On Tuesday, May 2, the final table of the 2023 WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown was set at the Seminole Hard Rock Casino in Hollywood, Florida. The tournament began on April 28th with a $3,500 buy-in and a guaranteed prize pool of $3,000,000. It only took one opening day to reach the guarantee, which was achieved during the dinner break. The successful achievement of this high guarantee is a testament to the great momentum of live poker and the World Poker Tour, which has already broken several records this year with its Main and Prime tours.
Photo: Joe Giron
WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown
Between the two initial days, there were 2,290 registrations. This was thus the second largest edition of the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown. There was a huge prize pool of $7,328,000 which was distributed among the top 287 players. Among the awarded participants were: Andrew Moreno (15th place), Natasha Mercier (18th place), WPT Champions Asher Conniff (20th place), Taylor von Kriegenbergh (22nd place), Ryan Riess (28th place), Matthew Wantman (55th place) and Chance Kornuth (105th place), WPT Global Ambassador Ethan “Rampage” Yau (65th place), and many more. All of the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown payouts can be found here.
Danny Garcia became the father of his first daughter, Leah Alize on Day 2, and had to let his stack be consumed by the blinds. Her birth was expected in mid-May, but it came early and he had to rush to the hospital mid-tournament. He was eliminated in 236th place and won $5,850 without playing a single hand on Day 2.
I had a baby girl 🙂 Best reason to miss Day 2 pic.twitter.com/Ks6xJcVCsF
— Danny Invested (@DInvested) May 1, 2023
WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown Final Table
During Day 4 the final table was defined:
- Bin Weng 🇺🇸 – 46,050,000 (154 bb’s)
- Sridhar Sangannagari 🇮🇳 – 19,100,000 (64 bb’s)
- Mitch Garshofsky 🇺🇸 – 18,550,000 (62 bb’s)
- David Mzareulov 🇺🇸- 13,350,000 (45 bb’s)
- Naing Thu 🇺🇸 – 13,250,000 (44 bb’s)
- Rafael Farah Jarufe 🇵🇪 – 4,275,000 (14 bb’s)
The chip leader is Bin Weng with a stack of 154 big blinds and 40% of the total chips. In 2017, Bin started playing the live circuit and has 111 cashes under his belt, with earnings of $3.2M. He is playing his second WPT final table at the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown. In 2020 he finished fifth at the Borgata Winter Poker Open, winning $187K. If he is crowned champion, he will win the biggest prize of his career.
Bin Weng / Photo: Joe Giron
Second in chips is Sridhar Sangannagari of India with 64 big blinds. He has earned $1.7M online and $175K in live events. This is his second WPT cash and his first final table. The other non-American at the final table is Rafael Farah Jarufe, who will seek to become Peru’s first WPT champion. This is his third cash in a WPT Main Event.
These are the prizes still to be distributed:
- 🏆 + $1,128,250 + $10,400 seat at the 2023 WPT World Championship
- $745,000
- $550,000
- $413,000
- $312,000
- $238,000
The final table of the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown will commence on May 25 at the HyperX Arena located in the Luxor Hotel & Casino. All remaining action is set to be filmed for television. Who will add their name to the prestigious Mike Sexton trophy?
If you wish to see photos of the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown you can do so on the WPT Flickr website.
WPT Choctaw
The next WPT stop will be at the Choctaw Casino in Durant, Oklahoma and will be played May 5-8 with a $3,800 buy-in and a guaranteed prize pool of $2,000,000. The festival began on April 28 and will feature 70 events altogether, with buy-ins starting at just $130.
Main Event Schedule:
- Day 1A: May 5 at 11 AM
- Day 1B: May 6 at 11 AM
- Day 2: May 7 at 12 PM
- Day 3: May 8 at 12 PM
You can see the complete calendar with all the events and satellites at this link.
WPT Gardens Poker Championship
The 2023 WPT Gardens Poker Championship will be held May 15-31 at the Gardens Casino in California. The main event will feature a buy-in of $5,250 and will be played May 21-25. On May 19 at 11 AM, one of Andrew Neeme and Brad Owen‘s popular Meet Up Games will be held with $5/$5 cash games.
Main Event Schedule:
- Day 1A: May 21 at 11 AM
- Day 1B: May 22 at 11 AM
- Day 2: May 23 at 12 PM
- Day 3: May 24 at 12 PM
- Day 4: May 25 at 12 PM
These will be the dates of the final tables that will be played out in Las Vegas:
- WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown: May 25
- WPT Choctaw: May 26
- WPT Gardens Poker Championship: May 27
Across just three days we will have three new World Poker Tour champions!
