Fifteen-time Circuit ring winner Josh Reichard is hungry to add a World Poker Tour (WPT) title to his poker resume, and he’s in great shape to do so after bagging a massive chip lead with 16 players left in the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown Championship.
The Wisconsin crusher ended Day 3 with a stack of over 200 big blinds after also bagging the Day 2 chip lead. If the momentum keeps up, he will have his name on the Mike Sexton WPT Championship Cup and will earn the top prize of $839,300.
Though he has heaps, Reichard will have to get through a field that includes poker prodigies Landon Tice and Jesse Lonis, the latter of whom hasn’t busted a Main Event in this venue in eight tournament days as he chopped the Lucky Hearts Poker Open Championship in January three ways for $404,267.
The field also includes 2018 WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic winner Dylan Linde, the only WPT Champions Club member remaining in the field. The poker author’s deep run comes just weeks after he won a $10,000 High Roller on the WPT Voyage for $230,467.
Read About Day 2 of the WPT SHRPS!
WPT SHRPS Day 3 Top 10 Chip Counts
| RANK | PLAYER | CHIP COUNT | BIG BLINDS | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Josh Reichard | 22,200,000 | 222 | |
| 2 | Alex Queen | 14,250,000 | 143 | |
| 3 | Wasim Assaf | 6,750,000 | 68 | |
| 4 | Jackob Datashvili | 6,550,000 | 66 | |
| 5 | Landon Tice | 5,575,000 | 56 | |
| 6 | Aaron Kupin | 5,250,000 | 53 | |
| 7 | Toby Boas | 5,200,000 | 52 | |
| 8 | Dylan Smith | 4,950,000 | 50 | |
| 9 | David Mzareulov | 5,250,000 | 53 | |
| 10 | Dylan Linde | 3,325,000 | 33 |
Young Stars Shine on Day 3
There were 101 players who returned for Day 3 after an eventful Day 2 that included the bursting of the money bubble, and Reichard led the way with a stack 3,100,000. He only further amassed chips from there as the field shrunk by more than three-quarters and ended up putting 22,200,000 in the bag.
He’s far in front of the next closest in chips, Alex Queen with 14,250,000, who himself is far in front of Wasim Assaf with 6,750,000.
Tice sits fifth in the chip counts while Lonis is further down the list, though both should be counting themselves lucky to advance. During Level 27, the two played a dramatic hand where Lonis was all in with pocket sixes against the ace-nine of Tice.
Lonis flopped a set to take a decent lead ahead of the gutshot of Tice, who hit his straight on the turn before the river put the same straight on the board to result in a chop.
“What a f***in’ game, huh?” Tice said with a smile as the dealer divided the pot.
Ace-nine was also lucky for Mukul Pahuja, who doubled through Reichard despite being dominated by ace-queen. It was but a small setback for Reichard as he went on to eliminate Pahuja, Danny Panagatos and Chad Trentacosta to the end Day 3.
Day 4 will get underway on Tuesday, April 23 at noon local time with blinds at the same 50,000/100,000/100,000 as when play concluded on Day 3. The event will play down to six players, who will bag up before heading to Las Vegas for the televised final table on May 29.
WPT SHRPS Championship Remaining Payouts
| PLACE | PRIZE (IN USD) | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | $839,300 | |
| 2 | $550,000 | |
| 3 | $410,000 | |
| 4 | $305,000 | |
| 5 | $230,000 | |
| 6 | $176,000 | |
| 7 | $136,000 | |
| 8 | $105,000 | |
| 9-10 | $83,000 | |
| 11-12 | $69,000 | |
| 13-15 | $57,000 | |
| 16 | $47,500 |
PokerNews will be back on-site tomorrow for more coverage of the SHRPS action, and live updates from the event can be found on the WPT site in the meantime.
*Images courtesy Joe Giron & WPT