WPT SHRPS Nearly Doubles $3M Guarantee During Final Starting Flight

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Apr 20, 2024 3 min read

The second and final starting flight of the World Poker Tour (WPT) Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown Championship wrapped up on Saturday evening with 356 players remaining and Maxwell Young out in front with a stack of 623,000. That stack of 249 big blinds is good to put him in front of yesterday's chip leader, Eider Da Cruz (505,500), as well as fellow Day 1b big stacks Valeriy Pak (530,000) and Gregory Wilson (455,500).

Day 1b of the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown Championship in Hollywood, Florida drew 924 runners, a few pips off from the 945 who played Day 1a. That means that, with a prize pool of $5,980,000 that nearly doubled the $3 million guarantee, there will be 234 places paid with a minimum cash worth $6,400.

Meanwhile, the eventual winner will walk away with $839,300, which includes entry into the $10,400 WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas in December.

Get the Highlights From Day 1a!

WPT SHRPS Championship Final Table Payouts

Maxwell's Silver Hammer

Young, who has over $2.7 million in live earnings, will look for his maiden WPT Main Event title just a month after taking down a WPT Rolling Thunder event for $53,000.

Leading the way headed to dinner break was Uzbekistan's Pak, who is searching for his first WPT title after several close calls. Last year, he finished runner-up in the WPT Korea Main Event for $290,000 before ending the year with a sixth-place finish in the WPT Prime Championship for $290,000.

Another player who built up a sizable stack on Day 1b was the notorious Nicholas Rigby, while another Rigby, Phil Rigby, nursed a 20 big blind stack after doubling up with ace-queen against jacks.

Among the highlights on Day 1b was Lily Kiletto making a great turn call with an underpair as David Jackson moved all-in with ace-high, but an ace on the river gave the Florida grinder his three-outer to double up with reporters and cameras hovered around.

The two tangled again later in the evening, but it was a much friendlier encounter as both players shot up the chip counts.

Other notable names in the Day 1b field included Steven "Cuz" Buckner, Josh Arieh, Dan Heimiller, Raminder Singh, Adam Hendrix and WPT Champions Club members Erick Lindgren, James Carroll, Jared Jaffee and Erik Seidel.

Day 2 is slated to get underway on Sunday, April 21 at noon local time, and there are still two days left after that before action pauses ahead of the six-handed final table that will play out in Las Vegas on May 29.

PokerNews is on-site at Seminole Hard Rock to write about the Championship event action, while live updates from the event can be found on the WPT site.

WPT SHRPS Championship Remaining Schedule

_{*Images courtesy Joe Giron & WPT}

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 Adam Hendrix David Jackson Dan Heimiller Eider Da Cruz Erick Lindgren Erik Seidel Gregory Wilson James Carroll Seminole Hard Rock Raminder Singh Phil Rigby Nicholas Rigby Maxwell Young Lily Kiletto Josh Arieh World Poker Tour WPT Valeriy Pak
• Related Tournaments World Poker Tour
• Related Players Erik SeidelErick LindgrenDan HeimillerJosh AriehJames CarrollAdam Hendrix