Ruberto Leads WPT Jacksonville Final Table; Schultz Captures WSOP-C Lake Tahoe

Poker News / Short-Stacked Shamus / 22 November 2011 / Leave a Comment

Bryan Schultz shows off his WSOP-C ring and winning hand (Photo: PokerNews)

While Schultz was earning his WSOP-C ring at Harveys Lake Tahoe, Anthony Ruberto was building a big stack at WPT Jacksonville. Ruberto will return to 4.5 million chips to begin today's final table, nearly twice that of second-place Vitor Coelho.

While the European Poker Tour finished up its first-ever stop in Loutraki, Greece where Zimnan Ziyard of the U.K. took the title, a couple of other tournaments are taking place this week in the U.S. In Jacksonville, Florida, they are down to a final table at the World Poker Tour event where Anthony Ruberto will begin today with the chip lead. And in Nevada, Bryan Schultz came away with a WSOP-Circuit ring yesterday at Harveys Lake Tahoe.

WPT Jacksonville: Six Remain

The WPT Jacksonville stop saw a field of 393 players come out for the $3,500 buy-in event. That total made for a $1.27 million-plus prize pool to be divided among the top 40 finishers, with $325,928 due the winner.

It took two Day Ones and a combined Day Two for the field to be trimmed to 42 players late Sunday, at which point Vitor Coehlo led with 945,000 with Connor Drinan, Alexander Venovski, and Darryll Fish his nearest challengers.

Meanwhile, Deshun Boone and Jacob Naquin returned to short stacks on Monday, and both were knocked out early shy of the cash. Daniel Buzgon squeaked into the cash in 40th ($7,510).

Among those following Buzgon to the cashier's cage on Monday were Mike Beasley (37th, $7,510), Brandon Steven (32nd, $7,510), Zohair Karim ($10,014), Brian Hawkins (23rd, $10,014), Allie Prescott (18th, $13,769), Dwyte Pilgrim (16th, $17,524), Connor Drinan (11th, $21,280), and Chris Tryba (10th, $25,035).

The last three second-day eliminations were Michael Messick (9th, $28,790), Alexander Venovski (8th, $33,797), and Matt Ezrol (7th, $40,056). In the last hand of the night, Ezrol shoved with 6c-6h and Coelho called him from the blinds with Kc-Jc, and Coelho caught a king to end Ezrol's run.

That hand left Coehlo in second behind Ruberto to end the day, with Lisa Hamilton of Hawaii in third. A Hamilton victory would mean a first-ever WPT title by a woman.

Here's how the stacks look for the start of today's final table:

1. Anthony Ruberto -- 4,500,000
2. Vitor Coelho -- 2,570,000
3. Lisa Hamilton -- 1,901,000
4. Sam Soverel -- 1,432,000
5. Artie Rodriguez -- 797,000
6. Darryll Fish -- 641,000

WSOP-C Lake Tahoe: Schultz Takes the Ring

Elsewhere on Monday, Bryan Schultz of Carpentersville, Illinois topped a field of 327 in the $1,600 buy-in WSOP-C Harveys Lake Tahoe event to earn a first prize of $112,812.

Among those Schultz outlasted was runner-up Daniel Lowery. Upon Ron Segni's elimination in third place, Lowery and Schultz began heads-up play with Lowery enjoying the chip lead with 3.85 million to Schultz's 2.7 million. With the blinds still a small 20,000/40,000, both were especially deep, suggesting a lengthy heads-up battle to come.

However, the pair decided to speed things up, agreeing to skip three full levels and move the blinds to 50,000/100,000. The staff was amenable to the decision, and it would only take about an hour of poker from there for Schultz to seize the advantage and ultimately all of the chips.

After Schultz knocked Lowery under 1 million in a hand in which his Jd-9d outdrew Lowery's Ad-Jh (turning a flush), Lowery pushed all in for his last 700,000 or so with Qh-8s and Schultz called with Ah-9c. The flop came 7s-10h-8d, pairing Lowery, and the 2d on the turn kept him in the lead. But the river brought the 9s, giving Schultz nines and the title.

Here are the final table payouts from WSOP-C Harveys Lake Tahoe:

1st: Bryan Schultz -- $111,812
2nd: Daniel Lowery -- $69,132
3rd: Ron Segni -- $50,210
4th: Hank Czarnecki -- $37,087
5th: Jim Atwood -- $27,843
6th: David Clark -- $21,234
7th: Joe Fernandez -- $16,448
8th: Chris Clark -- $12,932
9th: Casey McCarrel -- $10,320

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