SHRPO $5 Million GTD Championship
Level 26: 30,000/60,000 with a 10,000 ante
Players Remaining: 9 of 847
Day 3 of the SHRPO $5 Million Guaranteed Championship began with 38 players, all battling for the nine seats at tomorrow afternoon’s final table, where they’ll be guaranteed at least $75,000 each with a shot at the first prize of $1,000,000.
Without further delay, here are the final nine players, along with their official chip counts and seating assignments for tomorrow’s final table:
1. Seth Davies – 3,350,000 (56 bb)
2. Roman Valerstein – 2,895,000 (48 bb)
3. Thomas Midena – 4,395,000 (73 bb)
4. Ryan Fair – 1,335,000 (22 bb)
5. Jason Koon – 3,595,000 (60 bb)
6. Zo Karim – 1,295,000 (22 bb)
7. Paul Balzano – 4,120,000 (69 bb)
8. Joe Serock – 1,845,000 (31 bb)
9. Tim Burt – 2,575,000 (43 bb)
Thomas Midena leads the pack with nearly 4.4 million in chips, and if he finishes eighth or better, it’ll be the biggest live tournament cash of his career. Local player Paul Balzano isn’t far behind in the counts with 4.1 million in chips.
Roman Valerstein has more than $1 million in career earnings, and has televised final table experience after finishing sixth at last September’s WPT Borgata Poker Open. Zo Karim has more than $1.4 million in earnings, and finished third at the 2013 WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown, which was also a TV final table.
Seth Davies is fresh off a victory here last week in Event 17 ($1,100 Six-Max NLHE), and he won a WPT title in Montreal just four months ago. Jason Koon has more than $4.2 million in earnings, and would love to commemorate his birthday (which was yesterday) by adding another million to his career total.
World Poker Tour Season 10 Player of the Year Joe Serock might have been the chipleader at this final table if not for a hand that went down with 11 players remaining. In a pot worth 4.45 million, Midena got it all in on the turn with a pair and a flush draw against Serock’s two pair. Midena made his flush on the river to knock Serock down to the short stack, but Serock was able to hold on and fight his way back into contention. Serock has more than $3 million in career earnings, but is still looking for his first high-profile title, and would love to win it here at the Seminole Hard Rock.
Full bios for all nine finalists will be posted here later this evening.
Here is the remaining prizepool at stake, followed by the players who finished in the money here on Day 3:
1st: $1,000,000
2nd: $575,000
3rd: $310,000
4th: $220,000
5th: $180,000
6th: $150,000
7th: $125,000
8th: $100,000
9th: $75,000
10th: Corey Hochman – $50,000
11th: Said Mossallam – $50,000
12th: Justin Swilling – $50,000
13th: Esther Taylor-Brady – $40,000
14th: Chris Klodnicki – $40,000
15th: Lexy Gavin – $40,000
16th: Ting Ho – $35,000
17th: Theo Lawson – $35,000
18th: Thomas Houghteling – $35,000
19th: Sam Ho – $32,500
20th: Brett Bader – $32,500
21st: David Wolff – $32,500
22nd: Angel Guillen – $30,000
23rd: Tom Marchese – $30,000
24th: Paul Dlugozima – $30,000
25th: Matt Affleck – $27,500
26th: Patrick Eskandar – $27,500
27th: Zach Mullennix – $27,500
28th: Bob Mather – $25,000
29th: Brian Wachs – $25,000
30th: Michael Cohen – $25,000
31st: Michael Newman – $25,000
32nd: Andre Crooks – $25,000
33rd: Santana Noronha – $25,000
34th: David Peters – $25,000
35th: Tom Gity – $25,000
36th: David Belikov – $25,000
37th: Mark Johnson – $22,500
38th: Rich Alsup – $22,500
The final table begins tomorrow at 2:00 pm ET as part of the Seminole Hard Rock’s “Big Four,” with a livestream on a 30-minute delay. As always, you’ll also be able to follow live updates right here at SHRPO.com.