WPT Championship report: Seidel and Seiver post wins, Frankenberger POY

What a way for the WPT to wrap up Season 9 of the tour! The WPT Championship at the Bellagio had it all this year, including the first ever Super-High-Roller tournament in WPT history, as well as one of poker’s young stars capturing the $25k Championship, and even a down to the wire WPT Player of the Year race.

Déjà vu as Seidel wins Super-High-Roller title

29 players turned out for the first ever WPT $100k Super-High-Roller tournament, and in another amazing performance, Erik Seidel’s incredible 2011 tournament campaign rolled on with another first-place finish in a super-high-roller tournament. Seidel pocketed his seventh six-figure score of 2011 (which was also his second seven-figure score of 2011) and now has over $5.5 million in earnings on the year.

WPT Super High Roller Payouts

1.       Erik Seidel, $1,092,780

2.       Erick Lindgren, $700,500

3.       Daniel Negreanu, $448,320

4.       Vivek Rajkumar, $336,240

5.       Justin Bonomo, $224,160

Considering Black Friday’s effects on the poker world the 29 player field has to be viewed as an incredibly positive outcome for poker, especially when you consider a number of poker’s biggest stars were nowhere to be found in Las Vegas this past week.

Frankenberger locks up WPT Player of the Year award

In one of the closest POY races in the nine-year history of the WPT, Andy Frankenberger managed to beat Vivek Rajkumar by a mere 100 points for the crown. However, Frankenberger’s biggest challenges came from two players who made deep runs in the $25k Championship, Shannon Schorr and Sam el Sayed. However, both players failed to finish in the 5^th place or better position necessary to overtake Frankenberger.

Frankenberger joins a very shortlist of players that have won the WPT POY award -and amazingly there is not a single fluke player on the list:

• Season 1: Howard Lederer
• Season 2: Erick Lindgren
• Season 3: Daniel Negreanu
• Season 4: Gavin Smith
• Season 5: J. C. Tran
• Season 6: Jonathan Little
• Season 7: Bertrand Grospellier
• Season 8: Faraz Jaka
• Season 9: Andy Frankenberger

Scott Seiver wins $25k Championship

With a 220 player-strong field the WPT Championship would make two players instant millionaires, but considering the participants in the field my guess is that 75% of the field was already millionaires! In the end it was Scott Seiver who would go on to win the title, besting a tough final table that included PCA champ Galen Hall, who with his third place finish has taken a commanding lead in the POY races at both Bluff and Card Player Magazine.

WPT World Championship Final Table Payouts

1.       Scott Seiver, $1,618,344

2.       Farzad Bonyadi, $1,061,900

3.       Galen Hall, $589,355

4.       Roger Teska, $371, 665

5.       Tony Gargano, $278,749

6.       Justin Young, $225,654