Success for Scott Stewart at WPT World Championship at Wynn
The WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas was filled with tournaments, not the least watched was the ClubWPT Gold Freeroll. But there was only one main event, the most anticipated of all the festival, and that was the WPT World Championship itself.
The $10K buy-in tournament began its run at Wynn in 2022 with a $15M guarantee. That inaugural tournament brought in 2,960 entries for an actual prize pool of $29,008,000. The 2023 WPT World Championship took it a step further and guaranteed $40M, but the field of 3,835 entries missed it by a few million, creating an overlay to meet the guarantee. This year, the World Poker Tour skipped a guarantee altogether but still brought in 2,392 entries for a $23,441,600 prize pool.
Overall, the WPT WC festival was well-attended and solidified itself as a primary draw for December live poker. However, the competition that sent many players to the Bahamas continues to put the World Poker Tour in a position of finding a way to promote its Main Event.
Was this year a success? Yes, of course. It was the smallest field of the three years thus far.
Tallying the Numbers
As mentioned, there was no guarantee for the Main Event’s prize pool. That eliminated the heavy sweat from last year but didn’t bring in the big numbers, either. The three starting flights did give players ample chances to play:
- Total entries: 2,392
- Total prize pool: $23,441,600
- Number of paid players: 299
- Minimum payout: $19,600
Day 2 brought 821 players to the tables to open their chip bags, and playdown was fast, as only a fraction of that number would receive payouts. And it was at the end of that night when a player named Scott Stewart eliminated a player on the money bubble that the rest of the field was in the money. Those 299 players bagged their chips for the night.
Day 3 whittled the number down to just 61 players, and Day 4 took it down to just 16 survivors. Chris Moorman sat atop the leaderboard, though Steward wasn’t far behind.
Vying for Six Seats
The fifth day of play saw Edward Pak double early, as Moorman took the lead to eliminate San Kim. Other eliminations that followed included Andrea Dato, Jeremy Wien, AJ Kelsall, Fabian Gumz, Brian Yoon, and Joshua Lisberger.
The final nine combined on one table, with Pak now the chipleader, Moorman in second, and Stewart in third. After some double-ups and nearly three dozen hands, Pak eliminated Jonathan Willis, and it took nearly twice that number of hands before the next elimination when Moorman ousted Anze Smajd. Stewart busted Mykhailo Lendel soon after.
That left six players, all set to hit the final table the following day with the following chip stacks:
- Eddie Pak = 66.2M
- Chris Moorman = 60.8M
- Scott Stewart = 40.8M
- Christian Roberts = 28.6M
- Rob Sherwood = 25.6M
- Ryan Yu = 17.2M
Meet the Final Table of the $10,400 @WPT World Championship Final Table @WynnLasVegas @WynnPoker!
— World Poker Tour (@WPT) December 21, 2024
We caught up with our Final 6 before we crown our next @WPT World Champion, who will take over over $3.1 million dollars!
Action kicks off at 4pm and will be livestreamed! Tune in! pic.twitter.com/s9EpW8bLbN
Long but Fun Final Table
With Stewart creating a fun atmosphere and camaraderie at the table, play got underway on December 21. But it only took four hands for Roberts to get involved with A-Q suited. It just so happened that Stewart had pocket aces, which held up to a flopped flush draw that didn’t materialize. Roberts exited in sixth place.
On the very next hand, Yu shoved with pocket nines, and Pak called with A-K. The board of A-K-J-A-K sent Yu out in fifth place.
Sherwood doubled through Moorman, making the latter the shortest stack at the table. Moorman put everything on the line with pocket queens on a J-J-7 flop, and Pak was in with pocket tens. But the turn produced a ten, and Moorman exited in fourth place…for the second year in a row in the same event.
On the 11th hand of the evening, the three remaining players were on track to finish quickly…or so some thought. Pak had the chip lead, with Stewart and Sherwood far behind. But within the next dozen hands, the trio had nearly even stacks. Stewart moved into the lead, but Sherwood doubled through Pak to take over. Pak doubled back through Sherwood. Stewart dominated, and when he challenged Pak K-4-3-3-J board (four diamonds), Pak called all-in with Q-T and the flush. But Stewart showed pocket jacks for the full house. Pak exited in third place.
SPICY river card with 3 remaining in the $10,400 @WPT World Championship @WynnLasVegas @WynnPoker 💣 💥
— World Poker Tour (@WPT) December 22, 2024
📺Livestream – https://t.co/gBKsm7VUjQ pic.twitter.com/Uxd2P5FOBJ
Roller Coaster Heads-Up Battle
The heads-up match started on the 70th hand of the evening with Stewart holding 161.3M chips to the 77.9M of Sherwood. Stewart looked unstoppable, only growing his lead and relegating Sherwood to a stack of fewer than 30M chips.
But Sherwood wasn’t going out so easily. He doubled through with A-J versus queens by flopping an ace, and Sherwood stayed aggressive, eventually chipping up to the 100M-chip mark. At one point, he even took the lead, but Stewart reversed that trend. The two then exchanged the lead several times,
Just about 100 hands into heads-up action, Stewart doubled through Sherwood with pocket kings over sixes, leaving Sherwood with just 6.8M. Sherwood doubled once and then tried it again, that time with 7-3. Stewart had J-T and only improved on the K-J-5-5-8 board. Sherwood had to settle for second place.
Featured photo courtesy of World Poker Tour.
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