Poker Betting Strategy

At the Beau Rivage in Biloxi, Mississippi, Day 3 of the World Poker Tour’s Southern Poker Championship may have gotten off to a slow start, losing just six players in the first two hours of play, but by day’s end, the action was virtually non-stop.

After Day 3 of the Southern Poker Championship, Arizona’s Ryan Hughes is the leader in the clubhouse, a stop on the World Poker Tour (WPT), although all eyes are on two former winners. Allen “AawwNutz” Carter has a stack of 530,000, about half of Hughes’ mammoth tally of over one million. He won this event two years ago. Hughes has 220,000 more in chips than his next closest competitor does and he is the lone player to pass the seven-figure mark.

When the day began, in the tournament area 66 players took their seats but six levels of poker later only 19 remained and the money bubble had burst. Followed by notables like Ben Klier, Jason Mercier, Ali Eslami, and Jonathan Little, Nick Schulman was the first bustout of the day. With Hughes taking complete advantage of the looming money bubble, players like Ryan and Alexander began to amass big stacks.

Gavin Smith hit the rail, followed shortly thereafter by Michael Benvenuti in 29th place, with the 27-person money bubble just a few players away. Players went to hand-for-hand play, which dragged on for two hours without elimination, once Benvenuti busted. While, other players seemed to just be doing their best to tread water, Hughes was chipping up. Alistair Melville managed to get it all-in and more than double up, although he blinded down to just a couple of big blinds.

For the $601,000 top prize, a total of 19 players remain in the hunt and the entire field is in the money. On Tuesday, Carter delivered the final knockout of Day 3 when he sent Andrew Batkin to the rail with pocket tens against 9-8 of clubs.

Corkins dropped a significant chunk of his stack, just a few minutes prior, after doubling up Bobby Keller. Against Keller’s J-9 of diamonds for top pair, Corkins had Keller covered with pocket eights for a pair and a straight draw. However, Keller was given a running 3-4, the critical double up. When all was said and done, Corkins bagged up the 11th largest stack, but he would have likely been in the top five had he not doubled up Keller.