There has certainly been a call for poker in Las Vegas since the beginning of the year. Every tournament that has run in Sin City has had exceptional numbers (well, maybe not ALL), and the 2022 Wynn Millions has not disappointed either. As the final table prepares for action on Friday, poker professional/ambassador Vanessa Kade will be sitting in the driver’s seat for the $10,000 Main Event, which made some noise on its own.
$10 Million Prize Pool Created
It was surprising to see the final numbers for the Main Event of the Wynn Millions. Indicative of the power of the host poker room, the Wynn Casino, 1075 players came to the fore to take part in the tournament. That created a $10.105 million prize pool and, most surprisingly, also guaranteed that the first-place finisher in the tournament would earn a million-dollar prize ($1,655,952, to be exact).
As such, the battle was heated as we came to Day 5 of the tournament. Sixteen players were left in the fray, with some very notable players on the leaderboard. Tony Sinishtaj, Shaun Deeb, Alex Livingston, Sean Perry, Tony Tran, and Kade were the more notable figures on the leaderboard, but it was Isaac Kempton who sat on top of the leaderboard with slightly more than five million in chips. Plans were in place to play down to the final table on Thursday and they would reach that very quickly.
One of the first hands of the day saw a double knockout. Livingston woke up with pocket Aces against Shankar Pillai and Debbie Lee, taking out both of those players (Pillai earned 16th place with the smaller stack, Lee 15th) and shooting up the leaderboard. Tran would then improve his short stack by taking down Daniel Moran in fourteenth place.
Livingston was not done with his double duty. He would take out two more players in Deeb and Sylvain Loosli, this time with Livingston’s pocket nines standing up to Deeb and Loosli. Kade would remain dominant, however, as she was responsible for the final elimination of the night. Thomas Boivin would decide to push with his K-9 and a short stack against Kade, who was priced into the call with an A-J; once the board brought no Kings and no nines, Boivin was out in tenth place and Kade held the overall chip lead.
Tough Final Table to Handicap
When the final table reconvenes on Friday, here is how the standings will look:
1. Vanessa Kade, 10.355 million
2. Alex Livingston, 9 million
3. Tony Tran, 6.145 million
4. Tony Sinishtaj, 4.470 million
5. Isaac Kempton, 4.345 million
6. Michael Stembera, 3.835 million
7. Roland Shen, 2.875 million
8. Sean Perry, 1.7 million
9. Neng Lee, 300,000
It is fair to say that anyone outside of Neng Lee has a shot at winning this event. Even though Perry is on the shorter stack, he has shown his skills on the traditional and the “High Roller” circuit. If Sinishtaj and Tran get some breaks, they can rise to the top of the leaderboard. Meanwhile, Kempton, Livingston and Kade all have been at the peak of their game in this tournament, and any of that trio winning the tournament would not be surprising.
The tournament will resume on Friday afternoon, with the blinds at 30K/60K and a 60K big blind ante, thus Lee will need to find a hand quick. The final nine players have already put their claim in on a $171,280 prize should they finish ninth. The goal is to be the last player standing, however, where the $1.6 million-plus prize will be (second still takes home a $1,093,314 prize).
