Defending Champ Gediminas Uselis Among 80 Players Still Alive in WPT RRPO
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On Sunday, 513 players from a 1,541-entry field returned for Day 2 action in the World Poker Tour (WPT) 2022 Rock ‘N’ Roll Poker Open (RRPO) $3,500 Main Event at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida.
By the end of the night, the money bubble had burst and just 80 players survived. The turnout, which was the seventh largest tournament in Florida state history, more than doubled the $2 million guarantee by generating a massive $4,931,200 prize pool.
Leading the pack with 2.415 million is Kyle Merron, while defending champ Gediminas Uselis is still alive with 1.3 million. Day 3 action will resume at Noon local time on Monday.
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Top 10 Day 2 Chip Counts
| Place | Player | Count |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kyle Merron | 2,415,000 |
| 2 | Ted McNamara | 2,275,000 |
| 3 | Hitesh Patel | 2,260,000 |
| 4 | Robel Andemichael | 2,235,000 |
| 5 | Badr Imeijane | 2,135,000 |
| 6 | Chad Eveslage | 1,955,000 |
| 7 | Jim Collopy | 1,870,000 |
| 8 | Aristoteles Neto | 1,700,000 |
| 9 | Brian Altman | 1,680,000 |
| 10 | Jakub Paulik | 1,650,000 |
Others still in contention include Andrew Wilson (1,495,000), Frank Funaro (1,450,000), Nate Silver (1,200,000), Andrew Ostapchenko (1,040,000), Darren Elias (710,000), Anthony Zinno (520,000), and Josh Reichard (430,000).
Bubble Bursts
The top 193 players made the money, which meant more than 300 players would leave empty-handed on Day 2. Among those to fall were Jesse Lonis, Kristen Foxen, Scott Baumstein, Day 1a chip leader James Calderaro, Erik Seidel, Jonathan Jaffe, Nadya Magnus, and Dapo Ajayi.
Action clocks were introduced when the field was one table away from the money, and 198 players went on the dinner break. When they returned, it took just two hands of hand-for-hand play before Silver dispatched Sean Posner as the bubble boy in a rather sick beat, which you can read about here.
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In-the-Money Finishers
After the bubble burst there was a flood of eliminations including Tony Sinishtaj (115th - $7,300), Allen Kessler (119th - $7,300), Tony Dunst (124th - $6,750), Natasha Mercier (130th - $6,750), Ethan “Rampage Poker” Yau (134th - $6,750), Joseph Cheong (142nd - $6,300), and Ryan Riess (146th - $6,300).
According to updates from the event, Riess was dispatched in Level 18 (6,000/12,000/12,000) after he moved all in for his last 60,000 from early position. Kevin Ho called from middle position only to fold when Elias Nassif three-bet jammed over the top. Riess held pocket fours and was racing against the ace-ten of Nassif, but the board ran out with both two nines and two eights to counterfeit Riess.
The remaining 80 players are each guaranteed $9,800 in prize money, though each no doubt have their eyes on the $785,800 first-place prize.
Previous WPT Seminole RRPO Prize Pools and Turnouts
The Season 19 WPT Rock ‘N’ Roll Poker Open in December 2021 attracted 1,566 runners to generate a prize pool of $5 million, two and a half times the guaranteed $2 million.
The previous year, the WPT Seminole RRPO Main Event drew a field of 988 players to generate $3.1 million in prize money, while the 2018 Main Event had 1,309 entrants for a prize pool of $4.2 million.
| *YEAR | ENTRANTS | PRIZE POOL (IN USD) |
| 2022 | 1,541 | $4,931,200 |
| 2021 | 1,566 | $5,011,200 |
| 2019 | 988 | $3,146,000 |
| 2018 | 1,309 | $4,188,800 |
| 2017 | 585 | $2,000,000 |
Did You Know the World Poker Tour is Online?
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*Images courtesy of WPT/Drew Amato.
