Championship Day 1A: Alex Borukhovich Doubles Up with a Flush and Then Wins the Next Pot with a Straight to Reach 170,000

$3,500 WPT Poker Showdown Championship
$3,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 4:  300/500 with a 500 ante
Day 1A Entries:  701

Alex Borukhovich
Alex Borukhovich

After a flop of 9d4d4s, the player in the small blind checked, Alex Borukhovich bet 12,000, and the small blind called.

The turn card was the Jd, and both players checked.

The river card was the Ac, the small blind bet 20,000, Borukhovich moved all in for a little more than 50,000, and the small blind called with 7d5d for a seven-high flush.

But Borukhovich turned over Ad10d to win the pot with an ace-high flush and double up in chips.

Alex Borukhovich  –  140,000  (280 bb)

The next hand, Borukhovich ended up playing another sizable pot against two opponents on a board of 4h3c2s7sQh.

Borukhovich bet 13,000 on the river, one opponent called, and the other folded. Borukhovich showed 6c5h for a seven-high straight to win the pot, and his opponent mucked.

Alex Borukhovich  –  170,000  (340 bb)

The tournament clock shows 701 entries as play resumes, and the prizepool is already up over $2.24 million on its way to the $3 million guarantee.

Registration remains open with unlimited re-entries until the start of Level 9 (around 9:15 pm).

Championship Day 1A: Tampa in Town

$3,500 WPT Poker Showdown Championship
$3,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 3:  200/400 with a 400 ante
Day 1A Entries:  651

Tony March (left) and Mario De La Puente (right)

We have a lot of travelers in town for the Championship including a big contingent from our friends in the Seminole Hard Rock Tampa Poker Room.

So far we found Tony March, Mario De La Puente, Karl Manouchakian, and former WPTDeepStacks Tampa Main Event champ Anthony Astarita.

Astarita, along with Jason Klapman and Harrison Brown, is playing in today’s flight courtesy of a WPT Poker Showdown Championship they ran for their players in the Poker Room.

Anthony Astarita
Jason Klapman
Karl Manouchakian

Championship Day 1A: Mark Davis Wins a Three-Way All-In Situation to Catapult Up to 139,000

$3,500 WPT Poker Showdown Championship
$3,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 3:  200/400 with a 400 ante
Day 1A Entries:  632

Mark Davis
Mark Davis

A player raised UTG+1 to 900, Mark Davis reraised from middle position to 2,700, and Shawn Lucas called from the hijack. The UTG+1 player reraised to 8,000, and Davis five-bet all in for roughly 70,000.

Lucas called all in for 23,800, and the UTG+1 player called all in for about 30,000.

Mark Davis:  KhKc
UTG+1 Player:  AhAd
Shawn Lucas:  AsQs

The board came Jx9c7cQc10c, and Davis caught a runner-runner club flush to win the entire pot, eliminate both players, and catapult up the leaderboard.

Mark Davis  –  139,000  (348 bb)
Shawn Lucas  –  Eliminated

The tournament clock shows 632 entries as play resumes, and the prizepool is already up over $2.02 million on its way to the $3 million guarantee.

Registration remains open with unlimited re-entries until the start of Level 9 (around 9:15 pm).

Championship Day 1A: Jesse Lonis and Uri Kadosh Lead the Field at the First Break

$3,500 WPT Poker Showdown Championship
$3,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 3:  200/400 with a 400 ante
Day 1A Entries:  590

Jesse Lonis

A scan of the field during the break turned up just two players with at least 130K in chips:

1.  Jesse Lonis  –  139,000  (348 bb)
2.  Uri Kadosh  –  136,200  (341 bb)

The tournament clock shows 590 entries as play resumes, and the prizepool is already up over $1.88 million.

Registration remains open with unlimited re-entries until the start of Level 9 (around 9:15 pm).

Uri Kadosh

Championship Day 1A: Tough Early Crowd

$3,500 WPT Poker Showdown Championship
$3,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 2:  200/300 with a 300 ante
Day 1A Entries:  503

Chance Kornuth

There are a lot of tough spots in any Championship field and today is no different. We have WSOP winners and WPT champ and all kinds of top players in before the first break

Among the talented early crew, we found three-time WSOP bracelet winner Chance Kornuth, high roller monster Alex Foxen, four-time WPT champ Darren Elias, and three-time WPT winner (and 2014 WPT Poker Showdown champ) Eric Afriat.

Alex Foxen
Darren Elias
Eric Afriat

Championship Day 1A: Familiar Faces

$3,500 WPT Poker Showdown Championship
$3,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 1:  100/200 with a 200 ante
Day 1A Entries:  407

Raminder Singh

The Day 1A field is filling in as players make their way to the Grand Ballroom and we added another 100 entries over the first hour.

We found some familiar faces in the field who have some nice recent scores. Raminder Singh is back only a few hours after making some history last night. He won the $150 Big Stack tournament for his eighth career major Hollywood title for the most all-time in our history. In addition to that, Singh won the RunGood Main Event at our sister property in Coconut Creek which came with a seat in their Vegas ProAm. And he won that one too.

Paul Snead’s latest big score came on the other side of the state. He was part of the 2022 Tampa Poker Classic Championship and beat a tough final table to win the title along with nearly $200K.

Paul Snead

Championship Day 1A: Brek Schutten Back to Defend

$3,500 WPT Poker Showdown Championship
$3,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 1:  100/200 with a 200 ante
Day 1A Entries:  301

Defending champ Brek Schutten speaks with Vince Van Patten

We have a nice crowd in early action including our defending champ Brek Schutten. This tournament drew 2,482 entries last year to create the biggest WPT main tour live event in its history.

Schutten battled his way down to the final table, took his skills to Las Vegas with the other five players, and walked away with the title in front of the WPT cameras along with the $1,261,095 pay day.

He’s back in the Grand Ballroom trying to do it again.

Championship Day 1A: Cards in the Air

$3,500 WPT Poker Showdown Championship
$3,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 1:  100/200 with a 200 ante
Day 1A Entries:  301

Floor supervisor Charlie Ciresi puts cards in the air for the 2022 Poker Showdown Championship

The clock hit 11 am and floor supervisor Charlie Ciresi put cards in the air for Day 1A of the 2022 WPT Poker Showdown Championship.

They will play through the first two levels of the day before the first scheduled break.

Championship Day 1A: Headliner Set to Go

$3,500 WPT Poker Showdown Championship
$3,000,000 Guaranteed | Structure
Level 1:  100/200 with a 200 ante

The preliminaries are in the books and now it is time for the headliner to take the stage. The 2022 WPT Poker Showdown Championship starts at 11 am with Day 1A and the $3,500 buy-in tournament features a huge $3,000,000 guaranteed prize pool.

Championship players start with 50,000 deep stacks, an increase from years past, and levels last an hour for Days 1 and 2. Late registration is available until the start of Level 10 around 9:15 pm and players may re-enter as often as they feel during that time should something unfortunate happen with their stack.

Day 1A will continue through 10 full levels and survivors will bag their chips for a Day 2 return on Sunday at noon. If players do not make it that far this evening, Day 1B kicks off tomorrow at 11 am with the same schedule.

It will be an exciting final weekend of the series and we look forward to seeing old friends and meeting new ones.

  • $3,000,000 Guaranteed Prize Pool
  • Players begin with 50,000 in chips
  • Day 1 & 2 levels last 60 minutes
  • Day 3 levels last 60 minutes until 40 players remain then go to 90 minutes
  • Late registration until start of Level 9 (9:15pm)
  • Day 1 will end after Level 10
  • Championship Structure Sheet