The Wynn had been welcoming players in solid numbers since reopening after the pandemic shutdowns of 2020. From smaller buy-ins to high roller events, the Wynn’s poker room had been bustling in 2021. So, the tournament staff set up the Wynn Summer Classic. That wasn’t new but the schedule was improved. The series offered 33 tournaments with buy-ins ranging from $200 to $10K and prize pool guarantees starting at $20K and topping out at $10M.
Wait, what?
Most summer poker tournaments don’t need big guarantees. But this summer was going to be different, as the World Series of Poker moved to the fall months, and the Wynn needed players to come for the summer anyway. With that in mind – and a “bet big to win big” mindset – they posted the highlight of the series with a$10K buy-in and a $10M guarantee. It would be called the Wynn Millions.
The whole series started on May 27 and will continue through July 13, but a lot of players had their eyes on that $10M GTD.
The first of three starting days kicked off on June 25, and the final table played out on July 3. And a longtime, hardworking poker pro with a longtime poker-contributing (video host, interviewer, writer, player) wife – familiar faces to many in the poker community – took the title and $1.4M for the win.
Meeting a Massive Guarantee
In today’s poker world, buy-ins of $10K are typically reserved for big events like the World Series of Poker Main Event, an occasional World Poker Tour stop, or an Aria or Wynn High Roller event. Without a plethora of online poker in the United States, the poker economy has lowered the amount of average tournament buy-ins.
The Wynn’s poker room put it out there anyway. They spread the word and hosted a series around it that became one of the hottest tickets in Vegas poker. And then it was time to put it to the test.
-Day 1A: 263 entries, 90 players survived (Peter Braglia led with 321,500 chips)-Day 1B: 389 entries, 148 players survived (Bryn Kenney led with 376,500 chips)-Day 1C: 676 entries, 246 players survived (Joseph Zona led with 347,000 chips)
Altogether, that was good news, as the prize pool soared far past the guarantee.
-Total entries: 1,328-Total prize pool: $12,483,200-Players to be paid: 134-Minimum payout: $25,091-Winner payout: $2,018,866
The large field prompted Wynn Millions organizers to offer two Day 2 combinations. The survivors of Days 1A and 1B returned on Day 2AB, and the Day 1C players had their own Day 2.
Day 2AB: 240 players reduced to 76 survivors (Dominique Mosley led with 933K chips)Day 2C: 246 players reduced to 86 survivors (Frank Funaro led with 953K chips)
That resulted in the field combining for Day 3 with 162 starters. Players like David Pham, Sergio Aido, Jack McClelland, and Ema Zajmovic departed before the payouts began. Hand-for-hand play resulted in Alex Foxen eliminating Carlos Alvarado, ensuring payouts for the top 134 finishers.
Some of the players who then busted but took a walk to the cashier cage first were John Racener, Chris Moorman, Daniel Buzgon, Ryan Riess, John Hennigan, Kathy Liebert, Daniel Negreanu, Lee Markholt, Amit Makhija, Benny Glaser, Connor Drinan, Jason Koon, Ravi Raghavan, David Baker, and Robert Mizrachi. That left 61 players still in action and Anthony Marquez with the lead holding 1,925,000 chips.
Day 4 reduced the field to just 18 players. Alex Foxen was among the first to bust, and Kristen Bicknell followed soon after. Justin LIberto also busted, as did Dominique Mosley, Kevin Eyster, Ari Engel, Dylan Linde, Thom Marchese, Harrison Gimbel, Ralph Perry, Jared Jaffee, Frank Funaro, Cliff Josephy, Jesse Sylvia, and Maria Ho. Payouts stood at $97,274, and Clayton Maguire led the pack with 4.93M chips.
Those 18 players returned on July 2 to play for the coveted final table seats. Dylan Smith was the first to exit, followed by Valentyn Shabelnyk, Sandeep Pulusani, Anthony Huntsman, Ilyas Muradi, Anthony Marquez, Hyon Kim, and Jesse Yaginuma. Santiago Soriano departed in 10th place for $172,654, and play stopped.
https://twitter.com/WynnPoker/status/1411402889210175491?s=20
Swings and Deals at the Final Table
When the final nine returned to the Wynn to play for the title and some millions, the chip counts were as follows:
Action began with the big stacks being aggressive and Milliard-Feral catching up to the chip lead. Moreno doubled through Maguire, but the latter recovered some chips through Milliard-Feral and retook the lead. Milliard-Feral eliminated Lee in ninth place more than 50 hands into play.
Lewis doubled through Cervantes. While Cervantes went on to oust Kuether in eighth place, Cervantes remained the short stack. Lewis took care of that and busted Cervantes in seventh place. Lewis stayed on track and eliminated Shing in sixth place and became a contender for the chip lead with Maguire.
Play slowed a bit for a while, and after 131 hands, the five remaining players took a dinner break. At that point, Maguire had a two-to-one chip lead over Lewis, while Admon pulled up in a close third, followed by Moreno and then Milliard-Feral on the short stack.
On presumably full stomachs, the players returned, and Lewis promptly busted Milliard-Feral in fifth place. Shortly thereafter, Moreno sent Admon out of the tournament in fourth place.
The final three players discussed a deal and agreed to payouts per chip counts, though they left an additional $313K for the winner and nearly $100K for the second-place finisher. The payouts assured Maguire of more than $1.3M, Lewis of more than $1.2M, and Moreno of more than $1.1M.
Upon the resumption of play, Moreno climbed and Lewis did the opposite. It didn’t take long for Lewis to put it all on the line with pocket threes, but Maguire had A-K and found a king on the river. Lewis departed in third place with his agreed-upon sum.
Heads-up play began with Maguire holding 30,145,000 chips and Moreno with 22.97 million. The two stayed in those general spots more than a dozen hands, but then Maguire four-bet all-in with A-Q, and Moreno called for his tournament life with A-T. The board brought a ten on the flop, giving the double-up to Moreno. Maguire seemed to lose his momentum from there. Five hands later, Maguire risked it all with A-K of clubs, and Moreno called with A-Q of spades. The board didn’t finish any flushes but the K-5-Q-Q-8 gave Moreno trips and the victory.
With wife Kristy Arnett at his side and their baby in her belly, Moreno posed for his winner picture with the trophy signifying the largest score of his career thus far.
https://twitter.com/WynnPoker/status/1411772577832337409?s=20
1st place: Andrew Moreno ($1,460,106)2nd place: Clayton Maguire ($1,443,757)3rd place: Toby Lewis ($1,235,204)4th place: Salim Admon ($619,160)5th place: Julian Milliard-Feral ($456,629)6th place: Philip Shing ($360,140)7th place: Jaime Cervantes ($289,361)8th place: Joe Kuether ($240,302)9th place: Lion Yiming Lee ($202,765)
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