$3,500 WPT Showdown Championship
End of Level 10: 500/1,000 with a 100 ante
Players Remaining: 467 of 1,207
Friday marked the start of the $3,500 WPT Showdown Championship, one of the flagship events for this annual series at Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood. It attracted a predictably large field. There were 1,207 entries by the time registration closed, generating a prizepool in excess of $3.8 million — nearly twice the $2 million that was guaranteed.
Florida grinder Alejandro Duque leads after Day 1, one of two players who turned their 30,000 starting chips into more than 10 times that amount over the course of the day. Duque finished with 320,600 to edge Dantonio Brown and his stack of 317,600 for the overnight lead. Kelly Minkin rounds out the top three with 280,700 chips.
A total of 467 players survived the day, including a handful of the SHRP Team. A couple handfuls, in fact. Michael Laake and Darryll Fish both finished with six-figure stacks, backed up by eight teammates behind them:
Michael Laake – 138,600
Darryll Fish – 105,500
Wally Maddah – 71,800
Matt Affleck – 60,700
Sheddy Siddiqui – 59,100
Jared Jaffee – 58,100
Matt Stout – 49,600
Natasha Mercier – 42,700
Chance Kornuth – 32,900
Stewart Newman – 21,900
Loni Harwood, Jessica Dawley, Mukul Pahuja, and Faraz Jaka all played, as well, but failed to survive the day.
A great crowd of traveling pros are in town for the climax of the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown, so it’s no surprise to find dozens of WSOP bracelet winners, WPT Champions, and Hard Rock Poker winners in the remaining field.
Justin Young ticks a couple of those boxes. Last year, Young won this very event to pad his bankroll and add his name to the WPT Champions Cup, and he’s still alive in defense of his title this time around. He’ll return for Day 2 with barely more than a starting stack but still plenty of chips with which to maneuver.
The World Poker Tour’s Mike Sexton (46,900) and Tony Dunst (26,400) have been known to tick a few boxes themselves, and they both advanced through Day 1, too.
Jonathan Little (182,200), Jean Gaspard (181,500), Ankush Mandavia (167,600), Matt Waxman (155,800), Daniel Strelitz (152,000), and Cord Garcia (149,700) will all return near the top of the counts after particularly productive days.
There are too many others to list, but a complete leaderboard and the Day 2 seat draw can be found in the posts below.
The remaining field returns to action at 12 p.m. with 10 more levels on the schedule. The final 151 players will earn shares of the prizepool, so the bursting of the bubble will be the foremost item on the day’s agenda.