WPT Player of the Year Jacob Ferro Leads Lucky Hearts Poker Open after Day 2

Putting yourself in a position to win poker tournaments is everything. For some, this remains the Holy Grail that sits just out of reach, moving ever further away to outrun any strategic advances made. For others, this most elusive of elixirs seems as easy to take as candy from the proverbial poker novice.

Of the remaining 87 players all still in contention at the World Poker Tour Lucky Hearts Poker Open, Jacob Ferro has the best chance of success. That isn’t just because he has the chip lead heading into Day 3, but because he is the reigning WPT Player of the Year.

It’s far from a foregone conclusion for Ferro, but the latest day at the felt saw him take the lead at a great time to hold it.

Money Bubble Bursts on Day 2

With a total of 1,982 entries in the $3,500-entry WPT Lucky Hearts Poker Open Main Event, the number of hopefuls at the start of Day 2 was just 553. That total was dramatically reduced over the day, with the money bubble bursting and big names reaching the cash places.

Plenty of poker superstars cashed without threatening the end-of-day chipcounts, with WPT Champions Club members Chad Eveslage (241^st for $6,275), Darryl Fish (240^th for $6,275), Chris Moorman (183^rd for $6,615), Mike Vela (137^th for $7,310), Lee Markholt (134^th for $7,815), Erik Seidel (128^th for $7,815), Frank Stepuchin (113^th for $8,450), and Eric Afriat (103^rd for $8,450) all making money but falling short of adding to their World Poker Tour titles.

Several more made it further, with Ferro the chip leader at the close of play and a massive stack of 2.23 million chips. While that was a lot compared to many, second-placed Cherish Andrews missed out on the headline by merely an ante as she bagged up 2.2 million to essentially go into Day 4 with the same size stack with which to play.

Ferro and Andrews Taking Different Routes to Glory

Both Ferro and Andrews may have made it to the summit with 87 players remaining, but they had vastly different paths through the field to that point. Ferro entered the day with a stack that was easily in the top 10% of players and utilized that initial strength to make the money in good shape. That allowed the WPT Player of the Year for 2021 to bully his way to the chip lead.

Andrews, however, took a major hit despite coming into play even higher up the ranks than Ferro. Andrews plummeted from 1.8 million chips to just 250,000 by the dinner break. Upon her return, she went on a heater to build back the stack she had lost and more, though. Crashing through the final two levels of the evening, she would end the day with almost ten times the amount she sat down with after dinner, an evening’s work masterfully done.

While Andrews and Ferro are in the pole positions when play resumes at high noon on Monday 24^th January, there are some seriously big hitters loosening their raising arms in the chasing pack.

Other Stars in the Hunt for the Title

Former WPT champions James Carroll (2,030,000) and Nitis Udornpim (760,000) will fancy their chances based on their vast experience, while WPT DeepStacks Champions Scott Baumstein (340,000) finished fourth in the PokerStars Players Championship for $1.4m back in 2019 and won the $1,100-entry WPT Lucky Hearts Poker Open event for $220,238 back in January 2018.

Other big names such as multiple WSOP bracelet winner Jeremy Ausmus (2,105,000), who is up for a Global Poker Award in February on PokerGO, will be chasing WPT glory too, with Jose Montes (365,000) and Omar Lakhdari (1,415,000) hard to discount despite their disparate stack-sizes.

Everyone is guaranteed a minimum cash of $10,215 from this point, but everyone is focused on the $975,240 up for grabs for taking the title. The action resumes inside the Seminole Hard Rock Ballroom on Monday, with hour-long levels until 40 players are left. At that point, levels increase to 90 minutes and play is scheduled to continue until just 16 players remain in contention for the latest WPT Main Event title. Whoever can win will get their name engraved on the Mike Sexton WPT Champions Cup, an honor bestowed upon few in the game.