Caffaro, Bond & Alvarado Among Early Winners in Texas Poker Championship

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Mar 25, 2022 3 min read

The biggest poker series in Texas history is currently underway with the Texas Poker Championship at Houston’s Prime Social, which has already awarded players over $1.7 million in prize money.

The series kicked off on March 10 with Event #1: $500 Mystery Bounty, which had a staggering seven starting flights and attracted an enormous field of 1,322 runners. The bounty tournament had a guaranteed prize pool of $500,000 and surpassed that with $511,840 in prize money.

Joseph Caffaro took down the opening event for the first-place prize of $45,950, defeating Carlos Saucedo during heads-up play to earn Saucedo $38,500. Other players who made deep runs in the mystery bounty event include Blake Barousse (3rd - $25,000), Derek Normand (4th - $18,500), Laura Hoppe (9th - $5,100) and Kristopher Burchfield (12th - $4,000).

Later in the series, Justin Bond took down Event #9: $1,100 The Big Texas to earn the trophy and a big score of $115,480. Bond defeated Jason Gooch during heads-up play to send the second-place finisher home with $75,960.

The $500,000 guarantee tournament attracted 643 players and generated $630,140 in prize money. Other players who made Bond sparred with at the final table include Sean Cha (3rd - $56,620) Jeremy Meacham (5th - $31,740), [Removed:460] (7th - $18,680) and Gabriel Andrade (9th - $11,540).

Bond, a resident of Dallas, now boasts an impressive $1.8 million in tournament earnings, which includes a 35th place finish in the 2017 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event worth $214,913. His latest victory in The Big Texas gives him the fifth biggest score of his career.

Event #9: $1,100 The Big Texas Final Results

Later in the series, Brandon Johnson earned the trophy in Event #13: $600 One Day after striking a four-way deal at the final table that also left him with $18,500. Johnson had the biggest stack when the deal was made and therefore earned the victory.

The other players who got in on the deal were Southisak Seunsom (2nd - $18,350), Trung Pham (3rd - $17,120) and Dara Taherpour (4th - $14,530).

The one-day tournament had a $100,000 guarantee and surpassed that with 101 runners bringing the prize pool to $121,680.

Additionally, Ricardo Alvarado took down Event #16: $1,100 PLO Championship for $37,640 after defeating Twich streamer Alexander “AlexOptional” Green during heads-up play, who in turn earned $25,100. Four-time WSOP bracelet winner Benny Glaser, meanwhile, found a third-place finish worth $17,920.

The PLO Tournament attracted 157 runners to generate $153,860 in prize money, smashing the guaranteed $100,000.

Other Texas Poker Championship winners so far include James Farley, who won $50,820 in Event #2: $400 NLH Jacked Stack, Sergio Braga, who won $7,510 in Event #5: $600 Triple Stud, and Barousse, a two-time WSOP ring winner who took down Event #12: $1,100 Mystery Bounty Turbo for $10,000.

The best of the Texas Poker Championship at Prime Social is still to come with the $5,300 No-Limit Hold’em Main Event scheduled to get underway on Thursday, March 24. The four-day event has a huge $2 million guarantee and will offer three starting flights.

The Main Event will wrap up on Tuesday, March 29 with the final table being live-streamed with hole cards and commentary at twitch.tv/primesocialtx.

A full list of winners so far in the Texas Poker Championship is available in the table below.

Texas Poker Championship Winners

Read highlights from the PokerNews Texas Road Trip here!

_{*Images courtesy of Prime Social.}

Connor Richards is an Editor & Live Reporter for PokerNews and host of the Life Outside Poker podcast. Connor has been nominated for two Global Poker Awards for his writing.

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• Tags Benny Glaser Blake Barousse Justin Bond Ricardo Alvarado Joseph Caffaro Texas Poker Tournament Results
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