The World Poker Tour is enjoying its stay at Wynn Las Vegas this month. After a plethora of events that shattered guarantees, the WPT has reached its pinnacle tournament, the 2023 WPT World Championship, and is through the first two of four flights. One of its preliminary tournaments, the WPT Prime Championship, has reached its final table, which will see the eventual champion walk off with a million-dollar-plus payday.
WPT World Championship Field Grows at Midpoint
The first two Day Ones of the 2023 WPT World Championship have seen sizeable fields as the tournament looks to exceed its $40 million guarantee. On Day 1A, 609 entries were etched into the books, while Day 1B pulled in a nice gathering of 730 entries. With those first two Day Ones down, the totals stand at 1339 entries, of which 467 players have earned the right to move on to Day Two.
For Day 1A, Jeff Hakim emerged as the chip leader, eking his way by Adekunle Olonoh and Alan Keating as the only members over the 900K mark in chips. Jon Borenstein has made a decent run in the initial action, as have John Myung and Patrick Leonard. Further down the leaderboard for Day 1A lurk such notable former WPT champions as Darren Elias, Gus Hansen, and Adam Weinraub, while the always dangerous veteran David ‘The Dragon’ Pham is on the hunt also.
1. Jeff Hakim, 998,000
2. Adekunle Olonoh, 972,000
3. Alan Keating, 957,000
4. Arden Cho, 798,000
5. Jeremy Joseph, 773,000
Day 1B saw Peter Neff come out on top for the action, but it was not enough to knock Hakim off the top of the ladder. The surprise of the day might have been WPT commentator Lynn Gilmartin earning a Top 15 stack by finishing with 556,000 in chips. She will go to Day 2 along with former WSOP final tablist Sylvain Loosli, Matthias Eibinger, Jack Hardcastle, Jack Sinclair, and Mark Seif, among others.
1. Peter Neff, 899,000
2. Kharlin Sued, 735,000
3. Colton Blomberg, 704,000
4. Asher Neaman, 684,000
5. Ankit Ahuja, 652,000
After half of the Day One flights, the highly unofficial leaderboard for the 2023 WPT World Championship looks like this:
1. Jeff Hakim, 998,000
2. Adekunle Olonoh, 972,000
3. Alan Keating, 957,000
4. Peter Neff, 899,000
5. Arden Cho, 798,000
6. Jeremy Joseph, 773,000
7. Jon Borenstein, 745,000*
8. John Myung, 712,000*
9. Patrick Leonard, 706,000*
10. Colton Blomberg, 704,000
(* – Day 1A players)
Thursday will see the Day 1C field come together, with the last opportunity (Day 1D) to make Day Two for the WPT World Championship running on Friday. Those two days will have a massive outpouring of players, with the key number to look for is 4000 players – that will crack the $40 million guarantee and ensure the success of the 2023 WPT World Championship.
Jay Lu Heads WPT Prime Championship Final Table
Nine men returned to action on Wednesday to work their way down to the final table of the WPT Prime Championship, the $1000 preliminary event to the WPT World Championship. Jon Glendinning was at the helm of the ship for the start of the action, but he faced an array of challenges including Jay Lu (67.9 million), Calvin Anderson (61.2 million), and Valeriy Pak (60.2 million). At stake for the players was a bigger piece of the $10,196,640 prize pool, with everyone looking at the $1,386,280 at the top of the ladder.
The players were a bit tentative at the beginning, feeling out their opposition over the first 25 hands of action (or inaction, as the case may be). On Hand #27, however, the dam broke through with the first all-in of the final table. Yuebin Guo popped the betting up to 2.4 million and Lu would three-bet him to 5.4 million. After burning a couple of Time Chips, Guo basically put his tournament life on the line with a four-bet and, after Lu moved all in, that became a reality for Guo.
Guo could have probably predicted what was coming:
Guo (UTG): pocket Aces
Lu (button): pocket Kings
Guo had the chip leader right where he wanted him, but the poker gods had other thoughts. The K-Q-4 flop hit Lu squarely to give him a set of Cowboys, but Guo got some more outs when a Jack came on the turn. Looking for an Ace (for a better set) or a ten (for Broadway), Guo’s hopes were dashed by a five on the river to end his tournament in ninth place.
Once Guo went to the rail, that seemed to loosen up the other players. Anderson was able to knock out Tri Dao only two hands later in eighth place after Anderson flopped trip fives and rivered a full house. The final domino fell when former WPT Player of the Year Mukul Pahuja was unable to catch with his J-10 against Lu’s pocket Kings on a Q-Q-9-2-2 board to finish in seventh place.
Seat 1: Calvin Anderson – 99,500,000
Seat 2: Valeriy Pak – 39,700,000
Seat 3: Aaron Pinson – 38,600,000
Seat 4: Bob Buckenmayer – 76,000,000
Seat 5: Jon Glendinning – 44,400,000
Seat 6: Jay Lu – 123,200,000
And here are the remaining payouts for the final table:
1st: $1,386,280
2nd: $910,000
3rd: $675,000
4th: $505,000
5th: $380,000
6th: $290,000
While it looks like it might come down to a battle between Lu and Anderson for the title that, as the saying goes, is why they play the game! The final six men will have time to strategize, however, as the champion will not be determined until next Tuesday (December 19) as the 2023 WPT World Championship festivities begin to draw to a close.
(Photo courtesy of the WPT)
