WPT Seminole, EPT San Remo and FTOPS XX

Two big tournaments hosted the Day 5 competitions of their Main Events yesterday, and both saw their extremely competitive starting fields become final tables. Of course we’re talking about our continued coverage of the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Showdown and EPT San Remo Main Event tournaments. Conversely, online tournament action also perked up a bit over the weekend with the conclusion of FTOPS XX’s Main Event.

Back in Florida, the jockeying for the chipleader position at the Seminole Showdown continues. Once again Day 3 leader Taylor von Kriegenbergh is back at the front with a more than 2 million chip advantage. The final table was formed so fast that the tournament went ahead and played with a single table, but Day 4 chipleader Blair Hinkle shocked the Seminole spectators when he crashed and burned only 28 hands after earning his final table seat.

Not surprisingly, most of the last six Seminole players are familiar faces, having proven their mettle over the last several days and earned more than their fair share of poker press coverage. Here is the official breakdown on the last six Seminole Showdown players:

Taylor von Kriegenbergh – 4,384,000

Justin Zaki – 2,197,000

Abbey Daniels – 2,192,000

Allen Bari – 1,984,000

Tommy Vedes – 1,570,000

Curt Kohlberg – 655,000

Meanwhile, the EPT San Remo final table also features eight highly worthy players including Team PokerStars member Max Lykov, Max Heinzelmann and Day 3 leader Roberto Spada. EPT San Remo also saw its Day 4 leader wipe out well short of the final table. Ultimately Nicolas Yunis’ early lead was only enough to see him through to a 16^th place finish. The last standing U.S. pro, Joe Cada, was equally unlucky, hitting the rail in 13^th.

In a totally different venue, the 20^th Full Tilt Online Poker Series finished in style on Sunday. While this latest FTOPS didn’t come anywhere near breaking the records set by the last series, it nevertheless seemed to rebound toward the end despite the obvious absence of the large American contingent. As a result, the $640 buy in No Limit Hold’em Multi-Entry Main Event still managed to attract enough entries to surpass its $2.5 million guarantee.

All told, 4,666 entries were collected to create a total prize pool of almost $2.8 million. As usual, a deal was negotiated between the final four players, leaving the ultimate winner – ArielBahia – with a payout that was $20,000 less than runner-up Towelfish claimed ($346,696.49 and $366,792.88 respectively).

Related Entries