It was carnage on Day 2 of the World Poker Tour (WPT) Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown as the field of 554 that entered the day was slashed to just 92 players as the tournament got another day closer to the final table. Raj Vohra emerged as the chip leader, bagging 1.675 million chips Sunday night.
As was noted this weekend, the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown set a World Poker Tour record with 1,476 total entries, making it the largest tournament in the Tour’s history. Despite that, though, not enough players registered and/or re-entered to eclipse the $5 million guaranteed prize pool set by the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino. With $3,200 of the $3,500 buy-in going towards the prize pool, the collective pot only hit $4,723,200, meaning the official prize pool was set at the $5 million guarantee. The top eight finishers will all nab at least six-figure paydays, with the winner cashing for an even $1 million.
Payouts went down to 150th place, so everyone returning to play on Monday can already feel comfortable knowing they have cashed.
A couple of the more interesting stories of the day involve players other than the chip leader. First there is Faraz Jaka, the homeless poker star. During Level 16 (play ended after 20 levels), he was down to a single big blind. The old “chip and a chair” axiom. He kept at it, though, and by the end of the day, was not only still alive, but finished with a fairly healthy 431,000 chips.
Sometimes you just have to get lucky. With 3,500 chips remaining (technically less than one big blind, which was 4,000 at the time), Jaka moved all-in pre-flop, as one would expect him to do. Two other players stayed in the hand and checked it all the way down on a board of A-A-9-4-4. Jaka showed T-9 for two pair and fortunately, neither of his opponents could top that, so he suddenly was up to 15,000 chips. Still in bad shape, but better than one big blind.
Shortly after that, Jaka doubled-up with A-9 against pocket Sevens and within just a few minutes, his stack was at 84,000 (there was clearly a double-up before this, as well – I’m not THAT bad at math).
The other player of note is Darren Elias, who, by making the money, set a World Poker Tour record with his eighth cash of the season. Elias also made history this season by becoming the second person ever to win back-to-back WPT titles and the first to do so in the same season. Despite cashing, he did not advance to Day 3.
Day 3 is about to begin; come find us tomorrow for further updates.
2015 WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown – Day 2 Chip Leaders
1. Raj Vohra – 1,675,000
2. Brian Green – 1,400,000
3. Robert Campbell – 1,344,000
4. Eli Levy – 1,291,000
5. John Thrower – 1,258,000
6. Jan Ziegler – 1,104,000
7. Andre Crooks – 1,083,000
8. Shankar Pillai – 1,009,000
9. Scott Efron – 997,000
10. Scott Zakheim – 948,000
