In Level 24 with blinds of 12,000/24,000 and an ante of 3,000, Michael “UFOLDIWIN” St. John defended his big blind against an open to 52,000 from Ryan "Whosyourdoddy" Dodd, who was on the button. The flop dropped and St. John checked to Dodd, who fired a continuation-bet of 66,000. St. John called.
Action checked through the turn and the river came . St. John led out with a bet of 78,000 and Dodd raised it up, making it 393,000 total. St. John thought for a few moments and then let his hand go, resultingi n Dodd further increasing his chip lead with only a few minutes left before another break in the action.
In Level 23 with blinds of 10,000/20,000 and an ante of 2,500, "HodorHodorHodor" raised to 50,000 in the cutoff and was three-bet to 160,000 by Ryan "Whosyourdoddy" Dodd, who was on the button. Action made its way back to "HodorHodorHodor" and they called to see a flop of . "HodorHodorHodor" checked and Dodd made a continuation-bet of 130,000, which was called.
Both players checked the turn and the river fell . "HodorHodorHodor" checked once more and Dodd made a pot-sized bet of 622,000, more than enough to put "HodorHodorHodor" to a decision for their remaining 542,000.
Roughly half-a-minute later, "HodorHodorHodor" folded and the pot was shipped to Dodd, who has increased his stack to over 2 million as a result.
In Level 22 with blinds of 8,000/16,000 and an ante of 2,000, "HodorHodorHodor" raised to 44,000 in the hijack and action folded around to Kevin “sofcknsick” Campbell in the big blind, who three-bet to 140,000. "HodorHodorHodor" four-bet to 428,000, more than enough to put Campbell all in, who called off his remaining 227,000 in total.
Kevin “sofcknsick” Campbell:
"HodorHodorHodor":
Both players had pocket kings and Campbell saw a sweaty flop of . The turn spelled disaster, giving his opponent a flush that left him drawing dead to the river . As a result, Campbell finished the tournament in sixth place to earn $927 in combined prizes.
The partypoker US Online Network – which is comprised of partypoker US, Borgata Poker and BetMGM Poker – has been gaining momentum in New Jersey, most recently with last month's WPT Online Borgata Series.
One player who has been doing quite well on the site is bracelet winner Daniel “centrfieldr23” Lupo, 37, of West Milford, New Jersey. You might recall that last summer, Lupo topped a 1,767-entry field to win the WSOP.com Online $500 NLH Turbo Deepstack for $145,274 and a gold bracelet. Earlier this year, he added a ring to his résumé by taking down the WSOP.com Online Circuit Event #3: $320 NLH 6-Max for $32,595 and a month later won the WSOP.com $100,000 GTD Sunday for $50,715.
PokerNews caught up with Lupo, who went to NJIT for Architecture and baseball, to ask him about poker, which he squeezes in between working for an Architecture firm in Bridgewater specializing in single-family residential and smaller commercial projects and his family, which includes three kids ages 2-5 and his supportive wife Laura.
Q&A with Daniel “centrfieldr23” Lupo
PokerNews: When and how did you learn to play poker?
Lupo: I started playing/learning in college during the Rounders and Moneymaker boom with a bunch of the baseball guys. Within a year I found myself hosting games at college, at home on breaks and basically anywhere I could find or make a game. I didn’t play much online early on, regrettably.
What sort of poker do you play these days?
Mostly online MTTs playing like three sessions per week on average with buy-ins typically from $50 to $1k with the occasional $2-$3k buy in for a big event. I average around 500-600 MTTs a month despite not playing full time, I tend to put in a lot of volume when I’m on. The games are mostly NLH and some PLO MTTs, but love when StarsNJ runs a series as they run a fun 8-Game MTT with a bunch of other mixed variants.
What’s it like to play poker while raising young children?
It’s been a constant evolution. I could probably write a book about all the highs and lows and life adjustments I’ve had or chose to make. It gives me a lot of inspiration to succeed while also adding some weight to my losses as it's like 'not only was I way from my kids for all of Sunday afternoon but I lost (insert obnoxious Sunday schedule cost here)'.
Daniel Lupo and his family
What are some of your poker goals?
Try and win everything I play. Actually, my biggest current goal is trying to optimize my MTT game selection. Since quarantine began the schedules have been exploding site to site and while it's been great, with lots of new players and lots of live players playing online it has also drastically increased my average buy-ins and session costs as well as the field size which further increases variance.
I'm trying to optimize the balance of table quantity and expected value vs individual session costs and the variance that comes with it. Having an average buy-in of $250 adds up pretty quickly when it's spread across 60+ entries on a Sunday. My biggest ongoing and long-term goal is to win enough to help my family live comfortably.
How did it feel to take down the partypoker US Network Phased Main Event last month?
I was pretty stoked about the partypoker US win. I love their structure and it was a very tough field when we were deep; I was fortunate to run pretty well and the be able to leverage my chip stack at the final table. I had made a bunch of top 18 runs in their series Main Events but couldn't crack a solid finish lately so this felt a little extra special.
In Level 21 with blinds of 7,000/14,000 and an ante of 1,750, Ryan "Whosyourdoddy" Dodd opened the action with a raise to 49,000 and "EmeraldForest32" called on the button. "Jinxy" three-bet shoved for 132,000 in the small blind, receiving a fold from Dodd and a call from "EmeraldForest32".
"Jinxy":
"EmeraldForest32":
"Jinxy's" aces were ahead but the flop came to give "EmeraldForest32" the nut straight. "Jinxy" couldn't catch running full house outs as they were drawing dead by the turn , leaving only the river between them and a seventh-place finish.
Six players now remain, all of whom have officially made the final table.
In Level 21 with blinds of 7,000/14,000 and an ante of 1,750, all of the chips went into the middle preflop with "StellaParks" at risk for their last 121,000 in the cutoff against Kevin “sofcknsick” Campbell, who had given them action in the big blind.
Kevin “sofcknsick” Campbell:
"StellaParks":
"StellaParks" was ahead but picked up a sweat on the flop as Campbell picked up a flush draw. Unfortunately for "StellaParks", that draw filled up on the turn and left them drawing dead to the river . "StellaParks" was the eighth-place finisher as "E.J.D." busted before them just after the bubble burst in ninth. Seven players now remain and hand-for-hand play is in effect once again as the tournament has reached the final table bubble.
In Level 20 with blinds of 6,000/12,000 and an ante of 1,500, Chris “rumpthumper” White pumped it up to 42,000 in the cutoff and both Michael “UFOLDIWIN” St. John and "thekid32" called on the button and in the big blind, respectively.
The flop fell and action checked around to St. John, who bet the pot for 139,500. "thekid32" check-jammed for 463,000 and White quickly got out of the way to put action back onto St. John, who just as quickly called.
"thekid32":
Michael “UFOLDIWIN” St. John:
"thekid32" had run top-and-bottom pair into top set but still had flush outs to stay alive. However, no more hearts came as the turn and river completed the runout and the seven-figure pot was sent to St. John to result in "thekid32" finding themselves as the official bubble finisher of the tournament in 10th place.
All nine remaining players are officially now in the money.
The tournament is on another five-minute break with a couple of minutes remaining in Level 19 (5,000/10,000/1,250) and 10 players still in contention. Updated chip counts have been provided below, with Ryan "Whosyourdoddy" Dodd still atop the counts and further increasing his chip, well surpassing the seven-figure mark with a stack north of 1.3 million.
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and St. John checked to Dodd, who fired a continuation-bet of 66,000. St. John called.
and the river came 
. St. John led out with a bet of 78,000 and Dodd raised it up, making it 393,000 total. St. John thought for a few moments and then let his hand go, resultingi n Dodd further increasing his chip lead with only a few minutes left before another break in the action.
. "HodorHodorHodor" checked and Dodd made a continuation-bet of 130,000, which was called.
and the river fell 
. "HodorHodorHodor" checked once more and Dodd made a pot-sized bet of 622,000, more than enough to put "HodorHodorHodor" to a decision for their remaining 542,000.
. The turn 
spelled disaster, giving his opponent a flush that left him drawing dead to the river 
to give "EmeraldForest32" the nut straight. "Jinxy" couldn't catch running full house outs as they were drawing dead by the turn 
between them and a seventh-place finish.
as Campbell picked up a flush draw. Unfortunately for "StellaParks", that draw filled up on the turn 
and left them drawing dead to the river 
