The World Poker Tour (WPT) Seminole Rock ‘N’ Roll Poker Open (RRPO) Championship event is into Day 3 and it is Kyle Merron leading the final 80 players with 2.415 million chips. The tournament will play down to 16 players on Monday.
There were a total of 1,541 entries across the two starting flights, generating a prize pool of $4,931,200. The top 193 will make the money; everyone remaining is guaranteed at least $9,800. And while I would never scoff at $9,800 the “real” money comes later; first prize is $785,800.
The race for the pole position is extremely tight going into Day 3. After Merron, Ted McNamara has 2.275 million chips, Hitesh Patel has 2.260 million, Robel Andemichael has 2.235 million, and Badr Imejjane has 2.135. Just outside of the top ten are two men with WPT titles to their names: Chad Eveslage, who has 1.955 million chips, and Brian Altman, who has 1.680 million.
The 2022 RRPO came just a hair shy of beating last year’s record field of 1,566 which absolutely destroyed the previous record of 988, set in 2019, before the live poker world paused because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The first event of the 2021 RRPO also obliterated records. The 6,196-entry field for the $400 Deep Stack No-Limit Hold’em last year was not only the largest in RRPO history, but it was the largest-ever field in the history of Florida poker.
For those who missed out on the WPT Seminole Rock ‘N’ Roll Poker Open, there is one more tour stop before the season ends: the WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas. Starting December 1, the poker festival will run for about three weeks, culminating in the $10,400 WPT World Championship event December 12-18.
The WPT World Championship is one of just two Main Events this season with a $10,000 buy-in (well, $10,400 when you count the fees). The other was last month’s WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic at the Bellagio.
The Wynn and the World Poker Tour are going for the gold on this one, guaranteeing a nutty $15 million prize pool, billed as the largest in live poker tournament history. Thus, the tournament will need 1,531 entries to avoid an overlay. It is a semi-freezeout in that players can enter each of the three Day 1 flights, but cannot re-enter an individual flight once they are eliminated. So, if you get bounced on Day 1A, you can pay up again to play in Day 1B, but cannot re-enter Day 1A. Simply put, one entry per flight.
