Bei einer Premiere einen Rekord aufzustellen ist leicht. Tatsächlich wurde das $3.500 Championship Event der World Poker Tour (WPT) im Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Tampa regelrecht gestürmt und die Preisgeldgarantie von $2.000.000 fast verdoppelt.
Erstmals gastiert die WPT nicht im Guitar Hotel in Hollywood (Florida), sondern eben ein wenig nördlicher in Tampa. Die Teilnehmerzahlen sind dennoch gigantisch, schon bei den Events zuvor gab es riesige Teilnehmerfelder. Auch das Buy-In von $3.500 hielt die Spieler nicht ab und an den zwei Starttagen wurden insgesamt 1.165 Entries verzeichnet, was einem Preispool von $3.728.000 entspricht. Die Top 146 Spieler kommen ins Geld und haben $6.175 sicher, auf den Sieger warten schließlich $613.225.
Noch sind es aber 284 Spieler, die die beiden Starttagen heil überstanden haben. Es sind einige der WPT Regulars am Start, allzu viele Big Names gibt es aber nicht. Den Chiplead sicherte sich Clayton Jiang mit 542.000 Chips. Christian Harder liegt auf Rang 6 (452.500).
Die Action gibt es täglich im Liveblog auf wpt.com zum Mitlesen, der Sieger wird am 22. Juni gekürt.
Seat Draw Day 2:
| Name | Chipcount | Table | Seat |
| Clayton Jiang | 542.000 | 81 | 4 |
| Peter Vitantonio | 513.000 | 67 | 2 |
| Matthew Zazaian | 468.000 | 81 | 9 |
| Rafael Reis | 465.000 | 66 | 8 |
| Kevin Andriamahefa | 457.500 | 62 | 2 |
| Christian Harder | 452.500 | 59 | 7 |
| Orson Young | 413.000 | 81 | 3 |
| Olamide Otti | 404.500 | 60 | 2 |
| Wagner Wysotchanski | 402.000 | 82 | 2 |
| Sean Legendre | 397.000 | 76 | 6 |
| Gabriel Abusada | 395.000 | 61 | 9 |
| Ronald Sullivan | 394.500 | 57 | 9 |
| Michael Rocco | 391.500 | 70 | 2 |
| Barrett Purvis | 387.500 | 65 | 2 |
| Francisco Martinez | 385.000 | 80 | 4 |
| John Gorsuch | 379.500 | 57 | 3 |
| Mark Dube | 375.000 | 61 | 8 |
| Isalvatore Trowno | 370.000 | 58 | 4 |
| Richard Wilburn | 357.000 | 77 | 1 |
| Hassan El Hakim | 352.000 | 74 | 5 |
| David Berman | 340.000 | 55 | 1 |
| Spencer Champlin | 336.500 | 64 | 5 |
| James Sowers | 326.500 | 59 | 2 |
| Viny Lima | 320.500 | 56 | 2 |
| Nikki Dugan | 318.500 | 67 | 6 |
| Ramaswamy Pyloore | 318.000 | 71 | 5 |
| David Novosel | 309.500 | 80 | 6 |
| Wesley Scarbrough | 308.500 | 78 | 6 |
| Kevin Garosshen | 302.500 | 71 | 1 |
| Joshua Rothberg | 301.500 | 66 | 9 |
| Steven Karp | 294.500 | 73 | 1 |
| Anthony March | 294.000 | 66 | 2 |
| Hitesh Patel | 294.000 | 81 | 8 |
| Donald Graham | 288.500 | 54 | 9 |
| Alexander Farin | 285.500 | 77 | 2 |
| Jorge Martinez | 278.500 | 76 | 4 |
| Demo Kiriopoulos | 278.500 | 76 | 7 |
| Joshua Bray | 276.000 | 59 | 5 |
| Sokchheka Pho | 273.000 | 54 | 2 |
| Martin Carnero | 270.500 | 60 | 5 |
| Derek Bowers | 269.000 | 74 | 4 |
| Frank Funaro Jr | 266.500 | 53 | 2 |
| Erkut Yilmaz | 263.500 | 57 | 8 |
| Christopher Logue | 261.500 | 61 | 1 |
| Rafael Rovira Soler | 260.000 | 59 | 1 |
| Victor Nissim | 257.500 | 64 | 8 |
| Benjamin Earley | 250.500 | 60 | 3 |
| William Berry | 249.500 | 55 | 9 |
| Chris Limo | 249.000 | 60 | 6 |
| Jason Kapoor | 247.500 | 64 | 9 |
| Armando Figueroa | 247.500 | 75 | 7 |
| James Calderaro | 247.000 | 52 | 9 |
| James Collins | 245.500 | 82 | 4 |
| Jacob Ferro | 245.000 | 63 | 1 |
| Marie Harrell | 243.000 | 65 | 9 |
| Marc Duquette | 242.500 | 68 | 9 |
| Jon Borenstein | 239.500 | 58 | 1 |
| Gregory Back | 235.500 | 62 | 8 |
| Gregory Wilson | 229.000 | 53 | 5 |
| Andrew Ostapchenko | 227.000 | 70 | 3 |
| Nashaat Antonious | 225.000 | 76 | 1 |
| Javier Zarco Sanchez | 222.000 | 80 | 2 |
| Matthew Zarcadoolas | 221.000 | 53 | 1 |
| Kevin Castillo | 219.500 | 74 | 8 |
| Sumeet Wayachal | 219.000 | 57 | 5 |
| Perry Shiao | 219.000 | 75 | 2 |
| Fred Goldberg | 218.000 | 54 | 1 |
| Justin Liberto | 216.000 | 73 | 6 |
| Jonathan Hilton | 215.000 | 81 | 1 |
| Kenneth Stacy | 212.000 | 63 | 5 |
| Jeffrey Morzella | 207.500 | 53 | 8 |
| David Nathaniel Jr | 207.000 | 82 | 5 |
| Boris Shakhmurov | 206.500 | 59 | 4 |
| Lawrence Eckhardt | 204.000 | 59 | 9 |
| Jeremy Joseph | 204.000 | 80 | 9 |
| Steven Snyder | 202.500 | 76 | 8 |
| Steven Queen | 201.500 | 79 | 6 |
| Francisco Gomez | 201.000 | 74 | 7 |
| Ricardo Rendueles | 200.500 | 53 | 7 |
| Zachary Smiley | 197.500 | 78 | 7 |
| Thomas Mcdonald | 196.000 | 60 | 8 |
| Fabian Foster | 194.500 | 81 | 5 |
| Shanmukha Meruga | 192.000 | 66 | 4 |
| Maurice Paradis | 191.500 | 54 | 7 |
| Shawn Mcclanahan | 191.000 | 61 | 7 |
| Matthew Smith | 191.000 | 65 | 1 |
| Ioannis Patsourakis | 187.500 | 73 | 2 |
| Toby Boas | 186.000 | 78 | 2 |
| Andrew Barfield | 184.000 | 52 | 5 |
| Manuel Suarez | 183.500 | 66 | 7 |
| Matthew Waxman | 182.000 | 60 | 7 |
| Sam Panzica | 180.500 | 65 | 4 |
| Jeiko Milivoj Palma Kuzmicic | 180.000 | 67 | 9 |
| Howard Feingold | 179.000 | 64 | 2 |
| Vincent Giuliano | 179.000 | 75 | 6 |
| Fernando Rodriguez Vazquez | 179.000 | 80 | 8 |
| Ronnie Day Jr | 177.500 | 78 | 1 |
| Christopher Dombrowski | 177.000 | 78 | 5 |
| Benjamin Miner | 177.000 | 78 | 8 |
| Farhad Jamasi | 176.000 | 78 | 3 |
| John Ingold | 174.500 | 68 | 5 |
| Ryan Luker | 172.500 | 69 | 1 |
| Emanuel Ibarry Quinonez | 171.500 | 81 | 7 |
| David To | 171.000 | 63 | 4 |
| James Hundt | 170.500 | 65 | 3 |
| Samuel Sternfield | 168.500 | 58 | 2 |
| Anwar Shawn Mohamed | 168.000 | 75 | 5 |
| Joshua Garber | 167.500 | 72 | 2 |
| Joshua Palmer | 167.000 | 66 | 1 |
| David Vurgait | 165.500 | 55 | 6 |
| Rafay Asrar | 165.500 | 65 | 7 |
| Jeffrey Rolland | 164.500 | 71 | 2 |
| Chad Deberry | 164.000 | 70 | 4 |
| Kharlin Sued | 163.000 | 79 | 8 |
| Nhut Nguyen | 163.000 | 81 | 2 |
| Massimo Dirienzo | 161.500 | 52 | 2 |
| Igor Tretyakov | 160.500 | 62 | 4 |
| T.K. Miles | 160.000 | 79 | 2 |
| Philip Shing | 159.500 | 78 | 9 |
| Jeremy Becker | 158.000 | 61 | 2 |
| Cord Garcia | 157.500 | 67 | 3 |
| Brendan Daly | 157.000 | 51 | 3 |
| Marcelo Lanas | 157.000 | 62 | 5 |
| Lumni Zhuta | 155.000 | 51 | 6 |
| David Shmuel | 154.000 | 56 | 6 |
| Timothy Smith | 154.000 | 57 | 6 |
| Michael Rosenberg | 153.500 | 55 | 4 |
| Jordan Degrenier | 153.000 | 59 | 8 |
| Kenneth Fishman | 152.500 | 70 | 6 |
| Dennis Rodriguez | 152.000 | 75 | 9 |
| David Meagher | 151.000 | 82 | 7 |
| William Parker | 149.500 | 55 | 8 |
| Faysal Smile | 146.500 | 53 | 4 |
| Robert Manjura Boody | 146.000 | 76 | 2 |
| Kyrylo Kobzyev | 146.000 | 70 | 1 |
| Jesse Lonis | 145.500 | 66 | 5 |
| Samuel Blankenship | 145.500 | 68 | 6 |
| Tai Cao | 145.500 | 80 | 1 |
| Yazan Musa | 144.500 | 63 | 7 |
| Wilmer Chavira | 144.500 | 74 | 6 |
| Sang Yi | 144.000 | 56 | 4 |
| Filipp Khavin | 144.000 | 56 | 7 |
| Harrison Gimbel | 144.000 | 60 | 4 |
| Donald Himpele | 142.500 | 56 | 3 |
| David Kim | 141.500 | 53 | 9 |
| Marsha Wolak | 141.000 | 57 | 1 |
| Yaser Al Keliddar | 140.000 | 58 | 9 |
| Jovy Ounthongdy | 140.000 | 69 | 2 |
| Jason Young | 139.000 | 60 | 9 |
| Alexi Hernandez | 137.500 | 80 | 5 |
| Bryce Mcvay | 137.000 | 70 | 7 |
| Matthew Leecy | 136.500 | 77 | 4 |
| Michael Jagroo | 136.000 | 77 | 7 |
| Balakrishna Patur | 136.000 | 79 | 3 |
| Travis Klein | 134.500 | 67 | 5 |
| John Haas Iii | 134.000 | 71 | 6 |
| Chad Eveslage | 132.500 | 61 | 6 |
| Jon Hoellein | 132.500 | 72 | 9 |
| Matthew Andrew Smile | 131.500 | 71 | 7 |
| Kyle Givens | 131.000 | 51 | 8 |
| Fikret Kovac | 131.000 | 54 | 5 |
| Michael Jones | 131.000 | 71 | 3 |
| Christopher Agnello | 130.500 | 52 | 7 |
| Raymond Roberty | 130.000 | 59 | 3 |
| Michael Collins | 129.500 | 57 | 7 |
| Pascal Theodosiadis | 129.500 | 65 | 5 |
| Vishnu Pabbathi | 128.500 | 73 | 9 |
| Ryan Mcknight | 128.000 | 55 | 5 |
| Ryan Slowik | 128.000 | 63 | 3 |
| Mansoor Kader | 127.500 | 57 | 2 |
| Steven Mckoy | 126.500 | 67 | 1 |
| Frederico Dabus | 126.500 | 77 | 8 |
| Blaise Ingoglia | 126.000 | 55 | 2 |
| Narimaan Ahmadi | 126.000 | 73 | 7 |
| Michael Amato | 125.500 | 76 | 5 |
| Nicholas Rascona | 125.000 | 54 | 6 |
| Rafael Fernandes Junio | 125.000 | 61 | 5 |
| Ryan Huff | 123.000 | 68 | 8 |
| Soheb Porbandarwala | 123.000 | 71 | 8 |
| Linda Kittle | 123.000 | 72 | 1 |
| Justin Zaki | 121.500 | 75 | 8 |
| Remi Castaignon | 120.000 | 58 | 7 |
| Jae Sim | 119.500 | 75 | 3 |
| Demetrios Petrou | 119.000 | 51 | 4 |
| James Pace | 119.000 | 51 | 5 |
| Timothy Capretta | 118.500 | 58 | 8 |
| David Parkus | 118.000 | 69 | 3 |
| Jonathan Jaffe | 117.500 | 64 | 1 |
| Hunter Cichy | 116.500 | 64 | 7 |
| Blake Napierala | 115.500 | 68 | 2 |
| Richard Rice | 113.500 | 73 | 5 |
| Jackob Datashvili | 112.500 | 70 | 9 |
| Alexander Rocha | 112.000 | 69 | 8 |
| Mark Scacewater | 111.500 | 64 | 4 |
| Brian Altman | 111.500 | 80 | 7 |
| Michael Pittas | 111.000 | 67 | 8 |
| Joseph Steur | 108.000 | 51 | 9 |
| Harry Binda | 107.500 | 65 | 8 |
| Frank Stepuchin | 107.000 | 68 | 7 |
| David Smith | 107.000 | 72 | 3 |
| Antonio Velasquez | 104.000 | 63 | 9 |
| Michael Esposito | 103.500 | 77 | 5 |
| James Carroll | 103.500 | 78 | 4 |
| Scott Robbins | 102.500 | 82 | 1 |
| George James | 101.000 | 82 | 8 |
| Vladimir Vasilyev | 100.000 | 56 | 9 |
| David Mzareulov | 98.000 | 54 | 4 |
| Alejandro Gonzalez Olaechea | 97.000 | 58 | 6 |
| Naing Thu | 96.000 | 62 | 6 |
| Deon Sampson | 95.000 | 54 | 8 |
| Eric Afriat | 95.000 | 55 | 7 |
| Michael Morgan | 92.500 | 54 | 3 |
| Robert Laseter | 92.000 | 56 | 1 |
| Shankar Pillai | 92.000 | 79 | 5 |
| D.J. Alexander | 91.000 | 56 | 8 |
| Dien Le | 90.500 | 82 | 9 |
| Jessica Cai | 90.000 | 71 | 9 |
| Christopher Soloe | 90.000 | 77 | 9 |
| Jebhar Patterson | 89.500 | 66 | 3 |
| Jesse Copley | 89.000 | 72 | 6 |
| Carlos Aranda | 88.000 | 69 | 4 |
| Cy Church | 87.500 | 69 | 7 |
| James Kramer | 87.000 | 72 | 5 |
| James Frangoulidis | 86.500 | 79 | 4 |
| Bryan Hunter | 85.500 | 74 | 3 |
| Chanthy Phoutsakanh | 82.500 | 75 | 4 |
| Robert Wuestner | 81.500 | 72 | 4 |
| Danny Hannawa | 81.500 | 77 | 3 |
| Javier Sarache | 81.000 | 55 | 3 |
| Nicholas Davidson | 80.000 | 56 | 5 |
| Corey Bierria | 78.000 | 68 | 1 |
| Craig Varnell | 77.000 | 82 | 3 |
| Gregory Banning | 76.500 | 63 | 6 |
| Ryan Van Sanford | 76.500 | 74 | 2 |
| Vitor Coelho | 76.000 | 69 | 5 |
| Nicholas Zautra | 76.000 | 73 | 4 |
| Austin Peck | 75.000 | 60 | 1 |
| Jerry Wong | 71.000 | 52 | 8 |
| Gerald Aiello | 70.000 | 53 | 3 |
| Daniel Couzens | 70.000 | 61 | 4 |
| Yordan Petrov | 70.000 | 70 | 5 |
| Stephen Brite | 68.500 | 68 | 3 |
| Daniel Constantine Sepiol | 67.500 | 66 | 6 |
| Sandeep Mathai | 66.000 | 77 | 6 |
| Jose Montes | 64.500 | 65 | 6 |
| Hieu Nguyen | 62.500 | 73 | 8 |
| Thomas Boyden | 61.500 | 64 | 6 |
| Raffaelle Sorrentino | 60.500 | 53 | 6 |
| Jeffrey Esterling | 60.500 | 73 | 3 |
| Allen Kessler | 60.000 | 58 | 3 |
| David Shaw | 59.500 | 63 | 2 |
| Charles He | 58.000 | 82 | 6 |
| Shimada Shinya | 53.500 | 59 | 6 |
| Shawn Sorgi | 53.000 | 72 | 8 |
| Darin Thompson | 53.000 | 79 | 9 |
| Aaron Thivyanathan | 50.000 | 74 | 1 |
| Douglas Miranda | 48.500 | 52 | 6 |
| Osman Hadziosmanovic | 48.000 | 52 | 1 |
| Sandro Vianna De Sa | 47.000 | 71 | 4 |
| Tavaris Manning | 46.500 | 72 | 7 |
| James Gilbert | 45.500 | 52 | 4 |
| Brian Ray | 43.000 | 61 | 3 |
| Gregory Joslyn | 43.000 | 79 | 1 |
| Austin Srur | 41.500 | 62 | 1 |
| Christopher Morgan | 40.500 | 57 | 4 |
| David Tuthill | 40.500 | 62 | 9 |
| Thomas Foley Iii | 40.000 | 64 | 3 |
| John Coleman Iii | 39.000 | 81 | 6 |
| Jovan Jojic | 38.500 | 62 | 3 |
| Oleg Rutskin | 38.500 | 76 | 9 |
| James Mackey | 38.000 | 51 | 1 |
| Brett Apter | 35.500 | 68 | 4 |
| Adam Bacome | 34.000 | 51 | 2 |
| Kevin Greene | 33.500 | 51 | 7 |
| Yuri Dzivielevski | 33.500 | 70 | 8 |
| Sebastian Gallego | 32.500 | 79 | 7 |
| Arthur Conan | 30.500 | 67 | 7 |
| Kenneth Bruno | 30.000 | 75 | 1 |
| Joseph Liberta | 29.000 | 58 | 5 |
| Joseph Crowley | 28.000 | 76 | 3 |
| Damjan Radanov | 24.500 | 69 | 6 |
| Matthew O’Donnell | 24.000 | 69 | 9 |
| David Dibernardi | 20.000 | 52 | 3 |
| Dominique Mosley | 12.500 | 63 | 8 |
Payouts:
1st: $613.225
2nd: $408.825
3rd: $302.200
4th: $225.675
5th: $170.275
6th: $129.825
7th: $100.030
8th: $77.900
9th-10th: $61.325
11th-12th: $48.805
13th-14th: $39.270
15th-16th: $31.950
17th-20th: $26.290
21st-24th: $21.880
25th-32nd: $18.420
33rd-40th: $15.690
41st-48th: $13.520
49th-56th: $11.795
57th-64th: $10.410
65th-72nd: $9.305
73rd-80th: $8.415
81st-89th: $7.710
90th-98th: $7.155
99th-116th: $6.725
117th-134th: $6.405
135th-146th: $6.175