It was a relatively short day at the 2018 World Poker Tour (WPT) Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown in Hollywood, Florida on Tuesday, but that was to be expected, as only eight players needed to be eliminated for the tournament to reach the six-handed final table. After six hours, that final table was determined with Brian Hastings emerging as the chip leader of an extremely tough group of players.
Hastings enters Wednesday’s action with 12.855 million chips, giving him a sizeable edge over his closest competitor, Joey Couden (8.255 million chips with blinds and antes of 40,000/80,000/10,000). The chip leader going into Tuesday, Scott Margereson, is third with 8.195 million. After those three, there is a gap to the next three, but the next trio is a load to handle: Jeff Fielder (4.320 million), Matt Stout (3.190 million), and Faraz Jaka (2.450 million).
Hastings is no stranger to deep trips in major tournaments. He owns three World Series of Poker bracelets: 2012 $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em Heads-Up, 2015 $10,000 Seven Card Stud, and 2015 $1,500 Ten Game Mix Six-Handed. Overall, he has more than $2.6 million in live tournament earnings.
He is still gunning for that first World Poker Tour title, though, which makes him no different than the five other players at the final table. They are all accomplished: Jaka won the Season VIII WPT Player of the Year race, Couden has over a million dollars in tournament winnings, Stout has $3.7 million in earnings, multiple WSOP final tables, and a fifth place finish in this event four years ago, and Fielder is trying to become the first player to win a WPT Main Tour title and a WPTDeepStacks title.
As we told you a few days ago, this is the largest WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown in history, with 1,309 entries. It is also the fifth-largest World Poker Tour event of all time. Now, that number is slightly misleading, as since it is an unlimited re-entry event, the tournament didn’t actually have 1,309 players, hence the use of the word “entries.” That said, the fact that so many people would be willing to plunk down multiple $3,500 buy-ins is impressive.
938 entries were needed to meet the guaranteed prize pool of $3 million, so that turned out to be no problem whatsoever. The total prize pool escalated to $4,188,800 with the winner taking home nearly $700,000.
2018 World Poker Tour Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown – Final Table Chip Counts
1. Brian Hastings – 12,855,000
2. Joey Couden – 8,255,000
3. Scott Margereson – 8,195,000
4. Jeff Fielder – 4,320,000
5. Matt Stout – 3,190,000
6. Faraz Jaka – 2,450,000
