Las Vegas low-stakes legend Jeremy Becker ran into a brutal situation early in a high roller event on Monday at the PokerStars North American Poker Tour Las Vegas (NAPT).
The $25,000 Super High Roller, which had 42 entrants at the time of publishing, featured some of the best players in the world competing for an NAPT title at Resorts World Las Vegas. World-class players such as Scott Seiver, Erik Seidel, and Jeremy Ausmus all showed up on Day 1 to battle it out in the high roller.
Becker has traditionally played much lower stakes tournaments, most notably at Wynn Las Vegas where he’s won 16 events recorded by The Hendon Mob. But he’s been upping the ante since the 2024 World Series of Poker (WSOP) began.
Poker is Never Easy
Event #2 is one of the highlights on the 2024 NAPT schedule. The tournament began at noon PT from the ballroom at Resorts World. Those who registered at the start began at the 500/1,000 (1,000 big blind ante) blind level with 250,000 chips.
Becker, who has nearly $2.5 million in live tournament cashes, was among the early entrants. He fell back a bit from his starting stack during the first two levels, but still had over 100 big blinds in Level 2 when he ran into a rough one against Jonathan Little.
PokerNews live reporter Nick Becker caught the conclusion of an all in back and forth between Becker and Little, the PokerCoaching.com founder. Little would later tell PokerNews that his opponent started the hand with around 200,000 chips. The blinds were at 1,000/1,500 at the time.
Little, on the button with A♣K♠, would play an all in pot well behind the A♠A♥ Becker held in the small blind. The flop came out 9♣10♦J♣, giving the poker coach and longtime pro a gutshot straight draw and backdoor flush draw.
But when the Q♦ hit on the turn, Little hit his straight, leaving Becker’s aces drawing only to a chop. The 4♣ on the river sealed the deal and sent “Jbex” home in Level 2 of a $25,000 buy-in tournament at the North American Poker Tour.
Little was over 565,000 chips at that point, nearly 400 big blinds. He remained around the top of the leaderboard through the next few levels before falling back to about 400,000 chips at the time of publishing, good for 100 big blinds. Registration is still open in the $25k, so payouts aren’t yet available.
Becker battled Landon Tice this past summer in a highly publicized crossbooking prop bet. Neither played turned in a profitable WSOP, but Becker lost less, thus he won the bet.
