With tournaments in both Las Vegas (the WPT World Championship) and Rozvadov (the EPT Prague) enjoying a great deal of success, the World Series of Poker schedule at Atlantis Resort Spa in the Bahamas has kind of been overlooked. The Main Event of the WSOP Paradise, as it has been billed, has determined its final table, with popular pro Matt Glantz in the hunt for his first bracelet. He has his work cut out for him as he stares up the leaderboard at several larger stacks, however.
Close Call for the Guarantee
The WSOP Paradise has been an adventure, more so for the tournament organizers than they might have imagined. Some of the events have had difficulties getting past their guaranteed prize pools, with the first two events barely topping a $5 million guarantee. The Main Event of the WSOP Paradise schedule, with a $15 million guarantee, barely eked over that total in drawing 3010 entries to make a $15.050 million prize pool.
That did not seem to matter to the 59 players who came back on Wednesday to determine the final nine combatants for the inaugural WSOP Paradise Main Event bracelet. Leading the way was Henrique Lessa from Brazil, who racked up 8.64 million chips for battle on Day 3. Following him was a familiar name to poker fans, 2023 WSOP Championship Event final tablist Adam Walton, who finished third this summer in the $10,000 Championship Event. Walton held an 8.48 million stack, which topped Rui Sousa, Stanislav Zegal, and Troy Quenneville to start the day.
Walton made moves early in the day to take over the chip lead. He would eliminate Jose Zurita after outflopping him (5-3-2) with a 5-2 against Zurita’s pocket Kings and cracking the ten million chip mark. Walton would not receive a challenger until Sousa knocked out David Petters to cross over the ten million chip plateau also.
Glantz, for his part, was mired back in the pack before a big double-up against Quenneville. Glantz went to battle with pocket tens (and his tourney life at stake) against Quenneville’s A-Q, and the eight high board cooperated with Glantz’s pair to give him the hand. That was a key moment for the creator of the Charity Series of Poker as he doubled to 4.8 million; the news was not as good for Quenneville, as he went down to only 725K.
The “run good” would continue for Glantz. In another major clash, Glantz would find just the right moment to have pocket Aces against Siarhei Chudapal’s Big Slick. Chudapal would find a King on the board, but it came on the river and it was not enough to beat Glantz, who went up to 9.1 million chips while Chudapal was left with scraps that went to Michael Skienicka.
Three Tables to a Final Table
When the field reached the final 24 players following the dinner break, only three players – Zegal (14.475 million), Sousa (12.8 million), and Jacopo Achille (11.225 million) – were over the ten million mark, but several contenders lurked along with Glantz. Bryce Yockey, Walton, and Timothy Adams were all in the mix, with Adams on a short stack. Adams was unable to run that stack up, departing in 20th place to Walton after the 2023 WSOP Championship Event player picked up bullets against Adams’ pocket eights.
It would take about six hours to determine the final table, but it was the final few hands of the night that would prove to be interesting. Walton was not amongst the final eight, departing in twelfth place, and after Luke Graham was eliminated in eighth place, Glantz was in the lead. That changed, however, when Daniel Neilson was able to make pocket fours stand up against Glantz’s A-K after Glantz paired and Neilson hit a set on the K-2-4 flop. Although Nielson would give up some chips to Sklenicka in a double, it was still enough for Nielson to have a substantial lead going to the final table.
1. Daniel Nielson, 37.4 million
2. Stanislav Zegal, 28 million
(tie) Gabriel Schroeder, 28 million
4. Rui Sousa, 20.7 million
5. Michael Sklenicka, 16 million
6. Matt Glantz, 15.5 million
7. Montgomery McQuade, 4.9 million
The final table for the WSOP Paradise is set for action at 2 PM this afternoon and will play down to the champion. That fortunate individual will win the first-ever (and unique) WSOP Paradise Main Event bracelet and pocket the $2 million first-place prize.
(Photo courtesy of WSOP.com and Tomas Stacha)