Kristen Bicknell Among Final 15 at WPT Seminole Hard Rock 'N' Roll Poker
With just 15 players remaining after Day 3 of the World Poker Tour (WPT) Seminole Hard Rock 'N' Roll Poker Showdown, a $3,500 buy-in tournament, Kristen Bicknell is the last woman standing.
The former partypoker ambassador left the casino in Hollywood, Florida Monday night with 1,350,000 chips with the blinds resuming at 50,000/75,000 (75,000 big blind ante) for the first hour of play on Tuesday.
Bicknell's among the smallest stacks but is guaranteed a minimum payout of $48,900. If she can spin it up and win her first WPT title, she'll take home $778,490.
Levitt Dominates Play
The tournament began November 26 and 1,566 runners entered, a record for the popular annual event. Numerous big-name players competed, including reigning WPT Player of the Year Brian Altman, who failed to cash.
Nate Silver, the political polling expert founder of the FiveThirtyEight website, bagged one of the biggest stacks heading into Day 3, but he struggled during the session and was eventually eliminated in 35th place for $18,390.
Scott Levitt was the star of the show on Day 3. He bagged 11 million chips, making him a huge chip leader heading into the final session, which begins at noon ET on Tuesday. Not only does he hold a big lead, he's also the only player who will come back with over 100 big blinds.
End-of-day chip leaders are as follows:
| Place | Player | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Scott Levitt | 11,000,000 |
| 2 | Harout Ghazarian | 6,915,000 |
| 3 | Joseph Cheong | 6,820,000 |
| 4 | Daniel Rezaei | 5,485,000 |
| 5 | Selahaddin Bedir | 4,690,000 |
| 6 | Gediminas Uselis | 4,470,000 |
| 7 | Jakob Miegel | 4,410,000 |
| 8 | Jacob Ferro | 4,150,000 |
| 9 | Anshul Rai | 2,665,000 |
| 10 | Ari Dinov | 2,430,000 |
The chip leaders entering Day 3 struggled. As mentioned above, Silver busted in 35th place, while Luke Martinelli, the Day 2 chip leader, went out in 47th place for $15,185.
Joe Cheong, however, continued to grow his big stack on Day 3. The 2010 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event third-place finisher ended the session third in chips and will be one of the toughest outs on Day 4.
There are 15 players left who can still win the 2021 WPT Seminole Hard Rock 'N' Roll Poker Showdown. We don't know which of those individuals will have their name etched onto the WPT Mike Sexton Champions Trophy, but we do know it won't be a past World Poker Tour winner. Pavel Plesuv was the last previous WPT champion still standing until being eliminated by Cheong in 16th place for $40,860.
Other notable Day 3 bustouts included Michael Shanahan (23rd - $27,645), Jeremy Joseph (34th - $18,390), and Hunter Cichy (46th - $15,185).
Tuesday's session will conclude when the final table of six has been reached. Players will return to the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino on December 2 for the final table, which will be live-streamed on WPT.com beginning at 2 p.m. ET.
When the current event wraps up, the WPT will shift its focus across the country to Las Vegas. More specifically, the Bellagio, for the $10,000 buy-in WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic beginning December 15.
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*Images courtesy of WPT and Seminole Hard Rock.
