May 18 2012, Donnie Peters

Each year when PokerNews compiles it’s World Series of Poker Rookie Roundup list, Harrison Gimbel’s name comes up. Since he stormed onto the scene in early 2010, it’s always been a question of whether or not this kid would finally be of age to take to the WSOP felt. It’s now 2012 and it’s finally time that Gimbel gets the chance to make a run at a coveted gold bracelet to add to his trophy case.

Gimbel’s name first came to be known when he made the final table of the 2010 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. He entered the final table fourth in chips behind Ryan D’Angelo, Ty Reiman and Barry Shulman. When play got down to heads-up action, Gimbel was one of the two players remaining and pitted against Reiman for the title. After 46 hands of heads-up play, Gimbel’s defeated Reiman’s to give the 19 year old the title and the whopping first-place prize of $2.2 million.

Prior to his massive splash onto the poker scene, Gimbel was already a winner. In June 2009, he took down the Florida State Poker Championships for over $67,000. Since the 2010 PCA, Gimbel has been crushing the Florida poker scene where he was of legal age to play in live tournaments.

In April 2010, Gimbel took his talents overseas to Italy where he placed 39th in the European Poker Tour San Remo Main Event for “22,000. Several months later he won the Fall Poker Open Championship held in November at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino for $330,000, confirming he was no one-hit wonder.

From there, Gimbel went on to have earnings of $99,525 in 2011 and $72,811 already in 2012. Out of those two years, Gimbel’s largest score came in November 2011 when he took third in the Rock and Roll Poker Open in Hollywood, Florida, for just over $76,000. He also cashed in the PCA Main Event and the World Poker Tour Lucky Hearts Poker Open, both in 2012.

In total, Gimbel’s lifetime tournament earnings on the live felt total over $2.8 million and the youngster has the world at his fingertips when the 2012 WSOP rolls around.

Online, Gimbel used to play under the moniker “gibler321” on PokerStars and “this is punny” on Full Tilt Poker. Just from those two sites, Gimbel has won over $1.6 million in prize money. His largest online score came in December 2010 when he took second place in the Sunday Brawl for $88,107.31. He also has six other online scores over $40,000.

With his win at PCA, Gimbel became the youngest PCA Main Event champion, and though he may be young, Gimbel has put in the time playing millions of hands that will give him the experience he’ll need to thrive on the WSOP felt. The only question now is, how many final tables are we going to be covering him at?

PokerNews will be keeping a close eye on Gimbel in the coming months, so be sure to check our Live Reporting Page for the duration of the 2012 WSOP. Stay tuned for more rookies to look out for, as well.

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February 11 2012, Brett Collson

There’s no rest for the weary at the World Poker Tour. Fresh off the conclusion of the WPT Venice Grand Prix, Day 1a of the WPT Lucky Hearts Poker Open wrapped up at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in sunny Florida on Friday. The day began with 125 players forking over the $3,500 buy-in, and a couple of the game’s top pros were hovering near the top of the leaderboard when the chips were bagged and tagged.

Uri Kadosh (275,500) and Ely Levy (218,500) topped the chip counts at the end of Day 1a, but Team PokerStars Pro Jason Mercier was the big story. Mercier told WPT’s Jess Welman that he registered for the tournament two hours late, but he went on a big rush in the later levels to finish with 176,400, placing him third on the chip counts. Mercier’s effort was good enough to earn him WPT Player of the Day honors.

Also landing among the top 10 stacks as play concluded was Shaun Deeb, who had a special guest railing him during Day 1a. With his 92-year-old grandmother in attendance, Deeb assembled a stack of 112,700 on Friday, much of which came during a hand near the end of the night.

The WPT Live Updates team discovered Deeb and another player looking at a board with 6,000 chips already in the pot. Deeb checked from the big blind and his opponent put in a bet. Deeb check-raised to 10,000, and the other player three-bet to 22,200. Not to be outdone, Deeb four-bet to 65,000, essentially putting the other player all-in. After tanking for a while, Deeb’s opponent decided to lay his hand down, and Deeb flashed the before raking in a nice pot.

Forty-two players survived Day 1a. Among the other notables advancing to Sunday’s Day 2 were Anthony Ruberto (77,100), Fred Goldberg (59,500), Matt Waxman (59,400), Mohsin Charania (53,100), Matt Giannetti (46,200), Allen Kessler (31,000), and WPT Player of the Year leader Will Failla (22,500).

The bright side for the players who busted on Friday is that they’ll be able to fire another bullet on Saturday. Some of the players who busted on Day 1 a were Dan O’Brien, Darryll Fish, Andy Frankenberger, Christian Harder, Jonathan Little, Matt Sout, Kathy Liebert, Andrew Lichtenberger, and WPT Raw Deal host Tony Dunst. We suspect most of those players will take advantage of the re-entry option on Day 1b.

Here’s a look at the top 10 stacks from Day 1a of the WPT Lucky Hearts Poker Open:

World Poker Tour Lucky Hearts Poker Open Top 10 Chip Counts

Play will resume on Saturday at 12 p.m. ET. Stay tuned to PokerNews for daily recaps from the WPT Lucky Hearts Poker Open in Hollywood, Florida.

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*Photo courtesy of the World Poker Tour.

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