Logo-PGT

Day 2 of the World Poker Tour $15,000 Tournament of Champions at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino returned 30 players to action, all eyeing the top nine spots that cashed. It took ten hours of play to trim the field to a TV final table of six players with Daniel Weinman leading the counts after sitting down for an exclusive interview.

Michael Mizrachi returns to the TOC final table for the second year in a row. He finished Mizrachi finished in third place last year and is looking for redemption as he had a huge chip lead three-handed.

Erik Seidel survived a wild ride at the final table – he was last in chips with nine players left, moved to second with eight players remaining and settled into middle of the pack at the end of play. Seidel returns for his eighth WPT final table and looks for his second win.

Rounding out the final table are Dylan Wilkerson, David Ormsby and Daniel Santoro. Wilkerson made four final tables in two years, while Ormsby and Santoro are least experienced players at the final table.

Action moved swiftly early in the day but slowed with 12 players remaining. Sam Panzica, James Carroll and Marvin Rettenmaier were among the early eliminations, while Anthony Zinno, Noah Schwartz and Jonathan Little got close enough to sniff the money.

Hand-for-hand play lasted for seven rounds until Lee Markholt opened, Mizrachi raised and Markholt called. Mizrachi set Markholt all in on a 6d 4h 3h flop, Markholt called with pocket jacks and Mizrachi had an ace-high flush draw that got there on the river to send Markholt to the rail without a payout.

Stefan Schillhablel (7th), Jesse Sylvia (8th) and Jonathan Jaffe (9th) made the money but won’t return for Day 3. Jaffe ran a suited ace rag into Mizrachi’s pocket aces to bust, Sylvia lost holding As Qs to Seidel’s Ah Kh and Schillhabel fell to Wilkerson’s pocket tens after shoving with ace queen.

Each player has $57,225 guaranteed when cards hit the air on Sunday. The final three players all earn six-figure payouts with the winner earning $381,500 plus new Audi and other prizes.

The final table swings into action at 4 pm on Sunday from Hard Rock Live with a livestream on a 30-minute delay with cards up. For the first time in the tour’s history there will streams running commentary in English, Spanish and Portuguese live on-site. Following post-production, streams in Chinese, Japanese and several other languages will be made available.

Final Table Chip Counts

1. Daniel Weinman – 872,000
2. Michael Mizrachi – 699,000
3. Dylan Wilkerson – 641,000
4. Erik Seidel – 540,000
5. David Ormsby – 299,000
6. Daniel Santoro – 250,000