The final table is set at the 2016 World Poker Tour Maryland Live! Main Event as just six players remain from the original 554 entries. Ryan Belz goes into Wednesday’s action with the biggest chip stack at the table, holding 4.865 million chips.
The final table is divided into three distinct tiers. Belz and Darren Elias are head and shoulders above the rest, Belz with the aforementioned 4.865 million and Darren Elias with 4.515 million chips. After those two, there is a wide gap before the next two players: Mario Silvestri III with 2.7 million chips and Benjamin Zamani with 2.075 million. The shortest two stacks make up the third tier: Zachary Smiley with 1.255 million and Cate Hall with 1.235 million.
It is certainly a strong final table. Cate Hall has been a fixture in major tournaments the last couple years and is once again gunning to become the first woman to win an open World Poker Tour Main Event. She finished fifth at the 2015 WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic and fifth in this very same tournament last year, so she obviously has experience in the end game. Hall also placed ninth in this year’s WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown, falling just short of winning last season’s WPT Player of the Year award.
Speaking of Player of the Year, Darren Elias had a season that one would think would normally win the award two seasons ago, but Anthony Zinno did even better. That season, Elias won back-to-back WPT titles – the WPT Borgata Open in September 2014 and WPT Caribbean in November 2014 – en route to eight total cashes on the World Poker Tour.
As for Ryan Belz, he made an incredible run to become the big stack. With just eleven players remaining, Belz was the shortest stack in the tournament at one point with fewer than ten big blinds. He then proceeded to eliminated the eleventh through seventh place finishers, doing all the dirty work to ensure he and the other five players made the final table.
The television final table was determined when Belz knocked out Brett Apter in seventh place. Belz raised pre-flop to 145,000 and Apter made the move to go all-in with pocket Threes. Belz called with A-T and proceeded to hit a Ten on the turn to lock up his fifth consecutive knockout and the chip lead.
Belz has $135,000 in live poker tournament earnings according to TheHendonMob.com. That sum is actually made up of a lot of cashes, thus each cash is relatively small. The largest purse he has won is $19,000.
The final table of the WPT Maryland Live! Main Event is now underway. Check back tomorrow to see who won.
2016 WPT Maryland Live! Main Event – Final Table Chip Counts
1. Ryan Belz – 4,865,000
2. Darren Elias – 4,515,000
3. Mario Silvestri III – 2,700,000
4. Benjamin Zamani – 2,075,000
5. Zachary Smiley – 1,255,000
6. Cate Hall – 1,235,000
