Patrick Martorella Takes Narrow Potomac Main Event Lead
A first-hand double-up left him just one big blind ahead of Phong Nguyen, with Justin Liberto close behind.
Patrick Martorella opened the Potomac Summer Poker Open $3,000 Main Event final table with a double-up on the first hand and finished Day 2 in front. He bagged 3,805,000 chips, just one big blind ahead of Phong Nguyen’s 3,750,000.
According to PokerNews, Martorella was all in for 975,000 with ace-king against Nicholas Verderamo’s jacks. He hit trips on the flop and improved to a full house on the river. Justin Liberto finished third with 3,530,000, followed by Kyle Smith on 2,840,000, Jonathan Moritz on 1,610,000 and Chris Kiani on 1,290,000.
The Main Event had already been whittled down to 58 players for Day 2. Thirty-five spots were paid, the field started with 280 entries, and the festival at MGM National Harbor runs Aug. 5-17 with 23 trophy events.
Day 2 produced a mix of notable names and grind-it-out cashes. Faraz Jaka was the first bustout, while Kyle Lin, Elia Ahmadian and Christian Harder also missed the money. On the bubble, Thomas Barry sent Yabetse Wedeneh and James Morris out in the same hand, with Morris covering Wedeneh by just 1,000 chips.
Tim Pool sneaked into the money and finished 34th. Samuel Rosen, last year’s fourth-place finisher, exited in 20th. Dejan Ristov turned a $25 online qualifier into $9,232 for a 16th-place finish, while Van Noy fell in 14th and Waleed Mian busted in 12th after losing a tens-versus-ace-queen race to Liberto.
Casey Hatmaker was the first player out at the nine-handed final table. Nguyen then knocked out Kevin Kwak in eighth and Verderamo in seventh before the final six bagged their chips.
Moritz earned his seat through a BetMGM online qualifier and had already locked up $37,204 for making it this far. The eventual champion will earn $154,006 from the $756,000 prize pool.
