Janssen Leads the Final Table of the HPT Lawrenceburg Main Event

Adam Lamers

Level 27 : 30,000/60,000, 60,000 ante

After nearly eight hours of poker today, the official final table in the Heartland Poker Tour Lawrenceburg $1,100 Main Event has been reached. The day belonged to George Janssen who did the other eight players a favor by racking up a huge chip lead with 6,695,000 chips.

It was an up and down day for Janssen going into the dinner break but after adding some fuel, he steamrolled the competition down the stretch. It all started by winning massive back-to-back flips against former chipleader Matthew Hils. The next huge pot came when Jake Bazeley tried bluffing a missed flush draw but Janssen called him down with pocket aces.

Heading into the final table, Janssen will carry over 40% of the total chips in play and will be a big favorite when play begins. Janssen already has his largest career score locked up but a title victory could provide some life-changing money. His previous two recorded cashes came at the MSPT stop in his home state of Michigan in 2015 and 2017.

Although Janssen will be the clear cut favorite, there are still eight other hopefuls that will be looking to run him down. Gregory Wood is the only player with previous final table experience on the HPT and he is sitting in second place with 2,300,000 chips. Douglas Songer (1,760,000) had a rollercoaster of a day as well but finished on a high note by eliminating David Keller in 10th place. Another player in contention as well is Joey Hiudt who made a late rally to finish with 1,510,000 chips. Hiudt was the only player to give Janssen a hiccup down the stretch so he will look to build on that when play resumes tomorrow.

Final Table Seat Draw

Seat	Player	Chip Count	Big Blinds
1	George Janssen	6,695,000	112
2	Joey Hiudt	1,510,000	25
3	Gregory Wood	2,300,000	38
4	Gary Breslauer	815,000	14
5	Douglas Songer	1,760,000	29
6	Donald Kalb	1,120,000	19
7	Mike Shin	695,000	12
8	Angela Shade	1,005,000	17
9	Ian Richardson	755,000	13

The action got underway in the ballroom of the Hollywood Casino at 11am with 86 players returning to the felt. It didn't take long for the eliminations to start piling up. Angela Shade was the first player to break out in a big way when she eliminated Mike Hahn and Adam Asbury in a sick cooler. All three players made a full house but Shade's was the largest by the time the river hit which made her the first player to reach the seven-figure mark.

The money bubble burst just before the first break of the day when Kevin Stroud picked up ace-king and decided to go with it even after missing the board. Randall Myers called him down with pocket tens and Stroud became the bubble boy. Some of the notable names to reach the money include Nick Guagenti (46th place - $2,064), Kyle Besaw (43rd place - $2,435), Randall Myers (30th place - $2,911), Iverson Snuffer (14th place - $6,087), Timothy Burden (13th place - $6,087), and Jake Bazeley (11th place - $8,151).

The action will get back underway on Monday at 12pm with 6:40 remaining in level 27 and the blinds at 30,000/60,000 with a 60,000 big blind ante. The final nine players will take a seat at the feature table which will be live streamed with hole cards on a 30-minute delay. The blind levels will still be 40 minutes in length and 30 minutes when heads-up is reached.