David Laka Leads SHR Poker Finale

The $10,000 World Poker Tour Seminole Hard Rock Finale drew 332 players in the single-entry tournament serving as a finale to Season XV. Following eight levels of action 176 players remain with David Laka leading the field.

Laka spoke with the WPT after play ended and said, “The first table was pretty good and I made most of my chips there. At the second table I played one hand in two hours. I didn’t make that much money there, so all of the chips were made at my first table. It was pretty standard, I played aggressively and that worked, so I’m pretty happy. It was a lot of small pots and medium pots, a lot of three-bet pots, but nothing huge on the river.”

Jake Schwartz, Jason Koon and Cliff Josephy finished just outside the top ten spots and look to charge to the money bubble. Blair Hinkly, Tony Dunst, Phil Hui and Aaron Massey will average stacks to take into Day 2 while high rollers Barry Hutter, Daniel Weinman and Jeff Gross are at the bottom of the counts.

Registraition remained open until the start of play so the players from the $3,500 SHRPO that played until 4 am could register for the event. Day 2 kicks off Monday at noon local time with hopes of playing down to a final table.

Top Ten Chip Counts

1. David Laka – 223,200
2. Matt haugen – 215,200
3. Farid Jattin – 203,600
4. James Romero – 196,000
5. Ben Tarzia – 186,300
6. Eugene Katchalov – 176.200
7. Jean Gaspard – 173,400
8. Rainer Kempe – 164,400
9. Casey Yontz – 158,800
10. Tim West – 145,100