Season XIV of the World Poker Tour is just a few hours away from becoming history. This year, for the very first time, the season will be completed with the inaugural Monster WPT Tournament of Champions. Day 3 of the event is to be played today at 4pm local time at Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood. There are only six players left to contend for the lion’s share of the prize pool and the special winner’s package.
All WPT champions throughout the season were guaranteed a seat into the season-ending tournament. In addition, all previous WPT winners were allowed to buy into the event by paying the $15,000 buy-in fee. As many as 64 players entered the event, thus generating a prize pool of $1,060,000. The top 8 players are to receive a portion of the money, with the lowest payout worth $38,160.
The champion will, of course, receive the biggest share of the overall prize pool as well as a bonus prize package, which includes:
A 2016 Corvette
A Hublot watch
An Aurae Solid Gold MasterCard
Gold Monster 24K Headphones
A poker table manufactured by BBO Poker Tables
A seat into the WPT-presented Tiger’s Poker Night
A golf round with Matt Savage and two friends at the Shadow Creek Golf Course
As mentioned above, the official six-handed final table play is set to start at 4pm local time. Action will kick off with Jonathan Jaffe as the chip leader with a stack of 996,000 in chips. The player won the WPT Montreal C$3,850 Main Event in November 2014 for a first-place prize of C$464,252. Jaffe has one more significant WPT achievement in his career record. In 2008, he finished runner-up to Jonathan Little in the WPT World Poker Finals $10,000 Championship, collecting the amount of $670,636. As it seems, the player is in a good position to win the first-ever WPT Tournament of Champions.
Here are all six finalists and their respective chip counts:
Jonathan Jaffe – 996,000
Michael Mizrachi – 871,000
Noah Schwartz – 532,000
Darren Elias – 324,000
Farid Yachou – 264,000
Vlad Darie – 214,000
Michel Mizrachi, the player ranking second in chips, has two previous WPT titles. He won his first one in 2005, when he topped the field of the WPT L.A. Poker Classic $10,000 Main Event. The player collected the impressive amount of $1,859,909 for his achievement. Title number two came in 2007, when the player bested a field of 381 entries to win the WPT Borgata Poker Classic $10,000 Main Event for $1,173,373.
Noah Schwartz won his only WPT title in 2012. The player emerged victorious in the WPT Jacksonville bestbet Fall Poker Scramble $3,500 Main Event, winning a payout of $402,972.
In 2014, Darren Elias won two WPT Main Events. First, he topped the field of the WPT Borgata Championship for $843,744. A few months later, the player triumphed in the WPT Caribbean Poker Tour $3,500 Main Event for a first-place prize of $127,680.
Farid Yachou won in May 2015 the WPT Amsterdam $3,300 Main Event to scoop the amount of €201,000 and a seat into the WPT Tournament of Champions.
Last but not least, Vlad Darie bested the field of the partypoker WPT Vienna $3,500 Main Event, which took place last month, to take home the amount of €157,000.
