Day 3 of the $3,500 Main Event at the World Poker Tour (WPT) Seminole Hard Rock ‘n’ Roll Poker Open came to an exciting end with a double knockout that sent 15 players to Day 4. The survivors will return on Tuesday at 12 p.m. local time to play down to the official WPT Final Table of six.
Hungary’s Istvan Briski leads the way with 11,875,000 and he is the only player above the 10 million chip mark. He will return with 158 big blinds to try to take one step closer to the top prize of $752,500 and a seat at next month’s WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas.
Following Briski is Sandy Sanchez with 9,575,000, while Lebanon’s Rayan Chamas jumped into the third spot on the leaderboard. Matt Bond and Alejandro Gonzalez-Olaechea round out the top five chip counts.
Double Knockout Ends Day 3
Day 3 started with 83 players — down from an original 1,447 entries — and the event kept a brisk pace throughout the day to play down to an expected 16 players. However, a double knockout on the last hand of the evening knocked that number down to 15 hopefuls. Both Robert Kennedy and Champions Club member Alessio Isaia would share a tie for 16th place after the simultaneous elimination.
Both players were rather unlucky. Isaia got it in with the ace-king of hearts against Olaechea’s ace-queen of diamonds, but the board ran out with three more diamonds for the Spaniard to send the WPT champ to the rail.
On the other table, Kennedy was all in with the king-queen of clubs against Briski’s king-queen of diamonds. Once again, the board ran out with diamonds to give Briski a flush and Kennedy had to settle for the 16th-place prize of $34,850.
Other players that came up just short of the final two tables were Dmitrii Perfilev in 18th, Chad Eveslage in 19th, Joseph Reddick in 20th, and Justin Zaki in 21st.
Table 1 Seat Draw
| Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gergely Kulcsar | Hungary | 3,550,000 | 47 |
| 2 | Rishi Makkar | Canada | 2,450,000 | 33 |
| 3 | Viktor Kovachev | Bulgaria | 2,675,000 | 36 |
| 4 | Alejandro Gonzalez Olaechea | Spain | 7,150,000 | 95 |
| 5 | Luke Graham | United States | 825,000 | 11 |
| 6 | Istvan Briski | Hungary | 11,875,000 | 158 |
| 7 | Lucian Silveira | Brazil | 2,325,000 | 31 |
| 8 |
Table 1 will start with the chip leader Briski and an empty eighth seat. This is Briski’s first recorded cash on the WPT and he has $235,968 in lifetime earnings according to the Hendon Mob, but the Hungarian has several big online scores to his name, including a fifth-place finish in the 2022 WSOP Online Main Event for $883,404.
Chasing the Briski at the table is Olaechea, who has three cashes in WPT events at this casino. Olaechea is followed by Gergely Kulscar with 47 big blinds in Seat 1.
This is the first deep run for Kulcsar on the WPT, but he’s no stranger to the spotlight. The Hungarian has just under $2 million in earnings, most recently a second-place finish in the $50,000 High Roller at this summer’s WSOP. He will return with 47 big blinds and a chance to win his first WPT title.
Canada’s Rishi Makkar and Bulgaria’s Viktor Kovachev join Day 3 chip leader Lucian Silveira with in the 30-40 big blind range, while Luke Graham brings the short stack as the only American at the table.
Table 2 Seat Draw
| Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jason Sagle | Canada | 3,025,000 | 40 |
| 2 | Matt Bond | United States | 7,575,000 | 101 |
| 3 | Darryll Fish | United States | 3,650,000 | 49 |
| 4 | Fred Goldberg | United States | 3,750,000 | 50 |
| 5 | Jack McDonald | United States | 2,300,000 | 31 |
| 6 | Sandy Sanchez | United States | 9,575,000 | 128 |
| 7 | Niko Koop | Germany | 3,475,000 | 46 |
| 8 | Rayan Chamas | Lebanon | 7,925,000 | 106 |
Sanchez leads the Table 2 pack and he is one of five Americans at the table. He has one cash on the WPT — earlier this year at the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown. The American is a regular at tournaments throughout Florida, with his lifetime earnings of $282,522 being made up of a series of relatively modest scores. Sanchez picked up his biggest win with a fourth-place finish at the $1,500 Omaha Hi-Lo event at the 2021 WSOP.
Bond and Chamas are both chasing the leader with just over 100 big blinds. Bond has just under $300K in WPT earnings, but he has yet to make a final table on the Main Tour. Chamas has just over $400K on the WPT, with his best run coming in the WPT Montreal Online event in 2021.
After Bond and Chamas, several players are grouped together in the 40-50 big blind range. Canada’s Jason Sagle has nearly $700K in WPT earnings, but it’s been a while since his second-place finish at the North American Poker Championship in 2006. Speaking of 2006, Fred Goldberg returns with 50 big blinds and a chance to make his third WPT Final Table. Goldberg may be most known for his 10th-place finish in the 2006 WSOP Main Event, but he has had plenty of success in Florida tournaments since reemerging on the tournament scene in 2020.
Darryll Fish is the only member of the Champions Club still in the mix. Fish has over $5 million in career earnings, with $1.7 million of that coming on the WPT. The Florida native joined the Champions Club in 2017 with a win at the WPT Lucky Hearts Open.
Rounding out the middle of the pack is Niko Koop with 46 big blinds. The German has over $2 million in WPT earnings, most notably his recent third-place finish in the WPT EveryOne for One Drop. He has one final table finish — a run to fourth place at WPT Barcelona in 2018.
The short stack on Table 2 is Jack Macdonald, who picked up $74,895 in the $1,100 Triple Stack earlier in the week. This is his first deep run in a WPT Main Event and he will look for the opportunity to add considerably to his $123,392 in career earnings.
Remaining Payouts
Each of the returning 15 players is guaranteed at least $38,300 and the winner is slated to take home $752,500.
| Place | Prize | Place | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $752,500 | 7 | $121,500 |
| 2 | $494,800 | 8 | $94,500 |
| 3 | $366,500 | 9-10 | $74,300 |
| 4 | $274,000 | 11-12 | $59,000 |
| 5 | $206,900 | 13-14 | $47,300 |
| 6 | $157,800 | 15 | $38,300 |
Play will continue on Tuesday at 12 p.m. and play is scheduled to end when the players reach a final table of six. Be sure to keep it with the PokerNews team for coverage of the final stretch of the $3,500 Main Event at WPT Seminole Hard Rock ‘n’ Roll Poker Open.
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Live Reporting Executive
Las Vegas-based PokerNews Live Reporting Executive, originally from Chicago, IL
