Dan Colman Seeks Another Win at SHR After Bagging WPT Lead
The World Poker Tour is in the midst of wrapping up Season 15 with its usual bang, and the first of what will be three featured final tables at Seminole Hard Rock in Florida has been locked in.
The $3,500 WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown drew a field of 1,207 players, and after three days of play, one of poker's young superstars sits at the top of the final table counts. Dan Colman will lead the way when final table proceedings start up Wednesday, as he bagged 100 big blinds for a slight lead over Tony Sinishtaj.
Colman is no stranger to big-time success at SHR, having shipped the $5,300 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Main Event in 2014 for $1,446,710. Here's a look at the lineup he'll be facing at this final table:
Official Final Table
| Seat | Player | Stack | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tony Sinishtaj | 9,515,000 | 95 |
| 2 | Darryll Fish | 7,525,000 | 75 |
| 3 | Dan Colman | 9,975,000 | 100 |
| 4 | Eric Beller | 2,960,000 | 30 |
| 5 | Simeon Naydenov | 3,115,000 | 31 |
| 6 | Rob Mizrachi | 3,100,000 | 31 |
The tournament began on Friday and generated a prize pool of $3,862,400 by the time registration closed on Day 1, according to the live updates. The tournament hit the money on Day 2, with Jason Koon, Ben Zamani, Mohsin Charania, Matt Glantz and Garrett Greer cashing but busting before Day 3.
Early Day 3 eliminations included Jason Mercier, Bryn Kenney, Byron Kaverman and Dietrich Fast, fresh off chopping the $50K Super High Roller for almost $500,000.
After a bit of early success, Colman found himself down to just eight big blinds after he saw a 10♦9♠8♥ flop against two players who called his preflop raise, one of whom flopped a straight with 7♥6♥.
Colman couldn't catch up with Q♣Q♦ and was left in comeback mode. He scored two doubles through Phil Hui in races and then picked up queens against the jacks of Jake Schwartz, and just like that, he was back among the leaders.
Colman continued to run hot after the 27 player redraw, scoring a number of eliminations and moving into the chip lead.
WPT L.A. Poker Classic champ Daniel Strelitz made a deep run, but he busted in 14th to Darryll Fish. At 25,000/50,000/5,000, start-of-day leader Matt Affleck opened early to 110,000, Strelitz reraised to 305,000 in the cutoff, and Fish made it 740,000.
Strelitz shoved for about 1.7 million, and Fish tank-called with A♠Q♦. Strelitz had J♠J♦ but couldn't hold after a queen flopped.
Other players falling after the redraw included Hui, Schwartz and Erik Seidel, who lost a race to Sinishtaj.
At the final table, Colman busted Lander Lijo with queens against fours.
John Gordon then ran his kings into Eric Beller's aces. Beller held the lead then couldn't keep it, doubling up Affleck with top pair against a set.
James Mackey got it in good with jacks against Sinishtaj's A♦J♠ but was next to fall after an ace hit the turn.
Colman got knocked down to 17 big blinds after losing with a set of eights against a flush draw, but a couple of doubles got him back in business. Then, Affleck shoved 14 big blinds over a raise from Sinishtaj, and Colman woke up with eights in the small blind and called.
Sinishtaj mucked, and this time, the snowmen were good to Colman. They held unimproved against K♣J♥ on a board of Q♠Q♦7♦2♣9♠, and Colman moved into a slight lead for the official final table.
There's $661,283 up for grabs when the tournament resumes Wednesday at noon local time, with a cards-up live stream on a 30-minute delay.
Photo courtesy of WPT
