villa [~T$200K]
Seat 3) Ryan D'Angelo [~T$100K]
Seat 4) Ilya Dyment [~T$100K]
Seat 6) Matt Gunter [~T$250K]
Seat 8) Anthony Moran [~T$60K]
Seat 10) Joanne Capritta [~T$100K]
As the next level of blinds approached, D'Angelo and Gunter tangled in a few preflop raise/reraise battles that resulted in minor stack changes but clearly defined their candidacies for Table Captain. Sliding under the radar and bringing a pause in the D'Angelo-Gunter skirmishes, Anthony Moran made a preflop, all-in raise to take down the antes and blinds before the level jumped to 500/2K/4K.
It was a short-lived break from the norm.
On the very first hand of the next level, D'Angelo preflop raised to T$8K (it appeared that he did not realize the blinds had increased). Gunter pounced from the button and reraised to a total of T$31K. Back to D'Angelo who announces an all-in bet. Gunter insta-calls.
Before the cards are flipped up:
D'Angelo: "Do you have a high card?"
Gunter: (dryly) "Yeah."
D'Angelo reveals JJ, as Gunter rolls over KK.
Pot = T$209K
Flop: 7-2-5
Turn: Q
River: J
D'Angelo moved into the chip lead.
[End of part 1. Heading down to play in today's Event #3. Look for part 2 later today.]
Chomp! ~Sammy "The Dentist"
Twitter: SammyTheDentist
