The second of two opening flights for the $3,500 World Poker Tour Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown Championship ran on Saturday and drew 924 entrants – for a total of 1,869. Ten levels of action cut the field down to 346 advancing players with Maxwell Young leading them all with 623,000.
“Early on I battled with Farid Jattin where we played a ridiculous hand that turned into a 430 big blind pot,” Young said. “I ended up calling him with bottom pair.”
“From there, I ran hot after that,” Young added. “I’m just going to play my game and get some sleep tonight.”
Josh Arieh, Matthew Higgins and Clint Tolbert bagged up with healthy stacks and looked to be headed to the WPT Player Party, while Young is heading straight up to his room.
Erik Seidel, Brandon Adams, Erick Lindgren, Aaron Massey, Jared Jaffee and Adam Hendrix also return for Day 2 on Sunday.
Between the 2023 WPT World Championship and this stop, Justin Saliba literally traveled around the world racking up nearly $1 million along the way. While traveling 26,000 miles he earned $36.25 per mile.
Massey, a Chicago native, finally stopped living out of a suitcase and set up shop in Las Vegas. He has $5.6 million in tournament earnings but is still searching for a breakthrough WPT run.
Spencer Champlin rolled in the SHR two weeks ago and quietly re-wrote the Hendon Mob’s history by taking over Maine’s all-time winner spot.
Day 1A advanced 298 players, combined with Saturday’s surviving players, there are 644 returning for Sunday’s action.
The 1,869 entrants nearly doubled the guaranteed prize pool to the tune of $5.98 million. The top 234 players earn at least a min-cash of $6,400, a trip to the final table locks up $176,000 and the winner earns $839,300 and a seat at the 2024 WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas.
Sunday sees the fields combine with action beginning at noon for returning players. They’ll play ten 60-minute levels and Day 3 calls for the field to play down to 40 players. Day 4 plays down to the final table of six with 90-minute levels and the final table will be filmed for television at a date and location TBD.
Top Chip Leaders
- Maxwell Young - 623,000
- Valeriy Pak - 530,000
- Gregory WIlson - 455,000
All photos courtesy of WPT - by Joe Giron.
