Four months after narrowly missing the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event final table, Alec Torelli is off and running in his quest to run deep in another major poker tournament.
On Saturday, Torelli bagged one of the largest stacks on Day 1b of the $5,000 buy-in World Poker Tour (WPT) bestbet Scramble. He was among 73 survivors from the session, all of whom will join the 55 players on Sunday at noon ET who bagged Day 1a.
Registration is now closed and the $1 million guarantee was easily surpassed. The pot hit $1,660,750 with a total of 365 entrants. First place is set to pay $351,650, and a min-cash — 46th place — pays $9,400.
Long Time Coming for Torelli
Torelli, a longtime poker pro and poker coach, finished 11th in the Main Event this past summer for $700,000, his largest score ever. Although he’s had a successful career in cash games, he hasn’t won a The Hendon Mob recorded tournament since 2008. But he could be a few days away from ending that drought.
When play ended at around midnight from bestbet Jacksonville, Torelli had 308,000 chips to drop into his bag. That put him in fifth place from the session’s survivors. Kevin Javier bagged the chip lead with 378,500. Bin Weng, the Day 1a chip leader, will enter Day 2 as the only player above 400,000 in chips (411,500).
Not everyone was as fortunate as Javier and Torelli. Tony Dunst, the WPT announcer, had nursed a short stack for a while before being eliminated late on Day 1b when he went all in with A♦8♣ against the A♠J♣ of Joseph Brum Pacheco, and the best hand held up.
Cord Garcia, Erkut Yilmaz, Jake Schwartz, and Maurice Hawkins were also unable to advance through 10 levels of play with chips. But plenty of crushers did reach Day 2, including Torelli, Darryll Fish, James Carroll, Blake Bohn, Hunter Cichy, and Farid Jattin.
With the money bubble still 82 bust-outs away, it likely won’t happen until late during the Day 2 session, which takes place on Sunday. Day 3 is scheduled for Monday, with the final table at 2 p.m. ET on Tuesday.
Top Day 1b Chip Stacks
| Place | Player | Chip Stack |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kevin Javier | 378,500 |
| 2 | Qi You | 374,000 |
| 3 | Phu Vo | 345,000 |
| 4 | Brian Arbaugh | 320,000 |
| 5 | Alec Torelli | 308,000 |
*Images courtesy of WPT/Drew Amato