Everything you need to know about the 2022 WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown

The Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown, one of the World Poker Tour’s most popular and well-attended stops each year, kicked off its 2022 incarnation on March 24. The numbers reported from the first $400 buy-in event are very auspicious, as 3,687 entries helped generate a prize pool of $1,216,710.

The festival will be played until April 12 and will consist of 50 events. The marquee event, the WPT Championship, will start on Friday, April 8 and will have two starting flights, with a guaranteed prize pool of $3 million.

The Venue – Hollywood Florida’s Guitar Hotel

The Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino is located in Hollywood, Florida. The original Guitar Hotel opened on October 24, 2019 and has 638 luxury guestrooms and suites. This engineering masterpiece reaches 450 feet into the sky, outfitted with floor-to-ceiling glass panes.

The spacious Poker Room is open 24 hours a day and has more than 40 gaming tables that are used for cash games, daily tournaments and festivals.

WPT Seminole Hard Rock guitar

2022 WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown Schedule

As previously noted, the festival will have 50 events with buy-ins ranging from $150 to $50,000 for the Super High Roller. While the WPT Showdown Championship will have a $3,500 buy-in with that aforementioned $3,000,000 guaranteed prize pool, the dozens of other events on schedule are sure to attract hordes of eager poker players looking to win big.

Low buy-in events:

Event #7 Big Stack NLH / Buy-In: $200 / GTD: $150,000 / March 28
Event #14 Quad Stack Double Green Chip Bounty / Buy-In: $200 / GTD: $30,000 / March 30
Event #25 Big Stack NLH / Buy-In: $150 / GTD: $30,000 / April 4
Event #32 Quad Stack Double Green Chip Bounty / Buy-In: $200 / GTD: $30,000 / April 6
Event #35 Big Stack NLH / Buy-In: $150 / GTD: $20,000 / April 7
Event #37 Ladies NLH / Buy-In: $250 / GTD: $10,000 / April 9
Event #45 Big Stack NLHE / Buy-In: $150 / GTD: $30,000 / April 11
Event #50 Quad Stack Double Green Chip Bounty / Buy-In: $200 / GTD: $30,000 / April 12

Medium buy-in events:

Event #8 Deep Stack Black Chip Bounty / Buy-In: $400 / GTD: $50,000 / March 28
Event #10 Big Stack 6-Max NLH / Buy-In: $400 / GTD: $50,000 / March 29
Event #12 Deep Stack 8-Max NLH Freezeout / Buy-In: $400 / GTD: $30,000 / March 30
Event #15 Deep Stack NLH / Buy-In: $600 / GTD: $1,000,000 / March 31
Event #20 Deep Stack 8-Max Purple Chip Bounty / Buy-In: $1,100 / GTD: $100,000 / April 3
Event #22 Deep Stack Seniors 50+ NLH / Buy-In: $400 / GTD: $50,000 / April 4
Event #26 Omaha 8 Championship Freezeout / Buy-In: $1,100 / April 5
Event #30 Deep Stack NLH / Buy-In: $1,100 / GTD: $100,000 / April 6
Event #33 H.O.R.S.E. Championship Freezeout / Buy-In: $1,100 / April 7
Event #40 Deep Stack Purple Chip Bounty / Buy-In: $1,700 / GTD: $100,000 / April 10
Event #42 Deep Stack Seniors 50+ Freezeout / Buy-In: $1,100 / April 11
Event #46 Turbo NLH Championship Freezeout / Buy-In: $1,100 / April 11
Event #47 Deep Stack 5-Card PLO Freezeout / Buy-In: $1,100 / April 12

High buy-in events:

Event #31 Super High Roller / Buy-In: $50,000 / April 6
Event #34 Deep Stack NLH / Buy-In: $2,200 / GTD: $200,000 / April 7
Event #36 WPT Showdown Championship / Buy-In: $3,500 / GTD: $3,000,000 / April 8
Event #44 High Roller NLH / Buy-In: $25,500 / GTD: $1,000,000 / April 11
Event #49 Deep Stack 8-Max NLH / Buy-In $5,000 / GTD: $500,000 / April 12

You can view the complete schedule in this link.

WPT Showdown Championship structure:

Buy-In: $3,500
Initial stack: 50,000 chips (250 big blinds)
Re-entry: first 8 levels of each starting flight
Blind levels: 60 minutes | 90 minutes from Day 4
First blind level: 100-200 with 200 big blind ante

WPT Showdown Championship schedule:

Day 1A: Friday, April 8 – 11 AM (10 levels)
Day 1B: Saturday, April 9 – 11 AM (10 levels)
Day 2: Sunday, April 10 – 12 PM (10 levels)
Day 3: Monday, April 11 – 12 PM (play down to 16 players)
Day 4: Tuesday, April 12 – 12 PM (play down to 6 players)
Final Table: May 25 at the PokerGo Studio in Las Vegas

The Defending Champion — Brek Schutten

Last year’s edition of this WPT Championship event featured 2,482 entries and became the largest tournament in the history of the World Poker Tour. The huge prize pool was $7,942,400, which was shared among the top 311 players.

The winner of the record-setting tournament was 32-year-old Brek Schutten, who earned his first WPT cash and a massive prize of $1.2 million. He was working as a nurse during the pandemic and saw what the virus was capable of.

What did Schutten do with his winnings? Pay for his four children’s education and donate to schools. He also made some investments and saved some for retirement. Finally, he bought a nice gift for his wife.