Max Young Wins Seminole Hard Rock Tampa Winter Poker Open Main Event For $226,510

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  • RUPAM THAKUR December 18, 2020
  • 3 Minutes Read

Starting on December 2, the Seminole Hard Rock (SHR) Tampa Bay played host to the twelve-day-long 2020 Winter Poker Open (WPO), making it the first major live poker series to take place on U.S. soil since the start of the pandemic. The almost two-week-long series featured eight events, with each of them crushing their guarantees and attracting massive turnouts.

The cynosure of all eyes was the $200K GTD $1,700 buy-in WPO Main Event that saw Oregon native now residing in Florida, Max Young (cover image), topping the 779-strong field (Day 1A – 168, Day 1B – 251, and Day 1C – 360) to take home $226,510 and the gorgeous Guitar Trophy.

Below is the complete list of winners at the WPO series.

Event NameWinnerPrize ($)
#1: $300 NLH Re-EntryIfran Khairi$18,063
#2: $400 NLH Re-EntryKen Goldfarb$31,267
#3: $200 NLH Re-EntryRyan Hogan$6,500
#4: $150 NLH Re-EntryJason Block$4,860
#5: $400 NLH Re-EntryAlex Vazquez$6,936
#6: $600 NLH Re-EntryRaminder Singh$17,931
#7: $1,700 WPO Main EventMax Young$226,510
#8: $400 Black Chip Bounty NLHHarmeet Chawla$9,707

Winning the WPO Main Event title brought Young his second-best career live score, pushing his lifetime earnings to $1,941,679. Young is a live circuit regular with 15 live titles (including this) under his belt, and 44 WSOP cashes worth $760,518 – including an impressive six WSOP Circuit rings. In fact, he scored a career-best $263,815 at the 2018 WSOPC Choctaw Main Event.

Even outside the WSOP Circuit, Young has dug his heels deep, winning titles at the MSPT, WPTDeepStacks, Parx, Wynn, Chinook Winds, and the Wildhorse Resort & Casino in Pendleton.

The $200K prize pool guarantee at the WPO Main Event was quickly smashed on the first starting flight itself. So, it came as little surprise when the tourney went on to create a new WPO Main Event record at the end of the three flights, generating a whopping $1,207,450 prize pool from a record-field of 779 entries.

The previous record was set in 2017 with a starting field of 671 entries collecting a prize pool worth $1,006,500.

Out of the 125 players (Day 1A – 25, Day 1B – 43, and Day 1C – 57) that returned on Day 2, only 78 were guaranteed a payday with a min-cash worth $2,958.

Several players went out empty-handed on Day 2; before Jonathan Marlow was eliminated on the money bubble.

Check out the complete payouts here.

Anthony Costa bubbled the official seven-max final table, collecting $30,198 for his eighth-place finish.

When the seven finalists returned on Day 3, former WPTDeepStacks champion Max Young was chip leading with 5,720,000. Local favorite Peter Walsworth was less than a small blind behind with 5,705,000, and Darin Thompson was a somewhat distant third in chips with 3,795,000.

Romeo Mendoza (1,515,000) and Edgardo Rosario (1,215,000) were sporting the shortest two stacks at the final table’s start.

Final Table Chip Counts

  1. Max Young – 5,720,000
  2. Peter Walsworth – 5,705,000
  3. Darin Thompson – 3,795,000
  4. Fernando Rodriguez – 3,000,000
  5. Phil Hernz – 2,445,000
  6. Romeo Mendoza – 1,515,000
  7. Edgardo Rosario – 1,215,000

 

Final Table Recap

Romeo Mendoza and Phil Hernz were eliminated seventh and sixth place, respectively.

Darin Thompson was the next to fall in fifth place for $56,497.

Before long, Fernando Rodriguez bowed out in fourth place. He was eliminated after losing two hands to the eventual winner Max Young. On the first hand, his aces (reportedly) got cracked by Young’s as the latter rivered a king-high straight. Then, short-stacked Rodrigues went all-in on the flop with . Young looked him up with and took down the pot.

The three players quickly became two, when Peter Walsworth’s fell short of Edgardo Rosario’s on the runout .

Young entered the heads-up play commanding a 3:2 chip lead over Edgardo Rosario, and it took almost one-and-half hours for them to decide the ultimate champion.

On the tourney’s final hand, Rosario moved all-in with after a limp from Young. The latter made the call with after taking a count of Rosario’s stack. Both players were on their backs as the dealer fanned out the on the board to give Young trip jacks for the victory!

Final Table Results (USD)

  1. Max Young – $226,510*
  2. Edgardo Rosario – $158,828
  3. Peter Walsworth – $102,211
  4. Fernando Rodriguez – $73,618
  5. Darin Thompson – $56,497
  6. Phil Hernz – $45,605
  7. Romeo Mendoza – $37,890
    *includes SHR Guitar Trophy

 

Content & Images Courtesy: Seminole Hard Rock Poker & PokerNews.com

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