The $5,000 buy-in 2024 World Poker Tour (WPT) bestbet Scramble Championship kicked off with Day 1a at noon ET on Friday, and it took one humble high-profile player barely any time to double his starting stack

Jeremy Becker, the Las Vegas daily tournament legend, started off strong thanks to a fortunate river card that sent another player home hours before the dinner break. But he’d run into his own misfortune a bit later.

Day 1a, the first of two starting flights — Day 1b takes place on Saturday — had over 130 entrants at the time of publishing, and registration for the session won’t close until after Level 8, or around 9:45 p.m. Many big name pros such as Joe McKeehen, Brian Altman, and Ali Imsirovic have already taken their seats. Eric Afriat, a three-time WPT winner, was a quick exit, and the defending champion, Frederic Normand, busted and reentered within the first few levels.

“Jbex” Spikes King on the River

World Poker Tour live reporters caught a monster hand during Level 2 involving Becker. The hand began with David DiBernardi raising the 300 big blind to 700 from the cutoff with Q*♣Q♥. Imsirovic made the call on the button before Becker, holding A♥K♥* in the big blind, three-bet it to 3,500.

DiBernardi then came back over the top with a raise to 8,500, enough to convince Imsirovic to fold. Becker, however, wasn’t going anywhere and instead made it 20,500. His opponent tanked for about two minutes before six-bet jamming for 41,600, and Becker called with a larger stack.

The flop came out 5*♦2♠2♦, clean for the queens, as was the 9♣* on the turn. But the K*♣* on the river gave Becker a win in a race in what was the largest pot of the day to that point. He was up to 99,000 following that hand, nearly double the 50,000-chip starting stack.

Becker then continued to rise to above 150,000 chips thanks to a three-way chopped pot in which he busted a player and split the main pot with Maurice Hawkins. Things were going well for the Wynn Las Vegas daily poker tournament legend at bestbet in Jacksonville.

But then he ran into a rough situation against WPT commentator Tony Dunst. Becker told PokerNews “I turned a set and thought I had him set-over-set, so I put him all in on the river. But he hit a 6 so river a gutter ball for the straight.” That hand dropped his stack back down to around 80,000 at the time of publishing, on the second 15-minute break of the day. But he remains in good spirits despite the set back.

“I’m not even on tilt one bit,” Becker said about his declining chip stack.

Becker rose to mainstream poker prominence in the past year when he went from playing low-stakes daily tournaments in Las Vegas to major events such as the WPT bestbet Scramble, and he hasn’t changed a bit.

“It’s definitely awesome because people that I idolized or saw on TV that made me better by watching them, now I’m playing with them every day,” Becker said of moving up in stakes to compete against the best in the world. “It’s honestly a dream come true, but let’s say (the WPT bestbet Scramble) wasn’t going on, and I’m just at home, no bigger buy-ins, I’ll be at the Wynn playing the daily. I just love to play and I’m super fortunate to play at just about any stakes I want right now.

The humble poker pro is still in a great position despite the tough hand against Dunst midway through Day 1a.

*Images courtesy of Katerina Lukina/World Poker Tour.

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