Former WSOP champion Ryan Reiss, who won more than $8.3 million for his Main Event victory back in 2013 (see previous InfoPowa reports) has scored another major win, taking down the $10,000 buy-in WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown Finale Thursday.
He succeeded despite a tough and highly competitive field that included aces like Cliff Josephy, Jason Koon, Stephen Chidwick, Rainer Kempe, Eugene Katchalov, Yevgeniy Timoshenko, Dietrich Fast, Mike Leah, Noah Vaillancourt, Anthony Zinno, Darren Elias, and defending WPT Finale champ Chino Rheem.
Reiss’s reward from a prize pool of over $3.3 million in the freeze-out competition, which attracted 349 players, was the $716,0088 main prize and a $15,000 seat at the WPT Tournament of Champions later this year.
By the time the final table was reached Alan Sternberg held the chip lead at a table where the finalists could boast over $30 million in aggregated career earnings.
That ensured plenty of skilful and aggressive action and the table saw a large number of rapid-fire passages as the pros battled on. Reiss eliminated several players before ending up in the heads up against Sternberg, a former WPT Bay101 Shooting Star champ from 2011.
Sternberg had a small chip lead and very aggressively set about trying to extend it, but Reiss was having none of it and managed to draw level and then overtake his opponent, starting a series of ups and downs in which the lead changed several times before Reiss was able to cement his lead and take the game, sending Sternberg to the exit and a runner-up reward of $491,081.
Other final table cashes included:
Terry Schumacker – $315,726
Tim West – $204,466
Jason Koon – $157,599
Cliff Josephy – $130,370