Day 2 of WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown Sees Shawn Nguyen Leading Remaining 524 Players

By Tim Duckworth

Welcome back to Day 2 of the Season XVII WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown $3,500 Main Event from the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida.

This event carried a $3 million guaranteed prize pool, and during the middle stages of Day 1B, that mark was eclipsed before the official prize pool was set at $4,352,000 from the 1,360 total entrants. Only 524 players would survive the two starting flights – 278 survivors from Day 1A and 246 from Day 1B – and it would be Shawn Nguyen claiming the overall chip lead after bagging 319,500 on Day 1B.

Nguyen resides in Sunrise, Florida, and has collected nearly $500,000 in live tournament earnings. In Season XIV, Nguyen finished in fourth-place in the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown for $323,500 for his only career WPT cash. Along with that final table, Nguyen has had plenty of success at the Seminole Hard Rock with 14 cashes and one side event victory, and if his start to this event is any indication, he’ll be looking to add to that.

Trailing Nguyen is Day 1A chip leader Davian Santana who finished with 318,000 while Frank Russo finished with 304,000 to be the only players in the 300,000-chip club. Joining these players are a plethora of WPT Champions Club members, previous WPT Players of the Year, and both WPTDeepStacks and WPT500 Champions. Daniel Strelitz (252,000), Tyler Patterson (248,500), Asher Conniff (224,500), David “ODB” Baker (206,500), and Victor Ramdin (203,000) are the best placed of the WPT Champions Club members, while Mukul Pahuja, Andy Frankenberger, Benjamin Zamani, Faraz Jaka, and Anthony Zinno are waving the flag for previous WPT Players of the Years. Current leader in the Season XVII Hublot WPT Player of the Year race is Erkut Yilmaz, and he also survived into Day 2 with a chip stack of 59,500.

WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown Day 2 Seating Draw

The plan for Day 2 is to play ten 60-minute levels with a 15-minute break every two levels, followed by a 60-minute dinner break after level 16 (approximately 6:30 p.m. EDT). It is expected that play will come close to the money, and may even play pass it late in the day. The final 170 players will be in-the-money with a guaranteed $6,185 in prize money, while first-place prize is worth $715,175 along with a seat into the season-ending Baccarat Crystal WPT Tournament of Champions.

Day 2 begins on Sunday at 12 p.m. (EDT) with continuous live updates being provided by the World Poker Tour. As always, keep your browsers locked right here to WPT.com for the exclusive live coverage of the tournament from start to finish to see who becomes the next WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown Champion, and wins his or her way to the season-ending Baccarat Crystal WPT Tournament of Champions.

Photography by Joe Giron / PokerPhotoArchive

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