Darren Elias Leads the Final Six Players of the 2022 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown

WPT Champions Club Member Darren Elias (Pictured Above) came into Day Four of the 2022 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown second in chips and, after a slow start to the day, went on a run late, eventually pulling away to bag the chip lead of 38,825,000 with six players remaining.

“There was a lot of action (at my first table) for this situation, so you kinda had to have something to battle with these guys,” Elias said. “I was card dead for a couple of hours, found a few hands, and was able to win a few big pots.”

One of those pots, in particular, came against fellow WPT Champions Club James Calderaro on hand 89 of the unofficial final table. Elias found himself in over a 20 million chip pot holding pocket tens against the ace-queen of Calderaro. The Season 12 WPT Lucky Hearts Poker Open champion needed an ace or a queen to stay alive, but the flop, turn and river all fell blank and Calderaro headed at the door in 8th Place for $125,000.

Start of the day, chip leader Mark Davis bagged 26,550,000 and sits second in chips. Davis and Elias combined to bag 65 percent of the 100,000,000 chips in play and will be looking to apply max pressure when the final table resumes on May 25th at the HyperX Esports Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

“It’s interesting stack distribution. Normally there would be a lot of ICM dynamics.” Elias said. “You have to think about how that affects your opponents and do they know about them. Do they know about how these dynamics affect play? Figuring out how they understand that concept will dictate my play.”

In 2021 Viet Vo made a run to the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown final table, eventually falling in third place for $593,140 in the largest feild ever for a WPT Main Tour Event. This year the Houston, Texas native navigated the second-largest feild in WPT history to make the final table once again and currently sits in third in chips with 11,925,000.

“Man, I feel great. It is amazing,” Vo said, “Just to make it to the final table in such a large feild feels good. I don’t think it was much of a difference compared to last year. Just play my A-game and go through.”

Sitting just behind Vo in the chips counts are Marcos Exterkotter with 10,900,000, Michael Laufer with 6,750,000, and Andrew Barfield is the short stack at the final table with 5,500,000, good for 18 big blinds.

With his 45th WPT cash locked up, Elias extends his record for most WPT cashes of all time, and if he can close out the tournament, he will add his name to the Mike Sexton Champions Cup for the fifth time.

“It would mean a lot to win this one. It would be my biggest score ever. I’ve never won a million dollars, so it would mean a lot,” Elias said.

In addition to his third-place finish in this event last year, Vo has two runner-up finishes in WPT events and is looking to get the proverbial monkey off his back and capture his first WPT title.

“That is one of my dreams to win a WPT title,” Vo (Pictured Below) said. “I’ve been dreaming about it ever since my first WPT event, just haven’t been able to finish. If I can finish this out, it would mean the world.”

Day four started with 16 hopefuls, and after a string of doubles that saw play go on for just over a level and a half, James Kousouros would be the first to fall in 16th place for $51,000. Christian Harder would join Kousouros on the rail shortly after that when he fell in 15th Place for $51,000 just before the first break of the day.

When the remaining 14 players returned from break level 29 saw four more hopefuls hit the rail as Vinny Pahuja, 14th place for $63,000, Robert Georato, 13th place for $63,000, Benjamin Miner, 12th place for $79,000, and Carlos Dorca, 11th Place for $79,000 would see their shot at a WPT Title fade away.

Robert Lofaso would fall in 10th place for $100,000, just missing out on the unofficial final table.

Once the player reached the final table, play slowed considerably, and it would take nearly an hour and a half of play before David Moore would fall in 9th Place for $100,000 on the 37th hand of the unofficial final table.

Level 31 came and went without a single player making their way to the exit doors as short stack Andrew Davidson doubled twice through Vo. Davidson’s run would finally come to an end on Hand #100 of the unofficial final table when his pocket queens where out flopped by the king-ten of Davis as he finished in 7th place for $165,000, just missing out on the trip to Las Vegas.

Final Six Players from left to right: Mark Davis, Viet Vo, Michael Laufer, Andrew Barfield, Marcos Exterkotter, and Darren Elias.

When play resumes at the HyperX Esports Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, on May 25th, there will be 41:50 remaining in Level 32 with the blinds at 125000-250000 with a 250000 big blind ante.

Photography by Joe Giron / PokerPhotoArchive.com