$3,500 WPT Poker Showdown Championship
$2,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 5:  300/600 with a 600 ante
Day 1A Entries:  823

Former Showdown winners aren’t the only WPT Champions in our field, there are other places around the world to pick up a title.

Darren Elias actually put his name on the Championship Cup a record five times and Tony Dunst won his sitting at a table overlooking the Caribbean Sea. Other WPT winners in the field include Alex Foxen, Ryan Van Sanford, James Mackey, Craig Varnell, and Dan Smith.

$3,500 WPT Poker Showdown Championship
$2,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 5:  300/600 with a 600 ante
Day 1A Entries:  808

Tracking down our former WPT Poker Showdown champions, we found Tony Sinishtaj here this afternoon grinding at the front of the room.

Sinishtaj put his name on the WPT Champions Cup when he won the WPT Poker Showdown Championship in 2017 over local favorite Darryll Fish in 2017 for a $661,283 payout. That tournament drew 1,207 entries and had a prize pool of nearly $4,000,000.

Fish was denied his first WPT title but he didn’t wait too long to get it; less than a year later he captured the 2018 WPT Lucky Hearts Poker Open Championship.

$3,500 WPT Poker Showdown Championship
$2,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 5:  300/600 with a 600 ante
Day 1A Entries:  806

A scan of the field during the staggered breaks turned up five players with at least 120K in chips, creating an unofficial leaderboard:

1.  Gavin Munroe  –  156,100  (260 bb)
2.  Joseph Henry  –  144,100  (240 bb)
3.  Artem Zverkhovskyy  –  124,000  (207 bb)
4.  Gabriel Andrade  –  122,100  (204 bb)
5.  Alejandro Gonzalez  –  120,600  (201 bb)

Chipleader Gavin Munroe is seated at one of the four tables not in the main tournament room, so he may be flying under the radar a bit.

Registration remains open with a single re-entry per starting flight until the start of Level 9, around 9:20 pm.

There will be a 90-minute dinner break after Level 6 (around 5:35 pm), and action is scheduled to continue tonight until the end of Level 10, around 11:20 pm.

$3,500 WPT Poker Showdown Championship
$2,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 4:  300/500 with a 500 ante
Day 1A Entries:  808

A player raised UTG+1 to 1,200, Jarod Einsohn called from the hijack, and Stu Paterson reraised from the cutoff to 4,500. Both players called.

All three players checked to the turn on a board of , and it checked to Paterson, who bet 5,200. The UTG+1 player folded, and Einsohn called.

The river card was the , Einsohn checked, Paterson bet 12,200, and Einsohn thought for a while before he folded. Paterson took the pot.

Einsohn asks Paterson if he needed the river card, and Paterson said he didn’t. Einsohn said he wasn’t sure if he believed that, but he didn’t know Paterson well enough to judge.

Stu Paterson  –  60,000  (120 bb)
Jarod Einsohn  –  64,000  (128 bb)

Registration remains open with a single re-entry per starting flight until the start of Level 9, around 9:20 pm.

There will be a 90-minute dinner break after Level 6 (around 5:35 pm), and action is scheduled to continue tonight until the end of Level 10, around 11:20 pm.

$3,500 WPT Poker Showdown Championship
$2,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 4:  300/500 with a 500 ante
Day 1A Entries:  808

With the final board showing on the river, the player in the cutoff bet 6,400, and Dan Colpoys moved all in from the button for 26,700.

The player in the cutoff tanked for a while before he folded faceup — a rivered set of tens.

Colpoys shows one card — the — as he takes the pot. (Colopoys had something between a nine-high bluff and a king-high straight.)

Dan Colpoys  –  45,000  (90 bb)

Registration remains open with a single re-entry per starting flight until the start of Level 9, around 9:20 pm.

$3,500 WPT Poker Showdown Championship
$2,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 4:  300/500 with a 500 ante
Day 1A Entries:  808

Matt Stout opened to 1,100 under the gun and the big blind came along to a flop. The big blind checked, Stout bet 1,300 and it was called.

The turn was , the big blind checked again, Stout bet 2,000 and it was another check/call.

The river was and the big blind player bet 8,000. Stout moved all in and the big blind player called at risk.

Stout:
Big Blind:

Both players flopped a big set but Stout hit the one-out jack on the river for quads.

Matt Stout – 110,000 (220 bb)

$3,500 WPT Poker Showdown Championship
$2,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 3:  200/400 with a 400 ante
Day 1A Entries:  808

With the board showing on the turn with about 6,000 in the pot, the player in middle position checked, and Nadya Magnus checked behind on the button.

The river card was the , the middle-position player bet 2,500, Magnus raised to 8,000, and her opponent thought for a little while before he called with for a pair of aces.

But Magnus turned over , and with two low cards on the board, her eight kicker played to win the pot.

Nadya Magnus  –  57,900  (145 bb)

The field is already up to 808 entries here on Day 1A, and the prizepool is already worth more than $2.5 million. And all expectations are that tomorrow’s field will be larger than this one.

The massive field and the pandemic policies (masks and plexiglass dividers) makes it much tougher than usual to spot familiar faces, but here are some chip counts from this level:

Ronnie Bardah  –  75,000  (188 bb)
Scott Baumstein  –  74,000  (185 bb)
Denise Pratt  –  64,000  (160 bb)
Andony Wasaya  –  61,000  (153 bb)
Curt Kohlberg  –  55,000  (138 bb)
Erkut Yilmaz  –  54,000  (135 bb)
Chris Hunichen  –  46,000  (115 bb)
Joe McKeehen  –  43,000  (108 bb)
Katie Stone  –  31,000  (78 bb)
Matt Affleck  –  29,000  (73 bb)
Lee Markholt  –  28,000  (70 bb)
Ken “Teach” Aldridge  –  13,000  (33 bb)

Registration remains open with a single re-entry per starting flight until the start of Level 9, around 9:20 pm.

There will be a 90-minute dinner break after Level 6 (around 5:35 pm), and action is scheduled to continue tonight until the end of Level 10, around 11:20 pm.

$3,500 WPT Poker Showdown Championship
$2,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 3:  200/400 with a 400 ante
Day 1A Entries:  808

We found more friends in the ever-growing field, new and old. Blair Hinkle will always hold a special spot in our history; he won our biggest payout from the biggest prize pool. The 2013 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Championship featured a massive $10,000,000 guaranteed prize pool that reached $11,920,000 and Hinkle was that Champion. He pocketed $1,745,245 for a record payout that still stands.

Other recent notables include Al Riccobono (Seniors Event runner-up), Spencer Champlin, Katie Stone, Chance Kornuth, Aaron Massey, Loni Hui, and Ryan Van Sanford.

$3,500 WPT Poker Showdown Championship
$2,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 3:  200/400 with a 400 ante
Day 1A Entries:  789

After a few words from the WPT crew, cards are back in the air for Level 3 of the Championship. They will play two more levels before taking another break and four more levels before the 90-minute dinner break.

$3,500 WPT Poker Showdown Championship
$2,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 2:  200/300 with a 300 ante
Day 1A Entries:  760

With 20 minutes remaining in Level 2, tournament staff began sending players on a staggered break schedule. To keep players safe and distanced, the field will be broken in thirds and sent on separate breaks with them all timed so the entire field begins Level 3 at the same time.