The World Poker Tour crowned two new champions this week and both were first-time winners. Corey Wade took down the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Tampa Main Event for a $471,686 score. Joshua Pollock won the $5,250 buy-in WPT Legends at the Bicycle Casino on the outskirts of Los Angeles for a $573,350 score.
Life on the tournament circuit continues with two more World Poker Tour events in the books. Two players etched their names in the WPT record books for the first time with two huge scores this week on two different coasts. In the case of Joshua Pollock, he added a WPT title to his impressive resume which also includes a couple of WSOP bracelets in PLO.
The 2022 WPT Legends of Poker was hosted at the Parkwest Bicycle Casino on the fringe of Los Angeles. This year's marquee Main Event attracted 642 entries to the $5,250 buy-in affair, which boasted a prize pool of $3.1 million to squash the $2.5 million guarantee. The top 81 places paid out with most of the cheddar set aside to the champ.
Notable players who went deep at the WPT Legends included Mike Wang, Nam Le, JC Tran, Ryan Tosoc, Stephen Song, Xuan Liu, Ming Li, Allan Le, Shawn Daniels, Hunter Frey, Bobby Espina, Chris Klodnicki, Brandon Cantu, David the Dragon, Andy Tsai, Jared Grenier, and David Williams.
Tyler Dickinson bubbled the final table in sixth place. The Legends final table of six included Ray Qartomy, Aaron Motoyama Lei Lei, Adam Hendrix, Matthew Wantman, and Joshua Pollock.
Hendrix banked over $3.5 million on the circuit. He had a strong year in Las Vegas with a trio of 200K scores at the Aria, Wynn, and Paris/Bally's at the WSOP. Last year, he final table the LAPC Main Event with a runner-up finish. He added another final table in LA at the WPT Legends, however, he bowed out in sixth place as the first player to bust at the final table. Lei Lei was knocked out in fifth place, followed by Aaron Motoyama in fourth, and Matt Wantman in third place.
Ray Qartomy and Pollock slugged it out for the WPT crown and small mound of cash. Qartomy had to settle on a second-place finish which paid out $380,000. Joshua Pollock binked the WPT Legends for a sick score worth $573,350.
On the other side of the country in Tampa, Florida, the Seminole Hard Rock continued their end of summer series with the SHR Tampa Main Event which had a $3,500 buy-in and attracted 1,165 runners. It attracted a prize pool in excess of $3.7 million, which smashed the $1 million guaranteed prize pool.
Kevin Ragusa bubbled the final table in seventh place at the SHR Tampa. The final table of six included Corey Wade, Fred Paradis, Brock Wilson, Steven McKoy, Seth Berger, and David Tuthill.
The top 147 places paid out. Notable names who went deep and cashed included Donni Phan, James Mendoza,
Brad Owem Yuval Bronshtein, Aaron Mermelstein, Viet Vo, Derek Bowers, Justin Liberto, Chris Dombrowski, Ari Engel, Kristen Foxen, Brian Altman, Thong Ho, Mark Dickstein, Stephen Song, Phillip Hui, and Matt Wantman, who also final tabled the WPT Legends a couple days before.
David Tuthill was the first player to bust at the final table in sixth place, followed by Seth Berger in fifth place, Steve McKoy in fourth place. The final three worked out a money deal. After the deal Brock Wilson busted in third place for a $441,678 score. The WPT title came down to a joust between Corey Wade and Fred Paradis. When the dust settled, Paradis hit the bricks in second place for a runner-up finish worth $441,686. Wade banked $471,686 for first place and he won his first-ever WPT crown.
Stay tuned for the next major event at the WPT when the crew heads down under to the Star Gold Coast for the WPT Australia at the end of September. In October, the WPT returns to Sin City for the WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic at the Bellagio Casino.
