Chipleader Chino Rheem Goes For Record-Setting Fourth Title

Chino Rheem seems to find ways to win at just about every poker hotbed in America. He has two WPT titles at Bellagio, a third at Seminole Hard Rock in Florida won last season, and now he is going for an unprecedented fourth title in California. The good news is he has a pretty big chip lead heading into the final table. The kind of chip lead where you have half the chips in play six-handed.

The road to victory is going to be a tough one, be it for Rheem or whoever finds themselves hoisting the WPT Champions Cup Friday night with the knowledge they are now $1.3 million wealthier. There are several great contenders though. There is Paul Volpe, who is looking to improve upon his third-place finish in Season XI and sitting in the middle of the pack in chips. You’ve got last Shooting Star standing Rainer Kempe who is second in the standings with 3.7 million. Sam Panzica has Hublot WPT Player of the Year hopes and a shot at a second title. Then there is seasoned veteran Anthony Spinella and the relative unknown of the bunch, Dennis Stevermer bring up the bottom of the counts.

Day 3 was a long one, beginning with 44 players and playing down to the televised final table. When play began, Volpe lead the field, Mike Sexton was still in the hunt to take the Hublot WPT Player of the Year lead, and Sexton and four other Shooting Stars still had bounties on their head up for grabs.

Christian Harder was the first bounty to fall in 34th place, followed by Garrett Greer in 23rd place. Hot on Greer’s heels was Sexton, who exited in 22nd place after a deep run with his special wind-up monkey good luck charm, Flippy. The run cemented Sexton’s massive points total in the WPT California Swing race, but as an employee of the WPT, he is ineligible to win the prize package. An updated leaderboard for the contest will be posted later tonight.

David Williams was the last bounty bustout of the day in 16th place. Rainer Kempe will head to tomorrow’s final table as the last Shooting Star standing. History is not on his side though, as no Shooting Star has ever won this event since it has been under the WPT banner. Kempe did end the day on a high note though, eliminating Sergio Aido in seventh place after a long stretch of bubble play to bring Day 3 action to a close.

Sexton picked up 100 POY points to close the gap between himself and current frontrunner Ben Zamani, but it is WPT Champions Club member Sam Panzica who could actually come even closer to catching Zamani if he can win a second title tomorrow. Panzica is already up to third place in the standings, but could move just 50 points behind Zamani if he wins. Panzica and Rheem are the two members of the WPT Champions Club looking to add to their title tally.

Some of the notables who came and went today include Eddy Sabat (42nd), Pratyush Buddiga (35th), Jason Les (31st), Dan O’Brien (29th), Joe Elpayaa (27th), Ravi Raghavan (21st), Brian Altman (19th), Matt Affleck (17th), Kevin MacPhee (10th), and Igor Yaroshevskyy (8th).

Everyone at the final table is guaranteed at least $188,460. The winner will be taking home $1,373,000, a seat in the season-ending Tournament of Champions, and their very own Champions Cup. Here is a look at the chip counts and seat assignments for the final table:

Seat 1: Paul Volpe – 3,005,000 (38 bb)
Seat 2: Chino Rheem – 10,650,000 (133 bb)
Seat 3: Sam Panzica – 3,200,000 (40 bb)
Seat 4: Rainer Kempe – 3,700,000 (46 bb)
Seat 5: Dennis Stevermer – 980,000 (12 bb)
Seat 6: Anthony Spinella – 2,635,000 (33 bb)

Final table action gets underway at 4pm PT. There is no livestream, but there will be real-time updates of every single hand right here at WPT.com.

Photography by Joe Giron / PokerPhotoArchive