The home stretch of the World Poker Tour season is in full effect as the final table has been set for the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown Main Event, the first of the season-end trifecta along with the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Finale and the WPT Tournament of Champions, all happening in the same week. Leading the six-handed final table is Dan Colman, who, with 9.975 million chips is only slightly ahead of Tony Sinishtaj, who has 9.515 million.
To begin Monday’s final table, it looks like a three player race. Along with Colman and Sinishtaj is Darryll Fish, who has 7.525 million. After those three, there is a large gap to the bottom half of the chip counts, with Simeon Naydenov, Robert Mizrachi, and Eric Beller all around 3 million.
Colman, from a purely money standpoint, is one of the most successful live tournament players in poker history. He has won nearly $28 million in live tourneys, good for third all-time behind Daniel Negreanu and Erik Seidel. While he has had a fantastic 2017 already, it was 2014 during which he exploded onto the scene and wowed the poker world. In April of that year, Colman won the European Poker Tour Grand Final Super High Roller for $2,127,398 and then triumphed in the World Series of Poker Big One for One Drop to the tune of $15,306,668. In July, he “only” managed a third place finish at the Aria $100K Super High Roller for almost $800,000. Then, in August, he had two cashes for over a million bucks: a runner-up finish in the EPT Barcelona High Roller and a win at the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Main Event. Colman finished off 2014 with a victory at the WPT Alpha8 London for almost a million dollars and then a “lowly” seventh place finish at the Asia Championship of Poker Macau, a piddly $373,932 score.
Dan Colman had just two live tournament cashes in 2015, but they totaled over $1.8 million. Last year, he only had four cashes, but they added up to around $1.3 million. So far in 2017, Colman has almost $2 million live tournament cashes. When he makes the money, he really makes the money.
For making the final table, Colman and the other five players have already guaranteed themselves at least $132,889. First place is worth $661,283.
This tournament has an odd schedule in that there is now a break before the final table so that players can enter the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Finale if they so choose. That tourney began Sunday, but registration remained open until the start of play today. The Showdown final table will be contested on Wednesday, April 5th.
2017 World Poker Tour Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown Championship – Final Table Chip Counts
1. Dan Colman – 9,975,000
2. Tony Sinishtaj – 9,515,000
3. Darryll Fish – 7,525,000
4. Simeon Naydenov – 3,115,000
5. Robert Mizrachi – 3,100,000
6. Eric Beller – 2,960,000