The World Poker Tour (WPT) is back in Las Vegas for the first of two televised tables to be filmed at HyperX Sports Arena at the Luxor this week.
Wednesday’s feature is the conclusion of the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown — one of the most popular stops on the schedule and an attraction for the game’s top players — a fact reflected in its stacked final table of accomplished professionals.
A field of 1,869 turned out in Florida for their shot at the Mike Sexton WPT Champions Cup, and a star-laden final table of six now remains to fight for the top prize of $839,300 and a seat at December’s WPT World Championship.
The Magnificient Six
Aaron Kupin will enter the day with the short stack and just over $600K in lifetime earnings. He’ll take around 25 big blinds out of the bag — a far cry from when he finished Day 1 with just 17,500. Kupin has already locked up his top score with a sixth-place finish.
Also near the bottom of the leaderboard is red-hot Jesse Lonis, one of the best young players in the game with over $8 million in earnings. Lonis has stacked up the accolades over the past few years, but he’s still looking for his first WPT title to add to a collection that includes two WSOP bracelets and a win at the U.S. Poker Open in the PokerGO Studios.
Alex Queen starts the final table in the middle of the pack and he is also looking to add WPT Champion to an already-full resume. Queen won the Borgata Winter Poker Open Championship in January to add more than $600K to bring his lifetime earnings to just over $2.5 million.
While Queen and Lonis have filled up the trophy case lately, Landon Tice is looking for a big win and he has a great chance to get it. Tice is a co-host on the Only Friend Podcast and one-half of the Tice vs Jeremy Becker bet at the WSOP this summer, but he’s still looking for a career-defining win. The young pro will cross $1m in earnings just by sitting down on Wednesday and he can pick up his biggest score with a fifth-place finish or better.
In the second spot on the leaderboard is WSOP Circuit grinder Josh Reichard with just over 20 million in chips. The Janesville, Wisconsin native has 15 WSOP circuit rings and several WPT cashes, but this is his best chance at a spot on the Mike Sexton Cup. Reichard has $3.1 million in career earnings with wins all over the country on mid-major tours.
Reichard is trailing the leader, Dylan Smith, who ran deep in the 2023 version of this event. Smith has $1.8 million in earnings throughout his career, and he mostly focuses on pot-limit Omaha, and he’s one table away from his first WPT title. The leader will sit down with 28 million — around one-third of the chips in play — but it’s going to take a peak performance at a tough final table to close the deal.
Cards go in the air at 4pm at the Luxor with just a few minutes remaining in Level 30 and blinds of 100,000/200,000/200,000. Stay tuned with the PokerOrg team, who will be on-site for a full recap of the action after the confetti falls.
